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. 

Wil Schroder is a Republican running for Attorney General.

Schroder grew up in Northern Kentucky, and attended University of Kentucky for undergrad and Northern Kentucky University for law school. He began his career as a felony prosecutor which he did for five years before running for State Senate where he has served since 2015. When not in Frankfort, Schroder works at Dinsmore & Shohl doing public finance law.

He decided to run for attorney general because he has a passion for public service, something he says he learned from his father who served as a judge.

“I think I have the right qualifications and background,” he said. “I’m the only candidate in this race that has been a prosecutor and as Kentucky’s chief law enforcement officer and top prosecutor I think it’s important that we elect someone who has actually been in the courtroom, actually working with law enforcement to put criminals behind bars not someone who just called them from DC, but someone who has actually been there doing that.”

Schroder says it’s also important to have a conservative voice in the attorney general’s office something that hasn’t happened in over 70 years. To make that happen, Schroder says it’s important to have someone with prosecutorial background.

“I’m the only candidate really that I see that in, I don’t see that my opponent has really practiced law much,” he said.

Schroder’s campaign slogan is “Faith, Family and Freedom,” he says faith is because he’s 100 percent pro-life. When talking about family, it deals with the drug epidemic plaguing the commonwealth. When it comes to freedom, he says first and second amendment rights are extremely important to him.

To deal with drug epidemic plaguing the commonwealth, Schroder says his experience in the legislature is crucial to helping change laws.

“I would be able to go back to my Senate colleagues, I’m supported and endorsed by 27 of my Republican Senate colleagues and have great relationships with others across the aisle and great relationships with my house colleagues as well,” he said. “So being able to advocate on their behalf, but then also just work through and talk to the county attorneys and talk to the commonwealth attorneys, and then it goes back again to supporting our president so we can stop this before it enters our country.”

Schroder’s opponent Daniel Cameron worked under Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, and with that on his resume, comes the money and power of McConnell, but Schroder says while he may not have the backing of the most powerful man in the United States Senate, he has the experience to lead the attorney general’s office.

“I’m qualified for attorney general not because of who I know, but because of what I know, and what I’ve done,” he said. “I think when you look at his record and you look at his resume you see he did work for Leader McConnell for two years but in comparison, I was a prosecutor, I was in the courtroom, I’ve been on the Senate floor advocating for the conservative values that we speak of. So I think our resumes are very different, I think I make the much stronger candidate to face Greg Stumbo in the fall.”

As Schroder has been traveling the state, he says Republicans say it’s time to get their party back into the attorney general’s office.

“I think a lot of people are frustrated what they see now, they see an attorney general who really it’s questionable if ever wanted to be attorney general or was that just a stepping stone so he could run for governor,” he said. “A lot of people feel like instead of just doing his job as attorney general, it’s been about promoting himself and his candidacy for governor.”  

If a Democrat wins in the fall, Schroder says he would not have a problem working across the aisle.

“I think it’s important to note my compass as attorney general is not going to be the political wins or what’s going to benefit me politically,” he said. “But I’m going to look at the constitution and I’m going to look at what does the law say and I’m going to use that as my compass whether I’m talking about Democrats or Republicans, or whether I’m working with Democrats or Republicans. When you stay consistent and use the constitution as your compass, I think it goes a long way.”

Schroder is facing Daniel Cameron in the primary.