Chris Waddell

Chris Waddell earned a high school diploma from Muhlenberg High School. His career experience includes working as a business owner.[1]

Who are you? Tell us about yourself.

Born and raised in Muhlenberg County, Kentucky, my family was a poor-working class family that scratched and clawed for anything we had. Life wasn’t difficult due to my mother and grandmother working tirelessly to make all the kid’s lives a little easier. A childhood, pre-internet, of understanding where my family sat in the social structure of our community weighed against the real life struggle to make ends meet, gave me very early inclinations of a deteriorating system. One that clearly does not serve all of us. We see the gap between rich and poor deepening, while the middle class seems to become less and less existent.

I started community organizing as a child, using my back yard to host pro wrestling events that became, in my community, the place that local parents would send their kids because they knew it was always a safe place from the drugs and violence that they risked elsewhere. It was this era of my life where I developed an understanding of local issues, corruption on a city level and witnessed the system serve to cater to special interests.

In the years since, I have become Kentucky and southern, Indiana’s most successful professional wrestling event promoter. Serving to provide needed and affordable entertainment to small towns across the state every single week since 2010.

In this period I developed a well rounded, critical thinking mind as I grew my knowledge for issues most important to regular people and knew my calling is public service.

Please list below 3 key messages of your campaign. What are the main points you want voters to remember about your goals for your time in office?

I am running on Goodness, Peace and Common Sense. For some, that may sound vague. For most, this is where our public servants need to start.

The state of politics from local to national have become crazy.

When we’re younger we just blissfully think everyone in our government are smarter, leaving us in good hands. As we get older and open our eyes and face our struggles, we realize something is truly a-miss.

Politicians worried about being TikTok famous. State Reps who are wealthy enough to build big homes and buy new vehicles for every child. Who, at one time may, but no longer understand the struggle of normal people.

We need representation that understands issues today and will apply common sense and practicality to their decisions.Applying common sense to KY leaves one unable to ignore the most glaring issues. One of the most important that would solve many issues that have plagued our state for far too long.

Strengthening our Public Education system.

Public Education is vital to our people. It raised and molded into the people we are today. Public school teachers are super heroes; people willing to give their lives to helping someone else’s children.

Why have we seen an attack on public education & excuses made when it comes to pay for our school employees.

We want the best for our kids, but have to fight to give them the best. Kentucky, since I’ve been alive, has ranked in lowest teacher pay AND lowest in education. Coincidence? I don’t think so.Healthcare For All. I realize in this fight, how many people have never been personally hit by a crisis when they’re at their lowest.

I think about a few times in my life, still living paycheck to paycheck, where all the utilities are owed and *boom* the fuel pump goes out on my truck or some other unexpected but very common occurrence sidetracks and uproots my entire life. Leaving me wondering how can I get to work? How long will it take me to save? Can I? I know what that does to a person.

Then I apply a similar situation to a person’s health. Being in a situation where you have to choose to get yourself seen by a professional or having food on the table. It’s disgusting. In 2026, we can do so much better. Healthcare is a human right.

What areas of public policy are you personally passionate about?

I am running for State Representative in order to simply serve the people of my district and my state. My communities deserve someone willing to stand up for and defend them.

Providing some sort of levity and stability to decisions made that effect us all.

Providing protections, support and strengthening our healthcare system and public schools.

Protecting our farmers and farmland from big corporations, who strips power away from farmers and AI data centers who strip away our land and our resources.

Ending corruption and enacting term limits. We must get money out of government. It’s not difficult to see what corruption does. Term limits would serve to keep them honest.

Ending the division. Standing up for our marginalized.

Who do you look up to? Whose example would you like to follow, and why?

My childhood hero was professional wrestler, Macho Man Randy Savage. The way he spoke to kids and uplifted them and made them feel like they mattered gave me early tools to know I wanted to do the same for people.

My adulthood hero is my mom. Nothing stands in her way from point A to point B. While I know she struggles like any of us, she is unflinching when it comes to complex issues. To this day, she amazes me with her patience and willingness to help absolutely anyone in need. She’s the real MVP.

What characteristics or principles are most important for an elected official?

Honesty and integrity. What once sounded like a given are now traits that are sorely missed in our elected officials.

What do you believe are the core responsibilities for someone elected to this office?

Being transparent. Tell your communities, without fluff or political talk, what you’re trying to do and why and what else is going on.

What legacy would you like to leave?

I don’t need a statue or my name laser cut into walls somewhere. I would just be deeply honored for those who knew me, if they think about me, just to be able to think of me as a good man. Willing to do whatever I can to help the people around me.

What was your very first job? How long did you have it?

I worked fast food jobs while in high school, very quickly understanding the criminally low wages for people who work tirelessly long hours, have some of the most difficult customer experiences and are the very people we trust with our food.

Before I dedicated time to my own business, built from ground up since I was a teenager, I worked for a decade for Walmart. A company ran by the richest family in the world who pays its employees wages so low that they are eligible for government assistance…. Government assistance that they expect will be used in their very own stores.

What is something that has been a struggle in your life?

I’ve had struggles with self-worth and some tragic losses in my life. While I’d love to have the people (and my little buddy Milo) who’ve lost back in my life… I understand that struggle is what makes us into the people we are. Even if sometimes it feels like it only makes us callous.

What do you believe is the ideal relationship between the governor and state legislature?

Quick, consistent and concise communication. A governor that a

Representative or citizen cannot contact is not a governor that serves its people.

What do you perceive to be your state's greatest challenges over the next decade?

Balancing the state budget in a way that every Kentuckian can feel their financial strain lessen.

Do you believe that compromise is necessary or desirable for policymaking?

Yes. We have to understand that we share living space with other people and other ideals. We don’t have to agree, not all the time, but we do have to find a better way to meet in the middle on issues. So long as every person on either side is fighting for the rights of all. So long as they’re guided by goodness, peace and common sense. It would be much harder to go wrong.

What was the first historical event that happened in your lifetime that you remember?

I can remember being 6 & 8 years old seeing both the Waco siege and the Oklahoma City Bombing. They made enough of an impact on me that I remember them vividly, but not recognizing the hate and destruction that, even to this day, is brought on by white nationalism.

At 14, September 11th, 2001 and the terror attacks across the Northeast allowed me the ability see something that I couldn’t understand, come to understand it and questioned the causes and long term effects that the decisions made by men in power have on all of us.