Election season is approaching, and the Hopkinsville Mayoral race has gained a new competitor as former City Council member Natasha Sophia Francis has filed for candidacy.
Francis represented Ward 1 on the Hopkinsville City Council from 2022 to 2024 and ran for reelection, but lost to Vance Smith, who currently holds the seat. After her term on the city council, Francis says she learned a lot about the inner-workings of local government and now wants to be able to help improve Hopkinsville again.
If elected, Francis says she plans to focus on helping those who are homeless, making local house ownership more attainable, establishing more grocery stores and restaurants, advocating for the needs of military veterans and supporting locally owned businesses.
Francis filed her paperwork to seek the mayoral seat as a Republican, so she will be facing incumbent Mayor J.R. Knight and current Christian County Fiscal Court Magistrate Russ Guffey in the May primary election.