Katherine Brooks Waddell (born June 16, 1938) is a Virginia

politician A politician is a person active in party politics, or a person holding or seeking an elected office in government. Politicians propose, support, reject and create laws that govern the land and by an extension of its people. Broadly speaking, a ...

who served in the

Virginia House of Delegates The Virginia House of Delegates is one of the two parts of the Virginia General Assembly, the other being the Senate of Virginia. It has 100 members elected for terms of two years; unlike most states, these elections take place during odd-numbe ...

, representing the 68th district, which includes portions of the

City of Richmond The City of Richmond was a local government area about east of Melbourne, the state capital of Victoria, Australia. The city covered an area of , and existed from 1855 until 1994. History Richmond was incorporated as a municipality on 24 Ap ...

and Chesterfield County. She was actively involved in

Republican Republican can refer to: Political ideology * An advocate of a republic, a type of government that is not a monarchy or dictatorship, and is usually associated with the rule of law. ** Republicanism, the ideology in support of republics or agains ...

politics for a number of years, including stints working for Eddy Dalton,

Jim Gilmore James Stuart Gilmore III (born October 6, 1949) is an American politician, diplomat, statesman, and former attorney who was the 68th Governor of Virginia from 1998 to 2002 and Chairman of the Republican National Committee in 2001. A native Vir ...

, and

John H. Hager John Henry Hager (August 28, 1936August 23, 2020) was an American politician who served as the 37th Lieutenant Governor of Virginia from 1998 to 2002. He was the first person with a disability to be elected to that office. He proceeded to act as ...

and serving on the Central Committee of the

Republican Party of Virginia The Republican Party of Virginia (RPV) is the Virginia chapter of the Republican Party. It is based at the Richard D. Obenshain Center in Richmond. History The party was established in 1854 by opponents of slavery and secession in the commonwea ...

. She became disillusioned with the party due to its rightward shift on social issues and resigned from her official positions in the party in 2001 to support the campaign of an

independent Independent or Independents may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Artist groups * Independents (artist group), a group of modernist painters based in the New Hope, Pennsylvania, area of the United States during the early 1930s * Independ ...

state house candidate. A strong proponent of

abortion rights Abortion-rights movements, also referred to as pro-choice movements, advocate for the right to have legal access to induced abortion services including elective abortion. They seek to represent and support women who wish to terminate their pre ...

, she remained on the national board of the

Republican Majority for Choice The Republican Majority for Choice (RMC) was a Republican organization in the United States dedicated to preserving legal access to abortion. The group also supported federal funding for all kinds of stem cell research, including embryonic stem cel ...

. Born Hilda Katherine Brooks, she married John Chesleigh Waddell Jr. in Richmond on April 29, 1961.

Electoral history

References

External links

Official Biography
- ''

Virginia General Assembly The Virginia General Assembly is the legislative body of the Commonwealth of Virginia, the oldest continuous law-making body in the Western Hemisphere, the first elected legislative assembly in the New World, and was established on July 30, 161 ...

''
Campaign Website
1938 births Living people Members of the Virginia House of Delegates Women state legislators in Virginia Virginia Independents Virginia Republicans 21st-century American politicians 21st-century American women politicians Politicians from Danville, Virginia Politicians from Richmond, Virginia Averett University alumni {{Virginia-delegate-stub