November’s race for Livingston County judge-executive features two candidates who have both served in the office before. Incumbent Michael Williams, a Republican, defeated Democrat Teris Swanson in a 2024 special election to serve the remainder of the current term. Swanson had been appointed to the judge-executive’s office in January 2024 by Gov. Andy Beshear after Garrett Gruber resigned from the role.
Now, the two will face off again to decide who will lead Livingston County for the next four years. Both Williams and Swanson agreed to participate in WKMS’s General Election Voter Guide. Their responses appear below in the order the candidates appear on the ballot.
Livingston County voters can find other general election races either on the county’s sample ballot or with WKMS’s ballot lookup tool.
Michael Williams - Republican (Incumbent)
Editor’s note: Williams’ answers below are transcribed from an interview with WKMS. His answers have been edited for length and clarity. You can also listen to his interview below.
Q: What should voters know about you and why are you running for office?
A: I am a lifelong resident of Livingston County. My entire life has been dedicated to public service, first as a deputy sheriff here in Livingston County, and then as a Kentucky State Trooper, retiring in 2017. I then explored private business before returning to public service as a sheriff's deputy right here in Livingston [and] becoming judge-executive in 2024.
Q: What would your priorities be, if elected?
A: Mainly continuing on exactly what I've been doing now. My priorities have been mostly improving our county's infrastructure, public safety, and promoting responsible economic development while carefully managing our tax dollars. We're always committed to addressing our roads, bridges, our water system, our sewer system, and emergency communications — that's been my biggest focus. Those are some of the hardest things to tackle, and they seemed to be somewhat ignored because they're such big projects, but I've been trying to tackle those head-on.
Q: What do you see as the signature issue in your county over the next four years?
A: Positioning Livingston County for long-term growth through dependable water and sewer systems, local roadways, bridges, high-speed internet expansion, emergency radio comms for emergency personnel, public healthcare, and regional employment expansion — it’s really a whole spectrum of needs.
Right now, our major focus is on the Smithland-Leadbetter sewer initiative, which is roughly a $10 million undertaking. We’ve secured significant funding for it already. This stands as our most critical active initiative, and as long as progress continues as planned, it will directly address the longstanding wastewater concerns facing both Leadbetter and Smithland.
Q: What steps will you take to enhance the quality of life for residents across the county?
A: Providing dependable basic services is key. Our citizens deserve safe thoroughfares and bridges. To that end, we have secured over $1 million to reconstruct two local bridges at absolutely no expense to our taxpayers.
Ensuring dependable water systems remains equally essential. We are actively advancing an $80 million water treatment facility alongside the $10 million sewer consolidation initiative.
Furthermore, we are enhancing emergency response capability by supporting law enforcement. During the recent fiscal court session, we authorized funding to equip the sheriff's department with upgraded tasers and their initial body-worn cameras. Safeguarding our citizens and delivering foundational public services continue to be our highest priorities.
Q: What key achievements define your current term, and why should residents re-elect you?
A: I have pursued external funding aggressively while strengthening regional partnerships to advance long-delayed initiatives. My primary focus remains on the critical sewer consolidation, collaborating closely with local magistrates and county officials.
Beyond that, we are advancing several major undertakings – including the new water treatment facility and a $78 million hospital expansion. For the healthcare project, the fiscal court and I facilitated a county pass-through loan, saving approximately $2.5 million to $3 million through reduced interest rates.
Leadership naturally demands making tough choices, but my supervisory background with the state police has equipped me to manage complex personnel matters and lead effectively. Furthermore, my negotiating experience has proven invaluable, particularly in driving local economic development and navigating ongoing administrative challenges.
Teris Swanson - Democrat
Editor’s note: Swanson submitted written responses to WKMS’s Voter Guide questions. Her answers have been edited for length and clarity.
Q: What should voters know about you and why are you running for office?
A: Livingston County is home. We are a small, close-knit county where people still know their neighbors and show up when somebody needs help. I believe there is tremendous untapped potential here, and I don’t think we have to accept the idea that small rural counties are destined to slowly decline.
I want us to build a team like Livingston County has never had before. Fiscal court, our cities, the Chamber of Commerce, Tourism Commission, businesses, civic organizations, and ordinary citizens should be working together toward common goals. We may not always agree, but we ought to be pulling in the same general direction.
Most importantly, I am running because the people of Livingston County deserve our best. I want our young people to see opportunities here. I want people who grew up here to have reasons to come home. I want someone moving here for the first time to quickly understand why those of us who love this place call it home.
