user: ### NOW ANSWER:
Question: What year was incumbent Joe B. Bates first elected?
Columns: ['District', 'Incumbent', 'Party', 'First elected', 'Result', 'Candidates']
Types: ['text', 'text', 'text', 'real', 'text', 'text']
Sample row: ['Kentucky 4', 'Frank Chelf', 'Democratic', 1944.0, 'Re-elected', 'Frank Chelf (D) 53.1% Don Victor Drye (R) 46.9%']
SQL:

assistant: SELECT "First elected" FROM "Table" WHERE "Incumbent" = 'Joe B. Bates';