At a rally at the IBEW Local 369 Union Hall last month, Louisville Mayor Craig Greenberg asked a room full of supporters to “stand with me one more time.”
It was his first stump speech since he ran for mayor four years ago. The difference is Greenberg’s no longer a businessman running as a political outsider and first-time candidate. The upcoming election — a primary next May and a general election next November — will be a referendum on how voters feel about the changes Greenberg has implemented in his first term.
In an interview with LPM News, Greenberg said public safety continues to be his top priority. And he thinks the progress the city has made under his watch is a testament to his approach.
“We’ve made significant progress already based on what we’ve done, what Chief [Paul] Humphrey and LMPD have done, based on what we’ve done with violence prevention and intervention, and a whole host of partnerships with nonprofits across the city,” he said. “We’re seeing right now that violent crime is down 25% just this year alone.”
Greenberg said there’s been “positive progress, but it’s not enough.”
Building off this momentum appears to be the theme of Greenberg’s reelection campaign. If he wins, the next term would be his last due to term limits.
Asked about his priorities, he rattled off a familiar list: crime, affordable housing and economic development. These are the issues he’s been focused on for the last four years, and where he continues to see room for improvement.
On public safety, Greenberg said he wants to use “new technology” and “new partnerships” to decrease violent crime even more.
Greenberg set a lofty goal during his first campaign to build or preserve 15,000 units of affordable housing in his first four years in office. Right now, it doesn’t look like he’ll accomplish that. In September, he said his administration was about a third of the way to its goal, creating or preserving about 5,000 units.
“I believe in setting bold goals,” Greenberg said. “If we want to provide great things for our community … we’ve got to be bold, we’ve got to do things differently, faster than we’ve ever done before.”
He said the 15,000-unit goal, whether he hits it or not, was an aspiration that matched the need in Louisville. According to the city’s most recent housing needs assessment, Louisville is still short more than 50,000 units that its poorest residents can afford to live in.
“Even once we hit this initial 15,000 goal, we’re going to have to do it again,” Greenberg said. “That’s how much new housing is needed in our community to support families, to bring down the cost of housing and also to provide opportunities for growth.”
During his first campaign, Greenberg made a point of meeting with voters living outside of Louisville’s urban core, bounded by the Watterson Expressway. He was facing off against former Jeffersontown Mayor Bill Dieruf, a Republican who spoke to the feeling of people in southwest and southeast Jefferson County that they aren’t being properly represented in the halls of local government downtown.
Dieruf garnered 46% of the vote in the 2022 election, compared to Greenberg’s 52%.
Greenberg said he thinks he’s followed through on his promise to be “a mayor for all” in his first term. He pointed to investments Metro Government has made in public parks, including Jefferson Memorial Forest, as well as the recent creation of the South End Development Fund, which will help support a new restaurant for the area and small businesses.
“My administration has made tremendous strides in reaching out to them, investing in those parts of our city that have felt left behind or left out, whether it was the West End or the South End,” he said. “People are starting to see how those investments are translating into improving their lives.”
While his administration has funded investments in public parks, libraries and businesses in the South End, residents there are increasingly turning away from Democrats like Greenberg.
Republicans now control more seats on Louisville Metro Council than at any time since the 2003 city-county merger. They flipped two seats in southwest Jefferson County in 2022. Last year, Republicans picked up three more.
Greenberg said he thinks a lot of Republicans’ electoral gains were the result of national politics impacting how people vote locally. At the same time, Greenberg said reaching across the aisle and working with Republicans and independents, locally and in the Kentucky General Assembly, is “one of the things I’m most proud of.”
“You can see the results we’ve had in Frankfort,” he said. “We have secured record amounts of investment in our city from the state.”
He said he’s hoping to bring home even more funding for Louisville in the next General Assembly session in January.
Greenberg is so far the only person to announce their intention to run for mayor next year.
Former Democratic state Representative Charles Booker had been rumored to be eyeing a run, but he quashed those rumors in a social media post last month. Fellow progressive Shameka Parrish-Wright, a Metro Council member who lost to Greenberg in the mayoral primary four years ago, says she’s still weighing her options.
Jeff Yocum has filed documents with the Kentucky Registry of Election Finance that show he intends to run in the May primary. Yocum describes himself on X, formerly Twitter, as a “Christian, Vet, Patriot, Republican, Husband, Father.” He does not have a public campaign.
The Metro Council and mayoral elections next year will be the first where candidates will not have a party affiliation appear next to their names on the ballot.
The May primary will be wide open, with everyone who files to run appearing on the ballot. The top two vote-getters will advance to the November General Election.
