John Young Brown was an American attorney and politician. He was a state representative for nearly three decades, serving one term as speaker of the Kentucky House of Representatives and as majority floor leader during the term of Governor Edward T. Breathitt. He was elected to one term in the U.S. House of Representatives from March 4, 1933, to January 3, 1935, to an at-large seat elected statewide on a general ticket. He was an unsuccessful candidate for the Democratic nomination for Governor of Kentucky in 1939 and the unsuccessful candidate for the United States Senate in 1946 and 1966. He was a member of the Democratic Party.

Keen Johnson was an American politician who served as the 45th Governor of Kentucky, serving from 1939 to 1943; being the only journalist to have held that office. After serving in World War I, Johnson purchased and edited the Elizabethtown Mirror newspaper. He revived the struggling paper, sold it to a competitor and used the profits to obtain his journalism degree from the University of Kentucky in 1922. After graduation, he became editor of The Anderson News, and in 1925, he accepted an offer to co-publish and edit the Richmond Daily Register.