Senator Joe Manchin. Biography. Biography. Stance on Issues. Committees. Election Results

Transcription

1 West Virginia

2 Senator Joe Manchin Democrat Joe Manchin is one of the most conservative members of the caucus, much like his predecessor Senator Robert Byrd whom Manchin replaced in a 2010 special election following his death. Trump s overwhelming victory in West Virginia raises the likelihood Manchin will have a contentious 2018 re-election. Manchin grew up in Farmington, where his grandfather and father both served as mayor. His uncle, A. James Manchin, was elected to the West Virginia House of Delegates and was also secretary of state and state treasurer. After graduating from West Virginia University, Manchin went to work in the carpet and furniture business, then he started a coal brokerage company and eventually moved to Fairmont. Manchin was elected to the House of Delegates in 1982 and the state Senate in He then ran for governor, only to lose in the Democratic primary to legislator Charlotte Pritt. When Secretary of State Ken Hechler ran for the U.S. House in 2000, Manchin ran to succeed him. He beat Pritt in the primary and went on to win the general election. Manchin worked successfully to get support from both unions and business. His stands on cultural issues were impeccably conservative: opposed to abortion rights, gun control, and same sex marriage. In 2003, he primaried the sitting Democratic governor Bob Wise, beat him, and went on to win the general election with 64% of the vote. After the 2008 death of Sen. Byrd, Manchin appointed a replacement and then ran for the seat in the 2010 special election. He won re-election in 2012, with 60% of the vote. Currently: Senator, WV Elected: 2010 Education: WV U., B.A., 1970 Religion: Catholic Family: Married (Gayle), 3 children, 8 grandchildren Contact: (202) Hart Senate Office Washington, DC Supports reforming but not repealing the Affordable Care Act Critical of the EPA s regulation of greenhouse gases and coal Opposes gay marriage Opposes marijuana legalization Anti-abortion Senate Committee on Appropriations Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources Senate Committee on Intelligence Senate Committee on Veterans Affairs 2012 General Joe Manchin (D) Votes: 399,898 Percent: 60.6% John Raese (R) Votes: 240,787 Percent: 36.5% Sources: Ballotpedia, 2017; National Journal Almanac 2016.

3 Senator Shelley Moore Capito Republican Shelley Moore Capito was elected West Virginia's junior senator in Her ascension from the House to the Senate was seen as such a certainty that, by July, friends and colleagues reportedly began addressing her as senator." She is a popular centrist who is unwavering in her advocacy of West Virginia's coal industry. Capito grew up in northern West Virginia and in the Washington, D.C., area, where her father, Arch Moore, served in the House from 1957 to Her opportunity to follow in her father's footsteps came when Democratic Rep. Bob Wise ran for governor in She benefited from a divisive Democratic primary that was won by Jim Humphreys, a former state senator and a lawyer. Capito, who supported abortion rights, started as the underdog, but Humphreys proved to be a poor candidate. In the House, Capito had a largely moderate voting record, though she became more inclined to side with her party after President Obama took office. She broke from conservatives over programs important to her state, supporting continued funding of rural air service and opposing drastic cutbacks in food stamps. After winning reelection in November 2012, she announced she would challenge Sen. Jay Rockefeller for his seat when it came up in Conservative groups grumbled about her centrism, but Rockefeller, in his mid-70s, clearly wanted no part of a tough race against Capito and announced his retirement after a poll showed her with a slight lead in a head-to-head matchup. Her opponent became Natalie Tennant, West Virginia's secretary of state and a former television reporter. But Obama's deep unpopularity among West Virginians put Tennant at a severe disadvantage and Capito won easily. Currently: Senator, WV Elected: 2014 Education: Duke U., B.S., 1975; U. of VA, M.Ed., 1976 Religion: Presbyterian Family: Married (Charles), 3 children, 4 grandchildren Contact: (202) Russell Senate Office Washington, DC Supports the repeal and replacement of the Affordable Care Act Supports the review of the regulatory power of the Environmental Protection Agency Supports Second Amendment rights Opposes same-sex marriage Opposes the federal regulation of greenhouse gases Supports building a fence on the U.S.-Mexico border Senate Committee on Appropriations Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works Senate Committee on Rules and Administration 2014 General Shelley Moore Capito (R) Votes: 281,820 Percent: 62.1% Natalie Tennant (D) Votes: 156,360 Percent: 34.5% Sources: National Journal Almanac, 2016; Ballotpedia, Glenn Thompson, April 26, 2016.

