Hopkinsville resident Jeff Taylor, a former Democratic state representative and retired economic development project manager for Tennessee Valley Authority, is part of Gov.-elect Steve Beshear’s transition team.
Taylor will co-chair the Transportation Cabinet’s transition team with Joe Prather of Elizabethtown.
Beshear announced the team Friday, the day after Gov. Matt Bevin held a news conference to announce he was conceding the race after a recanvass by the state’s 120 county clerks did not change the outcome. Beshear won by 5,136, which is less than 1 percentage point of the vote total, state election officials said after the recanvass.
“I’m honored to be selected,” Taylor told Hoptown Chronicle.
Taylor is a part-time economic development consultant. He retired from TVA six years ago. He served one term as the 8th District state representative, from 2016-17, but lost his re-election bid to Republican Walker Thomas, also of Hopkinsville.
His background in economic development is likely the reason Beshear asked him to serve on the Transportation Cabinet transition team, said Taylor. Logistics, including highways, are key to economic development.
The Transportation Cabinet is one of the state’s largest departments, Taylor noted.
“We want to make this smooth … a one-Kentucky transition,” he said.
Members of the transition team are not paid. It is a volunteer position; however, some team members will likely have jobs in the Beshear administration after he takes office. The inauguration is Dec. 10.
Taylor said he hasn’t asked for a job, and Beshear hasn’t offered one, but he would serve if asked.
The transition team has 163 members. Taylor is among a small number who do not live in the Louisville-Lexington-Frankfort triangle.
Jennifer P. Brown is co-founder, publisher and editor of Hoptown Chronicle. You can reach her at editor@hoptownchronicle.org. Brown was a reporter and editor at the Kentucky New Era, where she worked for 30 years. She is a co-chair of the national advisory board to the Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues, governing board past president for the Kentucky Historical Society, and co-founder of the Kentucky Open Government Coalition. She serves on the Hopkinsville History Foundation's board.
