Gilkerson is a retired corrections officer born and raised in Fayette county. He has been a union leader for over 20 years, and is also a small business owner. He owns Sunset Berry Farm, an agritourism venue. His top policy issues are data center regulation and education. He has list of bills he wants to back to try and give residents a greater say in data center construction within their community. His education tab is a bit more sparse just committing to caring about education issues. This is his first election, and he ran uncontested in the democratic primary.