MEET PATRICK
Patrick McClure has been traveling Boyle County’s streets and highways, streams, and more than a few backroads his whole life—learning its people, its rhythms, and its values. Now, he’s stepping forward to serve as Boyle County Attorney. He will be an independent voice committed to justice, decency, and the community that raised him.
Patrick is a born and raised native son — a 1992 graduate of Danville High School, where he was a member of 2 state championship teams in football, and twice competed for a State title in golf, while excelling in the classroom as well. He proudly grew up in what his Aunt, Nancy Caudill, famously called “quite simply the nicest little town in America”—bike rides through Streamland, weekends on Herrington Lake, learning to drive on Forkland backroads and Danville streets, and all the roads around Perryville and Junction City (where his Mom was raised as the child of tenant farmers), building a deep love for the small places that make Boyle County home. He had a job at the old Richardson’s IGA/”The Pig”, and later the Movie Shack next door. He worked for the City of Danville Public Works, and in one of those “only in Boyle County” chapters, he spent time on the city road crew as the designated “Road Kill Cowboy”, accepting each responsibility as an opportunity to learn about the work, and the people, and humility; but attacking those life lessons with his trademark passion and enthusiasm.
Patrick carried that same hometown grit and curiosity into school and service, first at Centre College, where he was active in almost every aspect of student life graduating in 1996. After a year spent digging ditches and hanging insulation and other odd jobs that befell him on his Mom’s construction sites, he moved on to the University of Kentucky College of Law (Class of 2000). His throughline has always been community, and a deep and abiding love for the Bluegrass, and in particular his cherished home in Boyle County.
Rooted in Family
The McClures came to this area due to his Great Grandfather going deaf, who then taught and worked at KSD for almost 80 years. His grandfather, a member of the Centre Praying Colonels football tradition, was a surgeon at Ephraim McDowell Hospital, specializing in Obstetrics, often for free. But he was most revered for his kindness, and his service to not only the medical community, but also the Theatre, the Schools, and the Public Library his wife supported so intently, for another half a century.
Patrick's father, with wife Patsy always at his side, spent over 3 decades in this office his son now seeks to reclaim, as part of 55 years in the practice of law. George M. McClure III was County Attorney from 1970 until 2002, and was an integral part of the West T Hill Community Theatre, the Library, the Airport, and countless other projects. George was one of the most beloved lawyers Danville has ever known, noted not only for his skill as a prosecutor, but also for his ability to bring people together in the fiscal court, or just in his humble nature talking with the characters that graced places like old pool hall or the Boyle Pharmacy. He was as well read and educated a man as many would ever meet, yet he was just as comfortable fishing on Herrington Lake, or telling stories at the Penn Store. He left it to Patsy, a Hustonville and Junction City farm girl, to serve on bipartisan state commissions and run campaigns. Together they made quite a team.
A Life of Service, Up Close
Patrick’s legal career has put him face-to-face with people on the hardest days of their lives. He’s defended the unjustly accused. He’s worked to mitigate harm and find second chances for people who needed a break. He’s been in family court with kids whose lives were being decided in adult rooms. He’s been part of adoptions—moments where the law can help make something whole again.
But, if you ask Patrick what matters most, he won’t start with a résumé. He’ll talk about civic commitment—showing up, again and again, for the town he loves. He has served as a youth group leader and counseled at Camp Burnamwood now serving on its Board. He’s been involved with the Boyle County Family Services Association, the United Way’s community foundation, and “a very long list” of community groups, including many years on the Great American Brass Band Festival Board, twice serving as Vice President, and as its President, leading the group through the Covid pandemic, and keeping that most quintessentially Danville event a going concern, against the odds, and in spite of the setback, only to return stronger than ever.
Patrick’s idea of leadership is not just being the voice, it is being in the arena. He’s been active in the civic and political life of the county for years, often from behind the curtain, supporting local campaigns and community efforts, while never afraid to take a stand and speak for the County he loves, or pick up a shovel when that is what is needed even more.
What each generation had in common, besides their love of reading and fishing, was that they were universally acclaimed for treating all people the same… for cherishing the humanity in all things, and for giving dignity and compassion to those who needed them most.
Patrick will be the first to tell you he can never be his father, but as your County Attorney he does hope to continue that tradition of serving all the people of Boyle County the best way he knows how, regardless of party, wealth, or status. Patrick respects hard work, faith, and kindness, and hopes that following in those footsteps, he can show that he learned something from them and use it now to advocate for the people he is called to serve.
On his 31st birthday, Patrick’s life took a sharp turn, and he met “his little redheaded girl”, and in just a few months, in the shadow of the dam his grandfather once hauled rocks to help build, Patrick asked Jennings (Jenny) Sturgill to marry him.
Jenny didn’t just come to Boyle County—she jumped in with both feet: not only managing the office, but organizing community events, serving neighbors, and ultimately becoming the glue that has kept McClure & McClure Attorneys at Law, and the McClure family, running all while raising their two sons, Paul and George.
Patrick talks about his family the way you’d expect a Boyle County dad to talk—proud, grateful, and a little in awe. Paul and George are high-achieving student-athletes with big futures, but Patrick’s pride isn’t just about trophies and test scores. It’s about character: the kind you build in church leadership, in community events, in hard work and practices, and in showing up for people, and for respecting those that work beside you.
Why He’s Running
Patrick decided to run for Boyle County Attorney because he believes it’s time for a change and time for a choice. Patrick believes in a justice system that recognizes Justice without compassion becomes cruelty, and compassion without conviction becomes chaos. We feel compelled to get back to our roots… to civility, courtesy, and a justice system that treats every person with dignity, even when they’re at their lowest, and a Boyle County Government that looks brightly forward because all citizens of our little corner of the world have the capacity to create something special here when we ALL work for the greater good.
Conviction with Compassion. Courage with Civility.
Patrick’s priorities can be said simply—and he intends to live them publicly:
Conviction with Compassion
The law matters. Accountability matters. But so does context. So does mercy. So does the belief that people are more than their worst moment.
Courage with Civility, Consistency with Fairness.
Patrick will be firm when he needs to be—and respectful always. He believes Boyle County deserves a justice system that doesn’t inflame tensions for power, doesn’t grandstand, and doesn’t confuse punishment with public service.
Most of all, Patrick believes the innocent—especially children—need a voice that speaks for them.
Ready to Serve Boyle County
Patrick’s leadership style is shaped by years of committee rooms and community boards— listening to expertise from all sides, building shared vision, and finding community driven solutions. He has never been afraid to accept an idea just because it was not his own, and works daily with people from all sides of the County, of every race, creed, gender, or socio-economic background… a legacy learned from his father and his father before him, and upon which Patrick has based his entire life.
Patrick McClure is running to be an independent voice for Boyle County — accountable only to the people he serves and the legacy of honor, trust, and compassion that this community expects, and deserves. This campaign gives Boyle County the chance to make a CHOICE for those virtues, untethered to the partisan bickering, and political patronage that have driven so many groups apart, or away altogether. Patrick offers now a choice for change from the current status quo, but a change that brings us back together as the COMMUNITY we all cherish.
If there’s one line he hopes people will say about his life, and service when it’s all over, it’s this:
This community didn’t just shape who he is, it IS who he is.