Hey, here's a question from Paul Oliva on Facebook who's asking who's running for mayor this year.

Great question, Paul. We've got seven candidates on the ballot for the mayoral primary in two weeks on May nineteenth, which is actually the most competitive race we've had in years. The incumbent Linda Gorton is running for her third term — she's been mayor since twenty nineteen — and she's facing six challengers.

Six challengers, wow. Who are we talking about?

The full field includes C.E. Huffman, Darnell Tagaloa, Greg O'Neal, Ramazanie Asmani, Raquel Carter, and Skip Horine. Some interesting backgrounds here — Huffman works in media relations at U-K's School of Agriculture and has a journalism background, Tagaloa is with iHeartMedia, and Carter owns Guide Realty. Skip Horine has actually run for mayor three times before — in ninety-three, twenty ten, and twenty eighteen.

So how does this work with seven people running?

The top two vote-getters in the May nineteenth primary advance to the November general election. Since it's a nonpartisan race and the mayor represents all of Lexington, any registered voter can participate in both the primary and general — you don't have to pick a party ballot like you would for other races.

And what are the big issues they're focusing on?

Housing affordability is coming up as a major theme across campaigns, plus there's discussion about traffic management, economic development, and violence prevention. Should be an interesting race to watch unfold over the next couple weeks.

Listen live: The Lexington Times runs a 24/7 local news livestream — watch on YouTube or on Facebook. This transcript is from a recent on-air segment.