Samara Heavrin, 18th District State Representative for the Commonwealth of Kentucky, was elected in November 2019 in a special election. When sworn into office, she became the youngest female ever elected to the Kentucky State House of Representatives.
In the Kentucky State House of Representatives, Samara serves as Chair of the House Committee on Families and Children. She is also a member of the House Committees on Transportation, Budget Review Subcommittee on Health and Family Services, and State Government. In the past, she has co-chaired both the Commission on Race and Access to Opportunity and the 2022 Task Force on Early Childhood Education.
Since being elected, Samara has received the honor of being a Toll Fellow and was named a 20 Under 40 by The Council of State Governments. After the 2022 Legislative Session, the Kentucky Chamber of Commerce awarded Heavrin the Most Valuable Policymaker award for her industry-leading measure of House Bill 499, legislation establishing the Employee Child-Care Assistance Partnership. Most recently, she was named part of the 2023 class for the Rodel Fellowship.
After Samara’s graduation from Western Kentucky University in 2014, she has worked in Washington D.C. for the U.S. House of Representatives and U.S. Senate, and in Frankfort for the Kentucky State Treasury. Samara currently lives in Leitchfield, Kentucky with her golden retriever, Rosie, and is actively involved in her home community. She is a small business owner of Barb’s Solutions and serves as a board member on the Owensboro Health Foundation Board.