Steve Nunn

Steven "Steve" Nunn (born 1952) is the current Deputy Secretary of Health and Human Services for the Commonwealth of Kentucky. He is the former Republican member of the Kentucky House of Representatives from Glasgow, the seat of Barren County in southern Kentucky.

Nunn unsuccessfully sought the Republican gubernatorial nomination in 2003 but lost in the primary to then United States Representative Ernie Fletcher, whom he then supported. Nunn received 21,167 votes (13.4 percent) in the primary. Fletcher led the three-candidate field with 90,912 (57.3 percent). Rebecca Johnson polled 44,084 (27.8 percent). Fletcher went on to win the position in the general election by defeating Attorney General Ben Chandler. Fletcher was the first Kentucky Republican to be elected governor since Louie B. Nunn, Steve Nunn's father, in 1967.

In 2006, Nunn lost his bid for re-election to the House of Representatives to Democrat Johnny Bell.

Steve Nunn is considered a moderate Republican as a supporter of expanded state social services. In September 2007, Nunn announced his support of Democratic gubernatorial nominee Steve Beshear, a former lieutenant governor who defeated Fletcher in his bid for re-election.

On December 22, 2007, Beshear appointed Nunn as deputy secretary of Health and Family Services.

(Hastings Wyman, "The Southern Political Report", September 24, 2007.)