Kentucky State Senator Ralph Alvarado shook hands with Asbury students as he prepared to answer their questions in the Kinlaw Boardroom. The Asbury College Republicans held the Republican Nominee Meet and Greet on Sept. 19 at 4 p.m.
The event was originally publicized as featuring nominee for Lieutenant Governor Alvarado, nominee for Secretary of State Michael Adams and Auditor Mike Harmon, but only Alvarado was able to make it.
“We were a bit disappointed that two of our speakers had to cancel on us, but overall I think we still had a good event,” said Vice Chair of College Republicans Sam Roberts, a junior majoring in political science.
Alvarado is a practicing physician in the Lexington area and became a state senator in 2014. He is the first and currently the only Hispanic member in the Kentucky General Assembly. Now, he is running for lieutenant governor alongside Governor Matt Bevin, who is running for re-election.
As Alvarado was looking for places to live after finishing medical school, he liked Lexington, Kentucky, the best because of its location in the middle of the country. He believes the state has much potential for growth in the coming years.
“People are starting to notice what Kentucky has and is ready to be,” said Alvarado. “We have the workforce, the willpower; it’s a combination of northern rust-belt workforce and work ethic with midwestern sensibility and southern hospitality all in one place.”
Alvarado noted that Kentucky’s economy is on the rise and its unemployment rate is lower than it’s ever been. He spoke highly of Bevin, saying he has brought $21 billion of investment from companies he recruited to come to the state. “There’s probably no other state, maybe Texas, maybe California, that can claim that kind of capital investment in their state,” said Alvarado.
He also said Bevin is the most pro-life governor Kentucky has ever had and probably the most pro-life one in the country.
“[Abortion] is a very important issue, especially for Christians to talk about the sanctity of life and just the overall belief that God created life,” Roberts said.
One topic Alvarado is passionate about is tort reform in healthcare, which refers to creating laws that limit the amount of money someone can receive as an award for suing a doctor for malpractice. The reason Alvarado became involved in politics is because the number of doctors being sued for malpractice in Kentucky makes it harder to attract doctors to the state, thereby increasing healthcare costs and hurting the state’s reputation.
Kentucky is one of only two states that does not have a limit on how much money a person can sue for non-economic damages such as pain and suffering. Lawyers in the state often sue doctors well above the limited amount of other states.
“When you have one high judgment, we just had one for $24 million, that raises all the rates in the entire state, and we just become a higher risk state overall,” he said. “It’s harder to get insurance, harder to attract professionals, harder to open up nursing homes, hospitals are shutting down, all those things become a factor.”
Though he has failed to pass bills for tort reform in the past, Alvarado said he will keep fighting. “I’m tired of practicing defensive medicine; we’ve got to start trusting our providers and start attracting more people to the state, and I’ll keep fighting for that.”
He is also passionate about Christian education and the issue of school choice. “Some of those schools, particularly in Louisville, are not successful and they want their kids to have the same opportunities as other kids,” said Alvarado.
The president of the College Republicans, political science major and junior Jesse Green, believes school choice is an important issue for Asbury students. “As students graduate and they start families they’re going to be looking at education opportunities for their kids, and school choice allows parents who might not otherwise be able to have options to send their kids to private schools and to further their education beyond just the public schools, which sometimes are not the greatest options,” said Green.
Alvarado said he will create bills to use private money to give lower-income families tax credits to send their kids to private schools.
Green said the event had a decent turnout of around 15 to 20 students and faculty, and believes it’s important for Asbury students to be informed voters for the election on November 5.
“We’re about to enter the real world and that’s when we’ll really have to start caring about taxes and all [these issues],” Green said. “So I think it’s very important for college students to get involved.”
