Kentucky Senate candidate Christopher Campbell calls US military’s global footprint ‘waste of money’, pushes defense budget reduction

Christopher Campbell of the Kentucky Party is facing off against Democratic candidate Charles Booker and Republican nominee Andy Barr for the Kentucky Senate seat in the U.S. midterm elections scheduled for November 3. Ahead of the elections, Campbell spoke exclusively to HT.com.

Christopher Campbell is running for the election to the US Senate to represent Kentucky. (Instagram @chris_ctcampbell)Campbell, a Kentucky resident, decided to run for the seat during a party executive committee meeting, where discussions arose over the party’s lack of a candidate for the Senate position held by McConnell since 1985.

A post shared by Chris Campbell (@chris_ctcampbell) “We're trying to get our name out there. So this is a prime opportunity to run an independent candidate. I'm like, All right, I'll do it. That's how I got into the race,” Campbell told HT.com.

Founded in 2024, Kentucky Party is built around three key principles: anti-corruption, anti-war and pro Kentucky. Campbell’s campaign website also outlines the key elements of his manifesto, which include Medicare for All, support for labor and unions, respect for international law, term limits, public health, environmental sustainability, and an anti-war stance alongside support for the military.

Campbell, who previously served in the Kentucky National Guard, spoke about U.S. defense and military spending, explaining what advocating for an anti-war policy entails. The U.S. currently operates around 800 military bases worldwide, a presence Campbell believes is unnecessary.

“The first step would be base consolidation,” Campbell said when asked how he would approach reducing U.S. military and defense spending. “We should not be running 800 military bases around the world. That's just a huge waste of money,” Campbell continued.

“I see us having all these bases that we have to pay 10s of billions of dollars every year just to maintain, just to kind of keep our foot on the necks of a lot of groups of people that we should not be doing that to.” He further explained that some military bases could continue to operate in allied countries, but their upkeep should be a shared responsibility, with partner nations also contributing to the costs.

“We can split the payment if they want some type of security,” Campbell said. The Kentucky Party representative argues that the military’s “initial purpose is to defend national security, not to wage wars of aggression around the world.” Campbell also highlighted what he described as a 1,600% increase in the military-industrial complex.

“Another big thing with the military spending is that it's just gotten so bloated, because the military industrial complex, the inflation of the military industrial complex has gone up by like 1600%,” he said. According to the Office of Management and Budget, U.S.

national defense spending reached $916 billion in fiscal year 2025, accounting for 13% of total federal expenditures. Citing several private corporations, he argued that these companies can name their prices, with the government paying whatever they demand.

“The military-industrial complex is a massive monopoly. There's like 5 or 6 companies that get like 90% of the contracts just because they're there and they can lobby Congress so they get first dibs,” he explained. Also read | Drew Williams on challenging James Comer and his vision for KY-01 ahead of 2026 US midterms: ‘My constituent is my only special interest’