Steve Crabtree

Steven Christopher Crabtree (born June 12, 1955) is an American politician and journalist. He was the Republican nominee for Kentucky Secretary of State in 1995.

Crabtree became well known in the Northern Panhandle of West Virginia during his early years as a drummer and vocalist with a number of bands that performed throughout the Ohio Valley in the 1970s. He left Moundsville in 1977 for Somerset, Kentucky to be close to family that had already left West Virginia. After two years working on campaigns for U.S. Rep. Hal Rogers (GOP-Ky 5th District) Crabtree went to work as a reporter and later news anchor for WKYT-TV in Lexington, Kentucky in 1981. Then, in 1982, he married the former Judi Luttrell of Somerset, KY. The couple had three sons; Tyler, Matthew and Cory. In 1985, the owners of WKYT-TV signed on WYMT-TV, a CBS affiliate in Hazard KY, sending Crabtree to the mountains of Eastern Kentucky to be WYMT-TV's first news anchor and later news director.

In 1987, Crabtree went cross-state to ABC affiliate, WBKO-TV in Bowling Green as news director/anchor, later serving as WBKO-TV Station Operations Manager.

In 1995, Crabtree was the Republican nominee for Kentucky Secretary of State, defeating his GOP primary opponent by a more than three-to-one margin. Crabtree was defeated in the general election by Democrat John Y. Brown, III, son of fast food magnate and former Kentucky Governor John Y. Brown, Jr. The name recognition and political connections of Brown, the Brown family fortune and Kentucky's 2-to-1 Democrat majority proved too much for Crabtree to overcome.

Crabtree later moved his family to Erie, Pennsylvania where he was news director and anchor for ABC affiliate, WJET-TV for three years. In 2000, he relocated to Knoxville, Tennessee as Vice President for News and Station Operations of WVLT-TV, a CBS affiliate owned by Gray Television.