This longtime lawmaker and anti-abortion voice is running for the KY Supreme Court

State Rep. Joseph Fischer, R-Ft. Thomas, is looking to switch to the judicial branch.

Fischer filed on Wednesday to run for the Kentucky Supreme Court’s Sixth District seat, which covers the state’s northern region.

The spot on the bench is currently occupied by Michelle Keller, a 2013 appointee of former governor Steve Beshear who was later reelected to an eight-year term in 2014. She is seeking reelection in 2022.

Fischer highlighted in a news release his “common sense conservative values” exhibited in the legislature during his more than 20 years in office.

Representing the 68th District, Fischer sponsored Kentucky’s 2019 “trigger law.” It would make abortion illegal in most all cases if the U.S. Supreme Court were to overturn Roe v. Wade, a decision that established a person’s right to the procedure.

Fischer also sponsored a state constitutional amendment that will appear on the ballot next November. If passed, the amendment would establish that nothing in the state constitution “shall be construed to secure or protect a right to abortion or require the funding of abortion.” Since 2009, Fischer has sponsored at least 16 bills related to abortion.

“After spending over two decades in the legislature advocating for common sense conservative values, I have decided to seek election to Kentucky’s highest court,” Fischer wrote in a newa release. “My career as an attorney and experience as a member of the House Judiciary Committee for so many years has provided me with a unique perspective regarding the needs of Kentucky’s courts.”

Fischer joined several other legislators in prefiling a bill earlier this year, as national discussion on critical race theory proliferated, that would limit the teaching of systemic racism and teachings “promoting division” between types of people in Kentucky public schools.

The lawmaker has previously filed two high-profile lawsuits to do with redistricting in the Kentucky legislature, one after the 1990 census and another after the 2010 count.

Before the statehouse, Fischer served on the Ft. Thomas city council. Fischer holds a law degree from the University of Cincinnati, and is involved with the Federalist Society, a prominent conservative legal group that argues for an originalist interpretation of the constitution, as well as the anti-abortion group Northern Kentucky Right to Life, according to his legislative biography.

Keller filed for reelection in early November. Before serving on the Supreme Court of Kentucky, she graduated from Northern Kentucky University’s Chase College of Law and practiced law for 17 years. Keller previously served as assistant county attorney in Kenton County, where she’s from according to her judicial biography.