Shane Baker presents a joint resolution during the 2025 session of the General Assembly. (Bud Kraft / LRC)
Kentucky Rep. Shane Baker is pushing legislation that would prohibit naturalized citizens and people with dual citizenship from holding local or state office. The Republican lawmaker from Somerset told Kentucky Public Radio that the proposal is intended to prevent Kentucky from moving in what he described as an unspecified negative “direction.”
“You can see the direction they’re trying to take New York, and the problems that are there are on the front burner there, and we don’t want to face those things in Kentucky,” Baker said. “We want to make sure to head things off before they get here.”
Baker appeared to be referencing the election of New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, a naturalized citizen originally from Uganda and a member of the Democratic Socialists of America.
This week, Baker introduced both a bill and a proposed constitutional amendment. House Bill 186 would require individuals elected to local offices — such as county commissioner, mayor, city council member, or board of education member — to be natural-born U.S. citizens and prohibit them from holding dual citizenship with another country.
House Bill 259 would amend the Kentucky Constitution to impose the same requirements on state-level offices, including governor, attorney general, Supreme Court justice, and state lawmakers.
However, several current Kentucky officials would be affected by the proposed restrictions. One of Baker’s colleagues, Democratic Rep. Nima Kulkarni of Louisville, has served in the state House since 2019, two years longer than Baker.
Kulkarni, an immigration attorney, was born in India and moved to the United States as a child. She became a naturalized citizen at age 14. She said legislation like Baker’s would divide communities and is “antithetical to everything that we would consider essential to a healthy democracy.”
“We’ve just basically alienated millions of people — not just people running for office — but millions of voters, people who live in our communities, who don’t feel safe, who don’t feel included,” Kulkarni said. “Bills like this just serve to make that feeling and that sense of alienation even more.”
Kulkarni added that, like all naturalized citizens, she swore an oath to uphold the Constitution and U.S. laws and is just as loyal to the country as any natural-born citizen.
“These are just bills that divide communities for no real reason,” she said. “They don’t have any actual bearing or impact on national security, on threats to our intelligence community, or anything like that.”
The proposal would also disqualify at least one local official currently in office. The Lexington Herald-Leader reported that Lexington-Fayette Urban County Government Vice Mayor Dan Wu would be barred from holding office under the legislation. Wu was born in China, moved to the U.S. as a child, and was elected in 2022 as an at-large member of the Lexington City Council with the most votes.
Wu did not immediately respond to a request from Kentucky Public Radio but told the Herald-Leader that the proposal is a “distraction” and urged lawmakers to focus on “real issues” affecting Kentuckians.
Baker said the legislation is not aimed at specific individuals. “It’s meant to address an issue,” he said, adding that he has not yet discussed the proposal with Republican leadership to gauge support.
The bill would also introduce a one-year residency requirement for candidates seeking city council or mayoral positions.
House Bill 186, which applies to local offices, would need only a simple majority vote in both legislative chambers to pass. The proposed constitutional amendment affecting state offices would require approval by two-thirds of each chamber before being placed on the ballot for voters.
Since 1891, Kentucky’s Constitution has required state representatives to be Kentucky citizens, at least 24 years old, residents of the state for a minimum of two years, and residents of their district for at least one year. Similar requirements apply to state senators, who must be at least 30 years old and have lived in the state for at least six years.
House Bill 186 is co-sponsored by Republican Reps. DJ Johnson of Owensboro and John Hodgson of Fisherville.
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