Chris Campbell, 34, is running to replace Mitch McConnell in the U.S. Senate under the banner of the Kentucky Party, a new political party that ran Jill Stein for president in 2024.
Describing himself as a left-leaning liberal, Campbell wants to cut the military budget by two-thirds and establish free medical care for all and introduce new amendments in the U.S. Constitution to help advance minority rights and environmental protections.
He also wants to cut funding for the CIA, which, he says, helps “destabilize countries around the world and leads to new wars.”
Campbell is one of 12 members of the Kentucky Party running for public office in 2026 at various levels of government.
The Kentucky Party’s platform has three core aspects: anti-corruption, anti-war, and pro-Kentucky. Other than that, it gives candidaes the liberty to develop their own positions.
Geoff Sebesta, the Kentucky Party’s chairman who has worked in politics since 1996, told me that “it is human nature for people to want to represent and serve their community in a positive way” and that “the two-party system is not giving people that opportunity anymore because people have to follow party dictates and sell out their principles to gain the necessary financing.”
Sebesta stated that the Kentucky Party was “founded as a result of the institutional decay in the two dominant parties which are war-like, have been hollowed out by a secrecy system and are increasingly vicious against anyone who offers resistance and mafia-like in their structure. People who join those parties can’t do anything they want because they are told what positions to take. The Kentucky Party, by contrast, is not looking to give people an ideological exam. We’re willing to work with people who have different opinions on different topics. So long as they are committed to our three core principles: anti-war, anti-corruption and pro-Kentuckians.”
Mitch McConnell and the Betrayal of Kentuckians
Home of famous politicians in U.S. history like Henry Clay, Kentucky is a deep red state, albeit with strong anti-war sensibilities and an independent streak that is epitomized in the popularity of Republican libertarians Rand Paul and Thomas Massie, who have opposed Ukraine and other conflicts in which the U.S. is involved.
The institutional decay in the two-party system in Kentucky is apparent in Campbell’s home district bordering on Appalachia, where governmental neglect, cuts in public services and environmental ravages caused by the coal industry and mountain-top removal practices have led to rising poverty levels and deteriorating living conditions.
Campbell told me that Senator McConnell has betrayed Kentuckians by supporting endless wars and by helping to destroy Kentucky’s hemp industry through support for a bill banning growing hemp if tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) levels are too high.[1]
Campbell said that this bill and others McConnell has voted for were championed by Kentucky’s $9 billion bourbon industry, which feared the creation of a new THC drink that can get people buzzed quicker than shots of bourbon and with less of a hangover effect.
According to Campbell, the bourbon industry has significant lobbying and fundraising clout along with Kentucky’s horse-racing industry, which also has long backed McConnell—a U.S. senator since 1985.
Historically, Kentucky is the most important hemp-growing state. Ropes and fabrics are made from hemp, which has been widely grown in Kentucky since World War II. Hemp is also used in paper products and can be a substitute for cutting down trees.
Campbell says that McConnell’s close ties to the bourbon and horse-racing industries show that he is not as much of a capitalist as he claims, as he does not favor open business competition but, rather, helps rig the economy in favor of his donors.
These donors include the Blackstone Group, among the world’s largest private equity firms, whose CEO, Stephen A. Schwarzman is a modern-day robber baron who helped provoke a global housing affordability crisis.[2]
Since 1992, Schwarzman has been a member of the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR), “Wall Street’s think tank,” which has long advanced an imperialistic U.S. foreign policy with the goal of opening up markets for investment firms like the Blackstone Group.
McConnell characteristically wrote an article in the CFR’s flagship journal Foreign Affairs in January 2025 entitled “The Price of American Retreat: Why Washington Must Reject Isolationism and Embrace Primacy.”
In the article, which was praised by arch neo-conservative/CIA operative/Iran-Contra felon Elliott Abrams, McConnell wrote that the U.S. “urgently needs to reach a bipartisan consensus on the centrality of hard power to U.S. foreign policy. This fact must override both left-wing faith in hollow internationalism and right-wing flirtation with isolation and decline. The time to restore American hard power is now.”
