A lifelong Huntington resident, Kim Wolfe was born in 1948. He attended Mount Union School and Huntington High School. He served two tours of duty in the U.S. Navy in Vietnam and then used the GI Bill to enroll at Marshall University, studying criminal justice administration and earning a political science degree.
Wolfe was a member of the Huntington Police Department for 26 years. He was elected Cabell County sheriff in 2000 and re-elected in 2004. During his years in uniform, he was often seen riding around town on a horse. He helped start the HPD’s mounted horse patrol and created the “Don’t Horse Around with Drugs’ educational program for the community’s children.
In 2006, he was the Republican candidate for West Virginia’s 3rd District seat in the U.S. House of Representatives, losing to incumbent Rep. Nick Rahall.
In 2008, term limited for sheriff, Wolfe ran for mayor of Huntington. He won the Republican nomination and went on to defeat two-term incumbent David Felinton. Four years later, when Wolfe launched a bid for a second term as mayor he was challenged by Democratic City Councilman Steve Williams.
In his re-election campaign, Wolfe focused on the partnerships he had forged with other entities, a reduction in crime, efforts to keep the city clean and working with state leaders to reform police and fire pension funds.
For Williams, it was his second time making it to the general election as a mayoral candidate. He defeated Mayor Bobby Nelson in the 1993 primary but lost to Republican Jean Dean in the general election.
A former legislator who was elected to council in 2008 after a 14-year break from public office, Williams geared his campaign toward correcting the city's financial problems and developing what he called “organic growth” in the city budget.
Liking what they heard from Williams, the voters installed him as mayor, denying Wolfe a second term.
