Kentucky Supreme Court Disqualifies State Rep. Nima Kulkarni From Democratic Primary Despite Winning by Large Margin
- The challenge to her eligibility was brought in a lawsuit filed by former Rep. Dennis Horlander, whom the Indian American defeated in 2018.
The Kentucky Supreme Court has disqualified Indian American state Rep. Nirupama ‘Nima’ Kulkarni as a candidate in the Democratic primary, despite her win two weeks ago. The incumbent lawmaker, who represents the 40th House district, received more than 75 percent of the vote in the May 21st Democratic primary, while her challenger William Zeitz had just 22 percent, the Associated Press reported.
Chief Justice Laurance B. VanMeter’s one-page order said “A majority of the court upholds the decision by the Kentucky Court of Appeals that Kulkarni should be disqualified from the race, the Kentucky Lantern reported. He said the order was “issued for benefit of the parties involved and that it will issue an opinion “in due court,” the report added.
The challenge to her eligibility was brought in a lawsuit filed by former Rep. Dennis Horlander, who previously held the 40th district seat for 22 years until Kulkarni upset him in the 2018 primary. He says her candidacy is “invalid because one of the required witnesses on her filing paperwork was a registered Republican when she signed the form,” the Lexington Herald-Leader reported. Horlander was not a candidate in this year’s primary.
Kentucky state law requires the signatures of two nominating witnesses of a candidate’s same party affiliation. Kulkarni is a Democrat but one of her nominating witnesses was registered as a Republican at the time of filing.
Since the Supreme Court was unable to take up the case until after the election, it issued an order allowing Kulkarni’s name to remain on the ballot but stipulated that the election not be certified by the Kentucky Secretary of State until the court reached a decision. That decision came when Kulkarni appealed a decision by the Kentucky Court of Appeals disqualifying her as a candidate in her race.
Meanwhile, her attorney James Craig told WLKY News he believes Kulkarni will be allowed to seek the Democratic nomination for the seat. In a statement provided to the news channel, he thanked the Supreme Court for their review of their position. “Because there is now a vacancy in the nomination, it falls to the Jefferson County Democratic Party and the party officers for the 40th district to nominate a candidate.”
Kulkarni, an attorney, won her first election in 2018, becoming the first Indian American ever elected to the Kentucky Legislature. She defeated Horlander, who was in office for the past 20 years and has often run unopposed in this largely Democratic district, in the Democratic primary. She defeated Republican Joshua Neubert in the general elections. In 2020, she again defeated Hollander in the June primaries and ran unopposed in the general elections.
She immigrated to the U.S. with her parents at age six from Jamshedpur. Unlike many immigrants who come to the U.S. in search of better financial opportunities, her parents, Suhas and Surekha Kulkarni, left their cushy lives in India to seek special education opportunities for her brother Nikhil, who had learning disabilities. Her father was an executive in India. The family arrived in Louisville in 1986 and opened a corner grocery store in Germantown.
( Image courtesy LRC Public Information).