Meet the two Republicans running for Floyd County sheriff in the primary - Louisville Public Media

News Meet the two Republicans running for Floyd County sheriff in the primary Louisville Public Media | By Aprile Rickert Published April 10, 2026 at 5:35 PM EDT Bluesky Submitted The Floyd County Sheriff's Office in New Albany. Two Republicans are hoping to secure a primary win for sheriff of Floyd County. Floyd County Republican Sheriff Steve Bush is seeking a second term in office. Jason Kerberg, a longtime sheriff’s office employee, hopes to unseat the incumbent. LPM News sat down with them to discuss what they want to do in the coming term. Meet the candidates Submitted / Steve Bush Republican Steve Bush is running for a second term as sheriff of Floyd County. Steve Bush is the current Floyd County sheriff, elected in 2022. Before that, he was with the New Albany Police Department for more than three decades, rising through the ranks and leaving as a captain. He was a major for around six months, which is third in command at the department. He was a Floyd County Commissioner for 12 years, serving six as president. Aprile Rickert / LPM Republican Jason Kerberg is running for sheriff of Floyd County Jason Kerberg has been with the Floyd County Sheriff’s Office for 26 years and is currently the day shift lieutenant. His experience includes 17 years on the Southeast Regional SWAT team, and he’s also been an instructor for how to handle DUIs, a field training officer and was interim jail commander. He previously served in the United States Marine Corps. Why they’re running Bush said he wants to continue to serve and protect the community, and to build on work to make the sheriff’s office better. He said the role has two main goals. One is about holding people accountable and protecting the community. “But the other component is how do we help people? And we do that through our programs.” Part of the office’s role is to manage the county jail. Bush said more than 16 people graduated from a GED program offered in jail over the past year, and the sheriff’s office also has programs to help with issues like trauma and anger. Bush said more than 50 people have been baptized through a retreat program called Residents Encounter Christ over the last few years. For some, Bush said, the decision to embrace faith is a step toward longer term success once they are no longer incarcerated. “People are approaching saying they're clean now. They've, you know, they got God in their life," he said. “They're getting structure in their life. And so all these things we know that are working, and then we're going to continue to do those things.” Bush said he believes the programs help lessen recidivism. He said he wants to work on incorporating job placement and job training in a second term. In this term, he’s also added a full-time maintenance position and a full-time crime analysis position. He has plans to bring on a drug-sniffing K9, and is working toward implementing body-worn cameras for officers in fall. Kerberg, Bush’s challenger, said he’s had a lot of people ask him over time if he would run for sheriff, and he felt like this was the time. “I think Floyd County needs to go in a different direction, and I think that I have the skills and the knowledge and the experience to bring us in that direction,” he said. Some changes he’d like to see with the office include restructuring to put more officers back on the street. He says the administration has become top heavy after taking officers off the streets and into administrative roles. He also said there should be fewer unmarked administrative vehicles. “I think that visibility is important for deterrent purposes.” Kerberg said his military and law enforcement experience and passion for helping people make him the best person for the job. He also oversees budgets with the security company he runs. Kerberg supports placing school resource officers in every school, and more hands-on training for things such as interactions with people with mental illness or developmental disabilities. As sheriff, he said he’d also focus on training to help officers address PTSD from the kind of work they do. That could include supervisors recognizing when something is wrong. Kerberg serves on a critical incident team that helps debrief after first responders work traumatic events. He said officers often stay in triage mode, not making time to process one event before having to respond to the next scene. “And that all that builds up over time, and then they go home at the end of the day and they don't want to talk to their family about it,” he said. “And they just say, ‘Yeah, everything was OK, a normal day.’ But in reality, they're struggling.” Addressing drugs and substance use disorder Both candidates have been in law enforcement long enough to have seen shifting drug use trends; moves from crack cocaine to other substances like methamphetamine, prescription pills, heroin and fentanyl. Both candidates said they see a role for the sheriff’s office to play in addressing the trauma that is often linked to substance use. “We have to really treat and understand why people are addicted,” Bush said. “A lot of it’s trauma, and a lot of it’s maybe broken families. Maybe they don't have God in their life, and that's part of it. Maybe it's [the] social environment, you know, economics… you know, there's a lot of variety to that that plays a role.” His administration has started Change While Incarcerated, a multidisciplinary team including a medical therapist, a transitional coordinator, a court liaison and a programs facilitator. The jail has programs including for issues such as anger management, mental health and addiction trauma. Kerberg acknowledges substance use is a problem in Floyd County. He said officers frequently encounter overdoses. Kerberg also noted that a lot of the crimes that put people in jail, including theft or domestic violence, stem from or are exacerbated by addiction. “Obviously I’d like to see drugs off the streets,” he said. “However, I'm also a realist, and I understand we can't just arrest the drugs off the streets, because people go right back to it when they get out.” He wants to strengthen programming for people incarcerated at the jail. “I'm a believer that you can't treat an addiction unless you treat the trauma first,” he said. “That's why so many people relapse. So you have to go to the root cause of what brought them to the drugs to begin with.” Response to ICE detention Last April, the Clark Clark County Sheriff’s Office began housing people for Immigration and Customs Enforcement , under an agreement with the federal government. Floyd County does not have such an agreement, though they do, like many other facilities, notify ICE when they believe someone in custody may be undocumented, and the agency has a certain amount of time to put a hold on them or not. Bush, the incumbent, said his office was not asked to participate in assisting with additional ICE detention, but he also noted the jail doesn’t really have the space. They do hold people who are incarcerated for federal charges. “I'm not for or against holding ICE if we need to, but that's not a priority for us,” Bush said. Kerberg also noted that Clark County has a bigger jail, and that space might be an issue in Floyd, depending on how many people they have incarcerated there. “But I definitely wouldn't rule that out,” he said. “If there was room there, I think it could be something good to have.” Indiana’s primary election is May 5, and early voting is underway. Coverage of Southern Indiana is funded, in part, by Samtec Inc., the Hazel & Walter T. Bales Foundation, and the Caesars Foundation of Floyd County.