Jefferson County’s longest-serving sheriff, 86-year-old John Aubrey, will not run for reelection next year, he said Thursday.
Aubrey has led the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office, which is responsible for property tax collection, eviction enforcement and courthouse security, since 1999. Just last month, Aubrey received the 2025 Sheriff of the Year Award from the National Sheriff’s Association.
Asked why he’s decided to step down, Aubrey said he’s been mulling the idea of retiring for a couple months. He said he thought back to what his mentors told him when he served in the United States Army Reserves and the Louisville Metro Police Department.
“They just said, ‘You’ll know. You’ll know when it’s the right time,’” Aubrey said. “And I think in the last couple months it became pretty clear.”
Aubrey, a Democrat, is currently serving his seventh term as Jefferson County Sheriff, which expires at the start of 2027.
Before winning his first election in 1999, Aubrey was a member of the LMPD for nearly three decades, retiring from the agency as the acting chief of police. He also spent 32 years in the Army Reserves.
Aubrey said Thursday that one of his fondest memories from his time as sheriff was when deputies seized “an amount of cash” from a man who had scammed a “mature” woman living out of state.
“She wrote the nicest note you could write,” he said. “If that didn’t make you feel good, you know, you don’t have no feelings … I like to say in the Sheriff’s Office the word ‘help’ is spelled in capital letters. If you call, we’ll help.”
Louisville Mayor Craig Greenberg walked into the press conference room shortly after Aubrey finished speaking to congratulate him on his planned retirement.
Greenberg said he was “a very special person” who’s served the community in multiple ways. He noted, though, that Aubrey still has a good amount of time left in the role.
For his part, Aubrey said he doesn’t plan to slow down as he completes his term.
“We’ve got some things that I haven’t even told these guys about yet,” he said, pointing the deputies in the room. “You always got room to improve.”
Aubrey hasn’t faced a serious election challenger since 2018, but he narrowly won the Democratic primary in 2022, defeating his closest opponent by just 2%, or about 1,700 votes.
His announcement will likely kick the campaigning for next year’s election into high gear.
Lawyer and former Glenview mayor Richard Breen announced his bid for sheriff last September. Breen is running as a Democrat.
In a statement, Breen thanked Aubrey for his more than five decades of public service to “keep our community safe” and “ensure the people’s faith in their judicial system.”
“I am sure that his decision not to seek an eighth term as Sheriff was not an easy one but I hope that he, along with his family, know that Jefferson County, and the entire Commonwealth, is stronger thanks to his service,” he said.
Breen had already received more than $80,000 in campaign donations by the end of last year, according to the latest reports filed with the Kentucky Registry of Election Finance.
Stephen Yancey, who narrowly lost the Democratic primary to Aubrey in 2022, has also filed the necessary paperwork to raise money for a primary bid.