A champion of the Supreme Court’s 2010 Citizens United decision eliminating limits on corporate political donations, McConnell voted against a 2016 resolution to block a $1.15 billion arms deal to Saudi Arabia—a country then committing genocide in Yemen that Blackstone Group has extensive investments in.[3]
Campbell said that “there is no justification for the endless wars that McConnel champions, the trillion-dollar defense budget and for the U.S. to be sending weapons to countries like Ukraine, or dictatorships like Saudi Arabia, which is funneling the weapons to Sudan as it commits horrendous massacres just like the Israelis are. This kind of foreign policy does not benefit Kentuckians in any way. The U.S. can still have a strong military if the budget is cut down to say $400 billion—which is more than Russia and China combined. The money saved can be used to fund health care for all and other programs that benefit our communities.”
Kentucky has three military bases: Fort Campbell, where the 101st Airborne Division is trained; Fort Knox, where they used to store gold; and the Blue Grass Army Depot near Richmond, a superfund site where chemical weapons are dismantled.
While he believes that Kentucky’s bases, potentially, could be downsized, Campbell said that the key is to shut down a significant portion of the U.S.’s 800+ overseas military bases, which are used as launching pads for wars and are wasting a huge amount of taxpayer money.
McConnell’s designated Republican successor, Congressman Andy Barr, has zealously supported weapons shipments to Israel and Ukraine during his time in the House of Representatives, and is an anti-China hawk who sits on the fear-mongering House Select Committee on China and has drafted a flurry of anti-China legislation.
On the Democratic side, a leading contender to win the primary is Amy McGrath, a fiscal conservative and anti-Russia hawk who flew 89 combat missions in Afghanistan and worked as a Marine Corps adviser to the Pentagon.[4]
One of McGrath’s main challengers in the Democratic Party primary is former CIA officer Joel Willett, who was detailed to the White House’s situation room during Barack Obama’s second term.
During Trump’s first term, Willett took to the pages of the Louisville Courier Journal to defend the CIA’s erroneous assessments about Russian election meddling and to criticize Trump administration officials who wanted to “slim down the CIA.”[5]
Willett wrote that “our intelligence professionals are some of the smartest, most ethical, and committed public servants in the world….They deserve a president who will greet them with gratitude and an open mind—not one who seeks to bully them into submission while embracing the very tyrants they defend us against.”
Such comments make clear why the Kentucky Party is so urgently needed. They show the growing infiltration of the Democratic Party by intelligence agents and their propensity to criticize one of the most right-wing presidents in U.S. history from the right on foreign policy issues.
Anti-CIA Candidate Running for Kentucky State House
One of the Kentucky Party’s top hopefuls in 2026 is Geoff Young, who previously ran for Congress on an anti-CIA platform.
Young is running for a seat in the Kentucky State House in Frankfort with the intent of raising taxes on the wealthy, advancing a fairer economy and initiating judicial reforms.
On November 21, Young told me that, over the last 12 years, while running for Congress six times, he filed multiple meritorious lawsuits that judges threw out, which indicates to him that the judicial system is corrupt.
One of the lawsuits resulted from the rigging of the Democratic Party primary and violation of campaign-finance laws by Kentucky’s Democratic Party.
Young said that the Kentucky Party is becoming more popular as “voters are ready for an alternative to the two dominant parties.”
According to Young: “We’ve never had U.S. representatives and senators as bad as they are right now. They’ve never been as reckless, misinformed and propagandized about war, peace and foreign policy as today. Fortunately, the American people and young people desire change. I place great hope in our young generation.”
