Brooks, Gunther top two vote-getters in Fayette District Court Judge primary race
The top two vote-getters in Tuesday’s Fayette District Judge primary election were Shannon Brooks and Denotra Gunther, according to unofficial results from the county clerk’s office with 100% of precincts reporting.
Brooks earned 46% of the 37,425 votes while Gunther, the incumbent, earned 39% of the votes, according to the unofficial results. Heather Vanderford Matics, a third challenger in the race, took 15% of the votes.
“I am so grateful for all of your support, kindness, encouragement and hard work,” Brooks said in a Facebook post after the results were posted. “I could not have made it to this place without you all.”
“I appreciate not only the people who voted for me but the people who voted for every candidate,” Gunther told the Herald-Leader. “They showed that the democratic process is important and that voting is important.”
Brooks and Gunther will move on to the general election, which is scheduled for November.
Brooks started her career in law in 2008 after spending some time riding horses competitively. She earned a law degree from Saint Louis University and is a public defender in the Lexington South Office as a staff attorney II.
In a prior interview with the Herald-Leader, Brooks said a topic that she’s passionate about and needs to be addressed is mental health. She would like to see a change in how patients are treated at all levels of mental health court.
“We need to do better about evaluating mentally ill people more quickly in the system and find a way to keep from using prisons and jails as our mental health institutions,” Brooks previously said.
Gunther was appointed to the post by Gov. Andy Beshear in December 2021 after working in the private sector at her own practice for nearly 18 years. She previously told the Herald-Leader she’s litigated every type of case within the jurisdiction of the circuit and district courts, which helps her on the bench.
Gunther closed her office when she was appointed district judge. She graduated from law school at the University of Kentucky in May 1996.
Gunther previously told the Herald-Leader that if elected, she said she would like to see an expansion of Veterans Treatment Court and more attention given to issues facing Lexington’s LGBTQ community. Gunther said the people in the LGBTQ community and veterans have specialized issues due to their circumstances and experiences, and lumping them all into one group is not efficient.
“I just feel like we have got to be more sensitive to the issues and the backlash that they may receive,” Gunther previously said. “I just feel like we need more resources directly to them and their specific issues.”
Matics has spent 25 years practicing law, mostly criminal law as a defense and prosecution attorney. She earned a law degree at the Brandeis School of Law at the University of Louisville.
After the results were posted, Matics said she was grateful for all the people that supported her campaign and voted for her. She also congratulated Brooks and Gunther for moving on to the general election.
“I have never run a campaign before, so my goal was to have — obviously I wanted the job, but my goal was to have a good showing and to stay true to myself and maintain personal integrity, and as long as I did those two things, and I believe I did, then it’s not really a loss in the long term,” Matics said.
