The Basics

Each Kentuckian is represented by two elected state level legislators: a member of the Kentucky State Senate (senator) and a member of the Kentucky House of Representatives (representative). These individuals vote on all bills that create or change Kentucky law (Kentucky Revised Statutes or KRS). It is important that both of your state legislators hear from you about issues that are important to you. While you can contact any legislator, it is most important that you communicate with the legislators elected to represent your district.

Find Your Legislators

The Kentucky Legislative Research Commission has an easy to use website to help you determine your legislators. Enter your address and click on the map. Click here to find your legislators.

Making Contact

.Below are some ways you can contact your legislators.

Visiting Your Legislators – By far, a face-to-face meeting is the most effective method of contact with a legislator. During the legislative session (starting in January each year), this most often happens at the legislator’s office in Frankfort, but it is also possible to meet with them in your home district, especially when the legislature is not in session. This is currently complicated by COVID, but you can still ask your legislator if they are open to face-to-face communication. You can also watch for local community events where legislators are scheduled to attend or speak.

**2021 General Assembly Accessibility & COVID Restrictions 
(information courtesy of Kentucky Voices for Health)

GENERAL ACCESS- General Public access to the Capitol Annex and to the Capitol Building will not be allowed. We understand that you will be allowed to enter either building if you have an appointment with an official/policy-maker, but access will be limited to the appointment time and you will be expected to leave the building after the appointment. Your name will have to be given to security at the front door of either building to gain access. We assume that this will have to be done by the official/policy-maker with whom you have the appointment, or by their staff person.

SCHEDULED ANNEX MEETINGS- Meetings will be limited to 3 persons and will take place in Annex offices. When you arrive at the main visitor entrance of the Annex, contact the legislative assistant or LRC staff who will verify your appointment time and may meet you there

Call the Legislative Message Line- A very easy way of making contact is to call the Legislative Message Line at 1-800-372-7181. A message line employee will answer and ask for your name and address. You do NOT need to know who are your legislators; the operator will look that up. You can ask to leave a message for your senator, your representative, other specific legislators, all members of a specific committee, etc. Ask your legislator(s) to support or oppose a certain bill or amendment to a bill. You can also add a personalized message. You can leave separate messages regarding multiple bills during the same call. Calling is usually a very quick and easy process. Every Kentucky voter can call daily!

Writing to Your Legislators–  Writing to your legislator is another great and effective tool.  Letters (particularly hand-written) are sometimes better than e-mail, although both are important.

It is helpful to write to your legislators several times, but even more impactful than multiple letters from the same person are letters from MORE constituents, so ask your friends and relatives to write also. 

Please email KMFC at info@kmfc.org to let us know your legislators' responses.

• Where to mail letters: Letters can be sent to your representative’s home or capitol address. During the session, communication should be sent to their office address. Contact info is available at https://legislature.ky.gov/
• Letters may be handwritten or typed. They should be signed and hand addressed. Handwritten, while more time consuming, is more likely to get seen and noticed!
• Letters should be about one page. 
• Your purpose is not to convince them that vaccines are bad. Your purpose is to emphasize the importance of bodily autonomy and CHOICE. Include your personal reasons for feeling this way.
• If you send an e-mail, be sure to include “constituent" and the bill number in the subject line and include your address in the body of the e-mail.  
• Some legislator e-mail addresses are listed on their legislative profile page, while others only have a generic “contact” link. Their e-mail is usually firstname.lastname@lrc.ky.gov, such as john.doe@lrc.ky.gov. 

Sample Letter to Legislators

Visit this post with a sample letter to legislators.

On October 8, University of Kentucky announced that students who live on or come to campus will be required to receive a flu vaccination by Nov. 1. The University does recognize both religious and medical exemptions.

To exercise a religious exemption, a student should send an e-mail to ReligiousExemptions@UKY.edu. This e-mail must come from the student and not the parents unless the student is under the age of 18. The email must state that getting the flu shot will substantially burden the student's free exercise of religion. We recommend keeping this statement simple and there is no need to include details. There is no form or notarization required.
 
For a medical exemption, a student must register with the Disability Resource Center. The Center can be contacted at DRC@UKY.edu, and more information is available here.

KY Constitutional Attorney, Chris Wiest stated the following.

​"The next battle and uproar, I expect will be on forced vaccination. No, there is no vaccine now. It is in phase III testing. Best guess is early 2021.
But Kentucky law does permit forced vaccination. KRS 214.036:

“Provided, however, that in the event of an epidemic in a given area, the Cabinet for Health and Family Services may, by emergency regulation, require the immunization of all persons within the area of epidemic, against the disease responsible for such epidemic.”

https://apps.legislature.ky.gov/law/statutes/statute.aspx?id=8778

Proponents argue it is necessary to protect community health. Those opposed see it as a matter of fundamental liberty and autonomy.
On a federal level, it’s highly likely to be constitutional under Jacobson v. Massachusetts.

On a state level, I wouldn’t hold my breath on this, considering we sort of litigated the issue, on the chicken pox vaccine, up to the Kentucky Supreme Court, and lost, and there were legitimate religious objections in that case that implicated Kentucky’s RFRA. And still forced vaccination okay.

If it’s something you don’t want to happen, it’s in the hands of your state legislators. If it’s something you care about, you should ask your legislators where they stand on this issue and if you are opposed ask them to repeal this and prohibit forced vaccinations. And then vote accordingly."