John Harper (politician)

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John R. Harper (died June 15, 2001) was a member of the Kentucky House of Representatives from Bullitt County and was the 1987 Republican nominee for Governor of Kentucky. Harper stepped in to run after the first choice of party leaders, Lexington attorney Larry Forgy, surprisingly dropped out of the race because of fundraising problems. Harper lost to Democrat Wallace G. Wilkinson in a record landslide. Wilkinson carried 115 of Kentucky's 120 counties and won 504,367 votes (64.9 percent) to Harper's 273,035 (35.1 percent). Of the five counties Harper carried, one was his home county of Bullitt, and another was Wilkinson's home county of Fayette (county seat: Lexington).

Harper's first run for office came in 1981, when he lost a bid to become Bullitt County's first Republican judge-executive. But he came back in 1984 and won the 49th District state House seat.

John Harper would later be elected Bullitt County Judge/Executive, a historic victory as the first Republican to win that office, just as he had been the first Republican to win his House seat. Harper served only one term as County Judge and declined to run for a second in 1998 because of declining health. On Harper's death in Louisville, his widow, Mary Harper, won her husband's former House seat in 2002 and was re-elected to a second term in 2004.

The Kentucky House of Representatives passed a resolution to honor Harper in 2001.