Throughout our coverage of the legislative session, Kentucky Edition is introducing you to some newly elected members of the Kentucky General Assembly.

Tonight, you'll get to know Craig Richardson from Hopkinsville in western Kentucky.

He ran unopposed in the third District, replacing retired Senator Whitney Westerfield.

He's been preparing for the legislative session for months, engaging with state lawmakers and learning the process.

And Frankfort even before he secured his seat.

Hear more about Senator Craig Richardson as we continue our series on the freshman class of 2025.

Well, Senator, welcome.

It's good to have you.

Thank you so much for having me.

So tell us about your background and what prompted you to want to even run for the state Senate?

Well, to be honest, I always had an interest in politics.

My grandfather was a trustee for a county down in middle Tennessee.

And so I've always been around it.

I always wanted to do it.

My background is currently I'm an attorney, but I've been a real estate agent.

I've been in health care and sales so recently, taking over a family law practice, being involved in the community just opened up this opportunity to get involved in it in a bigger capacity.

I think.

I think Muhammad Ali said it that service is the rent that we pay here on Earth, and that means a lot to me.

The opportunity that we can make a difference, even if it's just a little bit.

It means a lot to me.

Yeah.

What are your top two or three issues that are really driving how you see yourself operating here?

Well, coincidentally, one of the main reasons that I decided to run for office was to continue to put that pressure on economic development.

But likewise, when I would go around and talk to constituents and ask them at the end of the day, before you go down to sleep or you get up in the morning, what are the things that that are on your mind?

And it was always centered around something on economic development, whether that was job growth or sustainability for raising a family here in the Commonwealth.

So that is ironically what I wanted to run in the first place.

The things that drive me are the economy.

What are our jobs?

What opportunities are we creating for our future and are we selling ourselves as a state to let everybody know that the Commonwealth of Kentucky is open for business?

Christian County is a good pace from here, right?

Takes you how many hours?

It's about 3 hours.

That's pretty good.

Yes.

You get.

To the speed.

Limit.

Yeah, I was going to say that's a pretty good clip right there.

But it is a far distance.

And oftentimes we're in a western and west Kentucky.

We hear they're so physically removed from the capital.

How do your constituents want to see you connect them better, perhaps to what happens here?

Do you think that's a concern and something that you can help them feel more connected to?

Caldwell County, Christian County and Mueller County are very three distinct counties.

There's agriculture a little bit in one, but you have a coal identity in Muhlenberg and you have a lot of manufacturing that's growing in Christian counties.

So how to address each of those three counties?

It's working with local government, staying out of their politics, but listening to the concerns that they have and being transparent about what we do here and letting them know that they're work gets done by communicating with me here.

And so I've done the best I can to communicate that with as many local officials and constituents as possible, that let's just keep the communication open and know that I'm open to listen to everything and see what we can do in the time when we can do it in for the best outcome for everybody.