Government cannot accomplish all of that by itself. But good government can bring people together, remove obstacles, spend wisely, plan for the future, and help good ideas become reality.
That is the kind of judge-executive I want to be.
Q: What would your priorities be, if elected?
A: My priorities begin with something pretty basic: county government must be honest, transparent, fair and careful with the public’s money.
I want people to know what their county government is doing and why. During my previous time as judge-executive, I started monthly video updates because I believed citizens should not have to attend every Fiscal Court meeting or hear something through the grapevine to know what is happening in their government. I will build on that commitment to transparency.
Fiscal responsibility will also be a major priority. Livingston County has limited resources, so we cannot afford to waste them. That means prioritizing essential services and infrastructure, planning ahead instead of constantly reacting, aggressively pursuing grants and outside funding, avoiding unnecessary debt, and asking whether every significant expenditure provides real value to taxpayers.
I want to focus on infrastructure, cleaning up blighted and abandoned properties, cybersecurity and modernization of county records, economic development that fits our existing capabilities, and improving cooperation among the organizations working to move Livingston County forward.
We cannot do everything at once. Part of leadership is being honest about that. But we can decide what matters, make a plan, and start moving.
Q: What do you see as the signature issue in your county over the next four years?
A: If I had to narrow it down, I would say Livingston County’s greatest challenge is taking care of what we already have.
Some of our infrastructure problems have been decades in the making, and they will not be fixed during one four-year term. Our water and sewer challenges are a good example. I am not going to promise voters a quick fix where one doesn’t exist. I do believe, however, that within four years we can have a serious long-term plan that begins addressing existing infrastructure while working toward actually paying down debt rather than simply moving it around or refinancing it indefinitely.
The same philosophy applies to the appearance of our county. Blighted and abandoned properties did not appear overnight, and we will not clean them all up overnight. But that cannot become an excuse for doing nothing.
I want to begin along Highway 60, particularly at the entrances to our county and around Smithland and Burna, and establish a realistic goal of addressing at least one significant problem property each year. I also want to restart the county Beautification Board and give citizens, businesses, and civic groups a meaningful way to participate.
We must approach this with compassion. There is a tremendous difference between an abandoned nuisance property and an elderly or struggling homeowner who simply cannot afford needed repairs. Our goal should never be to take someone’s home because they are poor. Sometimes the appropriate response is enforcement; sometimes it is finding a way to help.
These are 10- and 20-year challenges. My promise isn’t that I will magically finish them in four. My promise is that we will not waste four years.
Q: What steps will you take to enhance the quality of life for residents across the county?
A: Quality of life is about more than any single government program. It is whether your road is maintained, whether your water and sewer systems work, whether you feel safe, whether there are things for your family to do, whether your community looks cared for, and whether there are opportunities close enough to home that you can actually build a life here.
Beyond my previously stated goals, I also want to begin development of a park in Salem.
We have a lower cost of living, natural beauty, access to recreation, and the kind of community that is increasingly difficult to find. We just need to find solutions to stop the decline and then slowly start building up our small economy.
Q: What needs to change in your local county government, and why should people vote you into office to do that?
A: I believe Livingston County needs a county government built on three simple principles: tell people the truth, work for everybody, and treat every taxpayer dollar like it matters. I have served as judge-executive before, although my time in office did not include a full budget or grant cycle. Even during that limited period, we maintained a balanced budget in the black while moving important projects forward. We advanced work on the Highway 453 safety project, pursued a library grant, began addressing serious weaknesses in county cybersecurity, and started monthly public video updates so citizens could hear directly what their county government was doing.
I also believe my professional background gives me the tools this moment requires. As an attorney, I spend my career working through complicated legal and regulatory issues, managing significant responsibilities, solving problems, and advocating for people. I understand local government, budgeting, administrative law and the regulatory environment counties operate within. I know enough to understand that good intentions are not enough. You have to know how to turn an idea into something that can actually be accomplished.
I am not running because I believe one person can fix Livingston County. Quite the opposite. I am running because I believe there are hundreds of people across this county with ideas, talents, experience, and a genuine desire to make their community better.
The judge-executive’s job should be to bring those people together, give good ideas a chance, make responsible decisions, and make sure county government works just as hard for the person who disagrees with you as it does for the person who has your sign in their yard.
We can do more together than any one of us can do alone. I believe Livingston County deserves that kind of government, and I would be honored to help build it.
