Senator Max Wise Contact information

George Maxwell Wise, known as Max Wise, was born on June 28, 1975, in Campbellsville, Kentucky. He graduated from Campbellsville High School in 1993. He then pursued higher education and earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in political science and history from Campbellsville University in 1997. He furthered his studies and received a Master of Arts degree in international politics and national security from the University of Kentucky in 1999. He also holds a graduate certificate in homeland security from Texas A&M University.

Before entering politics, Max Wise joined the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) after the 9/11 attacks. He served as an agent in the FBI Counterterrorism Division. He was initially assigned to FBI headquarters in Washington, D.C., before being relocated to the Louisville, Kentucky field office. He was a member of the Louisville Joint Terrorism Task Force and the Kentucky Intelligence Fusion Center.

In addition to his service in the FBI, Wise taught political science at Campbellsville University and graduate-level terrorism courses at the University of Kentucky.

Max Wise entered politics and was first elected to the Kentucky Senate (16th district) in November 2014. He defeated Republican incumbent Sara Beth Gregory in the Republican primary with a margin of 54%-46%. He was unchallenged in the 2014 Kentucky Senate general election and assumed office on January 1, 2015.

During the 2017 legislative session, he served as chair of the Senate Enrollment Committee and vice chair of the Senate Education Committee. Wise won the 2018 Kentucky Senate general election, with 96.7% of the vote. Since 2019, he has served as the Senate Education Committee chair. In 2021–22, in addition to continuing to chair the Senate Education Committee, Wise was on the Senate Agriculture Committee, the Senate Health and Welfare Committee, and the Senate Transportation Committee. Wise then won the 2022 Kentucky Senate general election, with 100.0% of the vote.

In September 2022, former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Kelly Craft chose Wise to be her running mate in the 2023 Kentucky gubernatorial election. However, the pair subsequently lost the primary.

Max Wise’s father is George Wise, and his mother Donna Wise was the women’s basketball coach at Campbellsville University. She is Campbellsville University’s all-time winningest coach, and was inducted into the NAIA Basketball Hall of Fame in 2000, and the Kentucky Athletic Hall of Fame in 2010.