The primary election is May 21, and there are several candidates seeking their party's nomination. The Pure Politics team has contacted each candidate with a primary opponent to find out who they are, and what they stand for. 

Josh Mers is a Democrat running for Treasurer.

Mers grew up in Franklin, Kentucky on the Tennessee border, he went on to attend the University of Kentucky. While at UK he worked at UPS. He stayed in Lexington after graduation and now owns an insurance and financial services agency.

“My experience is not from a corporate handbook, it’s day by day,” he said. “You know, I learn how to do the job as I go.”

He’s been active in the community on social and economic justice issues, and for the past three years has served as a foster parent. 

He says he’s running for treasurer because there’s a need for a strong advocate in the office.

“There’s a need that we have somebody that’s willing to be a strong, proactive, independent treasurer that believes that no matter who the governor is, that the referee shouldn’t wear a team jersey,” he said. “I saw that my background of being a financial services and being a strong advocate was perfectly suited for the office of treasurer.”

Mers says while the office requires certain duties such as balancing the checkbooks, handling unclaimed property and improving financial literacy, it can be much more than that.

“You are one of only nine people that are elected by all 120 counties,” he said. “So you have the voice, the pulpit of a statewide office, and with that platform, I believe, comes a moral obligation to advocate for Kentucky, to be the chief economic ambassador for the people of our commonwealth, and to have those conversations with our legislators and the new governor on building a modern Kentucky economy that prepares the next generation to come.”

Mers plans to bring notoriety to office by being more active in the community.

“I’ll give the current treasurer credit, that office does a fantastic job going to the Kentucky State Fair in Louisville, and does a fantastic job of setting up a booth to talk about unclaimed property, and inviting people to come see if they have unclaimed property and they get to learn about the treasury,” he said. “Why aren’t we doing that in communities across Kentucky? Why aren’t we going to Pikeville? Why aren’t we going to Fulton County? Why aren’t we going to these places and saying here’s a service that we provide to you to find the unclaimed property.”

He believes being more active across the state will help remind people what the office does, and why it’s still in place.

Originally, Mers  filed a letter of intent to run for state auditor, but ultimately chose to run for treasurer because there wasn’t any one running for the office at the time he filed.

“We’ve got some great candidates running for auditor this year; we had nobody running for treasurer, and yet again, that office was being dismissed as not important,” he said. “That’s unfortunate, and that was unacceptable to me. Really when you look at both of these offices they are financial based, the auditor is really designed to catch the fraud and corruption after it’s happened, they’re  the cleanup watchdog. The treasurer is supposed to be out there preventing it, finding ways to protect the taxpayers of Kentucky from fraud and corruption happening. If we are going to dismiss it as not an important office, that’s a problem. We have got to have a strong candidate willing to take on our current treasurer in November, and I believe that’s me.”

Treasurer Allison Ball has made improving financial literacy a key part of her office; if Mers were elected he would continue that work.

“She has done a great job with that and worked with the legislature to make that happen,” he said. “One of the biggest things you are going to find from me that definitely separates and is a difference between myself and the current treasurer is a complete belief in public education. The treasurer sit on the Kentucky Teachers Retirement Systems Board and the day that I filed with the Secretary of State’s Office, our current treasurer was hosting a conference on the scholarship tax credits on charter schools.”

Mers believes that as a member of the Teachers Retirement Systems Board, it’s crucial the treasurer be an advocate for public education.                    

He also says he would work on improving fraud prevention within the office.

“We are trying to solve today’s problems with yesterday’s technology,” he said. “That’s just not going to work.”

While voters in Kentucky are becoming increasingly Republican, Mers believes being a strong candidate can help change the tide.

“We have got to be more than ‘we’re not those guys’, we have got to give folks a reason to vote us, we’ve got to give folks in Kentucky a reason to believe in us again,” he said. “Because we are the party that’s fought for our working families, we are the party that has fought for public education in this state, we are the party that has fought to expand infrastructure across the commonwealth. We have got to do a better job of sticking to those issues and telling people around Kentucky, that that’s who we are.”

Mers is running against Michael Bowman in the primary.