A Republican turned Democrat with military credentials and a centrist view of politics says government can't be the solution to everything but should be funded enough without resorting to overtaxation.

State Representative Adam Moore was elected to represent the 45th State House District that serves parts of Fayette and Jessamine counties.

I sat down with him last week as we continue our series profiling new legislators and the Kentucky General Assembly's freshman class of 2025.

Representative Adam Moore, it's good to see you.

Thank you for coming in.

Glad to be here.

Thanks, Renee.

So tell us about your first week in Frankfurt.

How did it go?

Well, I've been joking around with people that is like we had the training wheels on.

We found our offices, we found the bathrooms, we found the House floor.

And so that was good.

I think we're really going to get kind of thrown to the wolves once we get back in February.

But a lot of this was getting settled, meeting people and finding kind of what our own daily rhythms were going to be like.

Typekit Tell us a little bit about your background and what even inspired you to run for elected office?

I wanted to get into politics when I was younger.

I actually my first thing was go into D.C. and I worked for Mitch McConnell when I was up there for grad school, and that turned out to be more like I felt self service than public service.

Nothing against the senator, but that's just what the environment of Washington felt like.

That's when I enlisted in the Army.

I decided that I would serve that way instead, and it was a bit of a roundabout path coming back here and having a family of my own, being back here in my home of central Kentucky, wanting it all the best for my wife here in the state, all the best for my seven year old son here in the state.

And knowing that I thought I had an opportunity to help make this state the best that it possibly could be for them, and then anyone like them living here to.

Write for those who are in the central Kentucky area back during the campaign and saw your ads and heard you wondered whether or not you were a Republican or a Democrat, Right.

How would you describe your political ideology?

I've been both in my life, and I grew up in a fairly conservative household and registered as a Republican and again, worked for Senator McConnell.

We actually worked Fred Whitfield also in D.C..

I feel a really strong alignment for the Kentucky Democratic Party, especially under the leadership of Governor Beshear, who shows that it's about compassion, it's about caring, it's about good jobs, good programs, good services for Kentucky families.

And I think that really resonates with the person I am now.

What do you hope that you can help accomplish this legislative session, which is a short session, as we call it, 26 days remaining when you go back in February.

As a veteran myself, a big passion of mine is serving our veteran community.

So I'm going to be doing a lot of work behind the scenes That's working.

On forming a veterans caucus and a couple pieces of legislation and just issues that I can do there.

What people are going to see from me, I think, on legislation filed is making health care more accessible and more affordable.

I'll be filing my first bills of the session when we come back in February.

I'm really excited about them and really excited to put out some press releases, maybe come back and talk about them.

But I want to make sure whether you're a child, whether you're working age like I am, or the age of my parents who are now retired, that you have access to the health care that you need and you can afford it also.

One thing that just happened recently, we saw the state of New York pass a law to make sure that everyone was able to have access to EpiPens and that they were affordable.

Want to make sure that people in chronic pain have options to get treated for that chronic pain so they can improve their quality of life while they're living here in Kentucky.

And then one thing that pulls at my heartstrings are women dealing with non-viable pregnancies or very traumatic pregnancies that they have options for their health care during that pregnancy.

Does that include being supportive of an exemption to Kentucky's near-total ban on abortions?

Is that as far as you would go?

We definitely need those exemptions.

Yeah.

Anything else you'd like to share?

I'm just super excited.

I feel like I'm a normal guy.

I'm not someone who's been in politics.

I started in as a young age and I ran away from it, so to speak.

I'm glad to just be a normal guy, a family man who now wants to just work for everyday Kentuckians in Frankfort and doing the job for them.

So many people would say that the environment, political environment seems toxic and there is less trust in our institutions, whether it's government or media or wherever.

Why now?

Why now?

Did you find yourself coming back to the space that maybe you had rejected some years prior?

Again, service has been important to me throughout my whole life, and I thought that I was a person who had a was willing to step up and run.

I can take the barbs and arrows and then at the same time I think I'm going to be good at it.

That is going into Frankfort, doing the work day in and day out and advocating for the people who elected me, but also advocating for the people in my district, even if they didn't vote for me.

Well, thank you, Representative Adam Moore.

It's been a pleasure.

You, too.

Thanks, Renee.