OHS Alum on quest to be State Auditor
Kelsey Hayes Coots, class of 2007, shown her senior year at OHS (left) and now (right) is running for State Auditor
Kelsey Hayes Coots ’07 cites OPS roots as part of her passion and plan for improving Kentucky
by: Juana Roblero-Adams (11)
Kelsey Hayes Coots, a 2006 graduate of Owensboro High School, is running for State Auditor. She wants to strengthen accountability and increase transparency in the Auditor’s office, in state government.
A State Auditor specifically is in charge of ensuring the taxpayer dollars are being spent, how they’re supposed to be spent, and makes sure they’re used as efficiently as possible.
“Kentucky is becoming unrecognizable,” Hayes Coots says. She currently lives in Louisville, KY with her husband, and works as a middle school teacher, but she says her experience growing up in the city of Owensboro and in Owensboro Public Schools shaped her. While at OHS, Kelsey was a member of the swim team and student government. She says, “through the actions of teachers, and those who took care of me in basketball gyms growing up, Owensboro taught me what it meant to show up for people. Ultimately, that is why I am running for office.”
She believes that in order to have an effective government we have to show up for each other.
Hayes-Coots is running for State Auditor because some of the leaders are working to gut public education, roll back our gains in health care, trample workers’ rights, and spend money on things we don’t need at a price we can’t even afford. She says she wants to strengthen accountability
and increase transparency in the Auditor’s office, in state and local government.
“A trusted government is an effective government,” she states on her campaign site. She explains that Kentuckians need to know where and how their tax dollars are being spent.
Hayes Coots’ suggested solution includes strengthening accountability by increasing the awareness of the SAFE-house program. Essentially, Hayes Coots wants citizens to not be afraid to report when they see bad things happening.
“People over Politics” is one of Kelsey Hayes-Coots slogans. Talking to her, it’s easy to see she means it.
