Rocky Adkins, the longtime state legislative leader from Eastern Kentucky, announced Wednesday he will seek the Democratic Party’s nomination for governor.

At a campaign kickoff in Morehead with his running mate Stephanie Horne, a member of the Jefferson County School Board, Adkins characterized himself as the candidate of the common man — a moderate Democrat who can win votes in what have become solidly Republican counties in rural Kentucky.

“I’ve been encouraged by everyday people from Pikeville to Paducah to run for governor. … They want a governor who can bring back respect and dignity to the governor’s office. They want someone who knows and understands Kentucky, who is Kentucky,” Adkins said in an interview before his announcement.

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That comment was a jab at incumbent Republican Gov. Matt Bevin, a native of New England who frequently aims nasty criticism on social media and in radio interviews at those who oppose his policies.

Bevin has said he will seek re-election in 2019, though he has not yet formed a campaign committee or said whether he will retain Lt. Gov. Jenean Hampton as his running mate.

Adkins is the second Democrat to announce for governor. In July, Attorney General Andy Beshear announced his candidacy with Jacqueline Coleman, an assistant principal at Nelson County High School, as his lieutenant governor candidate.

The selection by Adkins and Beshear of advocates of public education as running mates is no coincidence. Democrats hope to use the anger among many teachers over Bevin’s policies — particularly his proposal for pension reform — to their advantage in the 2019 general election.

However, that issue gave Democrats no edge in last week’s elections for the General Assembly outside of Jefferson County.

Adkins' announcement comes as no surprise. He has said for months he was considering the race, and last week he and Horne filed papers with the campaign finance regulators that allow them to begin raising money.

Fellow Eastern Kentuckian Paul Patton, the Democrat who served as governor from 1995-2003, endorse Adkins during Thursday's announcement.

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Adkins, 59, is from Sandy Hook in Elliott County. He holds bachelor’s and master's degrees from Morehead State University and is president of a company called RJA Enterprises that he said “does private development work” for companies in the energy and transportation fields.

He has served in the Kentucky House since 1987. From 2003 through 2016 he was the House majority leader. Since then, he has been the chamber’s minority leader. He and his wife, Leah, have a daughter, and Adkins has two grown children from his first marriage.

During his 28-minute announcement speech Wednesday, Adkins described himself as "a common man," but with plenty of the common sense that he said rural Kentucky is known for. "And I am talking about restoring some commonsense for our good old commonwealth," he told cheering supporters.

Horne, of Prospect, is a business owner and real estate attorney who was elected to a term on the Jefferson County School Board in 2014 and did not seek re-election this year.

Horne said in a statement earlier Wednesday that she saw the chance to run with Adkins as the "perfect opportunity" for her to continue advocating "for public education and common sense solutions."

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Adkins has been a force within the Democratic House majority since soon after being first elected at age 26. In 2016, Republicans gained control of the House. Since then, he has been a vocal critic of the GOP agenda that includes passage of a “right to work” law, charter schools and the pension reform bill rammed through the Legislature last spring.

He said his priorities as governor would be to improve public education and the state’s infrastructure. Additional ways to raise state revenue need to be explored to address those priorities, he said, including tax reform. He said he opposes the tax bill passed by Republicans last spring because it puts the burden on lower-income Kentuckians. But he offered no specific tax reform plan other than saying a compromise should reached on closing unspecified tax loopholes.

He said the state’s pension system needs no further structural reforms because a bipartisan 2013 reform bill, combined with continuing full pension funding (that began under Bevin), are gradually solving the multibillion dollar problem.

Beshear — who has already reported raising $660,000 for his campaign — released a statement Thursday welcoming Adkins into the race and saying he looked forward “to a positive primary on how to bring Kentuckians together and move this state forward.”

Other Democrats are likely to join the race before the Jan. 28 filing deadline. Former state Auditor Adam Edelen, Secretary of State Alison Lundergan Grimes, and state Rep. Attica Scott, of Louisville, are believed to be considering the race.

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Adkins, with a small base in Eastern Kentucky, would likely benefit from a crowded primary field.

In an interview on WHAS Radio on Tuesday, Bevin said of whether he preferred to run against Adkins or Beshear: "Whichever one of these people that wants to run and carry the flag for an increasingly lost, confused, misguided and un-American Democrat Party, whichever one of them wants to carry that banner, bring it on.”

Adkins has a 30-year voting record that Republicans are sure to examine. Tres Watson, spokesman for the Republican Party of Kentucky, started doing so Wednesday, releasing a statement that said all eight state budgets passed while Adkins was majority leader "substantially underfunded state pensions."

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Tom Loftus: tloftus@courierjournal.com; Twitter: @TomLoftus_CJ. Support strong local journalism by subscribing today: courierjournal.com/subscribe.