Adam Edelen

In January 2019, Edelen said the power has been sold and the project will move forward within the next few weeks.

After nearly four years away from politics and in the private sector, Edelen declared his candidacy for the Democratic nomination for governor of Kentucky on January 7, 2019, making him the fourth and final Democrat to enter the race. Edelen chose Gill Holland, a Louisville community builder, filmmaker, and environmentalist, as his lieutenant governor candidate.

Edelen was born on a family farm in Meade County, Kentucky. His mother was two months shy of her 17th birthday when he was born. His parents divorced when he was young and his time as a child was divided between his mother's home in Louisville and his father's farm in rural Meade County.

In 2017, news articles began circulating which detailed a project in which Edelen is involved that plans to install tens of thousands of solar panels on a reclaimed surface mine in eastern Kentucky. The project is expected to put hundreds of out-of-work coal miners into long-term, well-paying jobs building and installing the panels. Once completed, it will be the first large-scale solar panel project in the Appalachian region, and the largest in Kentucky. In a 2018 interview with Kentucky Today, Edelen said he was prioritizing the project over a run for governor.

In 2015, Edelen lost his re-election bid to Republican Mike Harmon.

In 2014, Edelen proposed legislation to strengthen Kentucky's cyber security protections and require state and local government to notify citizens if their data is compromised in a data breach. Kentucky was one of four states that lacked security breach notification laws. House Bill 5 passed the House 99–1 and the Senate unanimously.

Edelen was one of Government Technology magazine's 2014 Top 25 Doers, Dreamers and Drivers, an award bestowed on innovators in the public sector across the country. In 2008, Edelen was named one of the Ten Outstanding Young Americans by the United States Junior Chamber of Commerce. This award is arguably the oldest and most prestigious service award in the nation and previous honorees include presidents John F. Kennedy, Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford and Bill Clinton.

As a two-term gubernatorial appointee to the board of Kentucky Educational Television, Chairman Edelen was the driving force behind the "Be Well Kentucky" initiative—an acclaimed effort which addresses Kentucky's public health crisis. While vice-president of the Commerce Lexington, Edelen was responsible for the nationally recognized New Century Lexington Reports on Community Livability, which used a broad range of metrics for measuring Lexington's quality of life. Edelen has also chaired the United Way of the Bluegrass Annual Campaign and the Lexington Fayette County Urban League. He has also served as a member of the Prichard Committee for Academic Excellence.

Edelen also led an effort to reform special districts, which represent a $2.7 billion layer of government. The effort resulted in a report and a database that allowed the public to see basic financial information about roughly 1,200 entities such as libraries, fire districts and health departments. In 2013, Edelen helped shepherd a measure through the legislature to bring more accountability and transparency to the entities. House Bill 1 – as dubbed by the Speaker of the House – passed with broad, bipartisan support. The National State Auditors Association selected the initiative as one of its Excellence in Accountability Award recipients. The initiative was called the "biggest good government initiative we have had since the 1990s" by the leadership of Common Cause KY.

In 2012, Edelen began examining spending practices in public schools. Special examinations in 15 public school districts found wasteful spending, lack of oversight of superintendent contracts by school boards and other abuses. One exam led to criminal conviction of a former superintendent and more than $500,000 returned to the community. Based on Edelen's recommendations, the Kentucky Department of Education now requires school districts to submit superintendent contracts for posting on a publicly accessible website.

Edelen won election to Kentucky Auditor of Public Accounts on November 8, 2011, defeating Republican John T. Kemper III by a margin of 11.6%.

In 2008, he returned to the public sector, serving as Director of the Kentucky Office of Homeland Security and then as Chief of Staff to Governor Steve Beshear.

Adam Edelen (born November 26, 1974, in Meade County, Kentucky) is an American businessman, solar energy entrepreneur, and politician who served as the Auditor of Public Accounts for the Commonwealth of Kentucky from January 2, 2012 to January 4, 2016. Prior to that, he was the Chief of Staff for Kentucky Governor Steve Beshear from July 2008 until September 15, 2010, when he resigned to work as a business consultant, before deciding to run for the Auditor of Public Accounts for the Commonwealth of Kentucky. In 2019, he ran for Governor of Kentucky with running mate Gill Holland, finishing in third place in the Democratic primary.