McConnell claimed that children are at risk of consuming intoxicating THC products. Rand Paul opposed the bill. A detailed overview of McConnell’s career is provided in Michael Tackett’s book, The Price of Power: How Mitch McConnell Mastered the Senate, Changed America, and Lost His Party (Ashland, OR: Blackstone Publishing, 2024). ↑
According to opensecrets.com, McConnell received $118,430 from Blackstone Group from 2019 to 2024. ↑
“Who Attended Trump’s Dinner for the Saudi Crown Prince?” The New York Times, November 20, 2025, A9. ↑
In past elections, McGrath raised a huge amount of money from conventional Democratic Party donors but still lost because she ran poor campaigns. According to Campbell, McGrath’s husband is a prominent Trump donor and supporter. ↑
Willett expressed outrage that Trump appeared to trust Vladimir Putin more than U.S. intelligence officers—a CIA and Democratic Party talking point. ↑
CovertAction Magazine is made possible by subscriptions, orders and donations from readers like you.
Blow the Whistle on U.S. Imperialism
Click the whistle and donate
When you donate to CovertAction Magazine, you are supporting investigative journalism. Your contributions go directly to supporting the development, production, editing, and dissemination of the Magazine.
CovertAction Magazine does not receive corporate or government sponsorship. Yet, we hold a steadfast commitment to providing compensation for writers, editorial and technical support. Your support helps facilitate this compensation as well as increase the caliber of this work.
Please make a donation by clicking on the donate logo above and enter the amount and your credit or debit card information.
CovertAction Institute, Inc. (CAI) is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization and your gift is tax-deductible for federal income purposes. CAI’s tax-exempt ID number is 87-2461683.
We sincerely thank you for your support.
Disclaimer: The contents of this article are the sole responsibility of the author(s). CovertAction Institute, Inc. (CAI), including its Board of Directors (BD), Editorial Board (EB), Advisory Board (AB), staff, volunteers and its projects (including CovertAction Magazine) are not responsible for any inaccurate or incorrect statement in this article. This article also does not necessarily represent the views the BD, the EB, the AB, staff, volunteers, or any members of its projects.
Differing viewpoints: CAM publishes articles with differing viewpoints in an effort to nurture vibrant debate and thoughtful critical analysis. Feel free to comment on the articles in the comment section and/or send your letters to the Editors, which we will publish in the Letters column.
Copyrighted Material: This web site may contain copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. As a not-for-profit charitable organization incorporated in the State of New York, we are making such material available in an effort to advance the understanding of humanity’s problems and hopefully to help find solutions for those problems. We believe this constitutes a ‘fair use’ of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. You can read more about ‘fair use’ and US Copyright Law at the Legal Information Institute of Cornell Law School.
Republishing: CovertAction Magazine (CAM) grants permission to cross-post CAM articles on not-for-profit community internet sites as long as the source is acknowledged together with a hyperlink to the original CovertAction Magazine article. Also, kindly let us know at info@CovertActionMagazine.com. For publication of CAM articles in print or other forms including commercial internet sites, contact: info@CovertActionMagazine.com.
By using this site, you agree to these terms above.
About the Author
Jeremy Kuzmarov holds a Ph.D. in American history from Brandeis University and has taught at numerous colleges across the United States. He is regularly sought out as an expert on U.S. history and politics for radio and TV programs and co-hosts a radio show on New York Public Radio and on Progressive Radio News Network called “Uncontrolled Opposition.”
He is Managing Editor of CovertAction Magazine and is the author of six books on U.S. foreign policy, including Obama’s Unending Wars (Clarity Press, 2019), The Russians Are Coming, Again, with John Marciano (Monthly Review Press, 2018), Warmonger. How Clinton’s Malign Foreign Policy Launched the U.S. Trajectory From Bush II to Biden (Clarity Press, 2023); and with Dan Kovalik, Syria: Anatomy of Regime Change (Baraka Books, 2025).
Besides these books, Kuzmarov has published hundreds of articles and contributed to numerous edited volumes, including one in the prestigious Oxford History of Counterinsurgency .
He can be reached at jkuzmarov2@gmail.com and found on substack here.