4 Congressman David McKinley Republican David McKinley captured his seat for the GOP in 2010 after it had been in Democratic hands for 40 years. McKinley is a coal-championing centrist along the lines of his home-state GOP colleague Shelley Moore Capito, but he shows more independence from the party on big issues. McKinley is a seventh-generation native of Wheeling. He was one of five boys, and his father was a civil engineer who taught him to read blueprints when he was in third grade. He majored in civil engineering at Purdue University. After graduating, he married his high school girlfriend. They had three children but divorced in He married his second wife, a critical care nurse, in 1981, and they had one child together. After college, McKinley worked for several engineering and construction companies until 1981, when he founded his own firm, McKinley & Associates, McKinley has suffered from hearing loss since his 20s; today he is deaf in one ear and has only partial hearing in the other. In Washington, McKinley was one of just a handful of Republicans in 2011 and 2012 to vote against Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan s controversial budget blueprint, complaining that it did not adequately protect Medicare. And overall among Class of 2010 GOP members, only Illinois Robert Dold scored lower than McKinley on the anti-tax Club for Growth s legislative scorecard in the 112th Congress ( ). McKinley s chief cause has been fighting so-called coal-ash rules that affect such industries as concrete production and manufacturing of wallboard. Currently: Representative, WV-01 Elected: 2010 Education: Purdue U., B.S., 1969 Religion: Episcopalian Family: Married (Mary), 4 children, 6 grandchildren Contact: (202) Rayburn House Office Washington, DC Committed to protecting coal workers from losing jobs to government regulation Supports repealing the Affordable Care Act In favor of lowering the corporate tax rate and simplifying the tax code Has opposed GOP budget proposals because he believed they did not adequately protect Medicare and Social Security benefits for seniors Opposes efforts to limit the ownership and sale of firearms House Committee on Energy and Commerce 2016 General David McKinley (R) Votes: 163,469 Percent: 69.0% Mike Manypenny (D) Votes: 73,534 Percent: 31.0% Sources: National Journal Almanac, Ballotpedia 2016.

5 Congressman Alex Mooney Republican Alex Mooney, a onetime Marylander, found a receptive home in West Virginia in 2014 when veteran GOP Rep. Shelley Moore Capito decided to run for the Senate. Mooney, who has run for office in three states, beat Democrat Nick Casey in West Virginia's sprawling 2nd District, which shares a border with Maryland, Ohio, and Virginia. Mooney was born in Washington, D.C., to a Cuban refugee mother and a father who hailed from an Irish immigrant family. He received his bachelor's in philosophy from Dartmouth College; during his time there, he ran for the New Hampshire House of Representatives, finishing last, with just 8 percent of the vote. After college, he was an aide to then-gop Rep. Roscoe Bartlett of Maryland. Mooney got into office with a 1998 win for a Maryland Senate seat, and was made Maryland Republican Party chairman in He set his sights on Bartlett's House seat and started raising money for a potential run in But he abandoned the effort after Bartlett announced he would run for reelection. Mooney kept the money on hand, saying he would run in 2014, and went back to work for Bartlett part-time in Mooney renounced his Maryland candidacy because House ethics rules bar people from working for a congressman they aim to succeed in office. He then moved to West Virginia, won a seven-way GOP primary with 36% of the vote and then the second district 47%-44%. Currently: Representative, WV-02 Elected: 2014 Education: Dartmouth Col., B.A., 1993 Religion: Roman Catholic Family: Married (Grace), 3 children Contact: (202) Longworth House Office Washington, DC Opposes the Affordable Care Act, especially the employer mandate Opposes government overreach Supports the coal industry Opposes abortion rights House Committee on Financial Services 2016 General Alex Mooney (R) Votes: 140,807 Percent: 58.2% Mark Hunt (D) Votes: 101,207 Percent: 41.8% Sources: National Journal Almanac, Ballotpedia 2016.

6 Congressman Evan Jenkins Republican Evan Jenkins beat 19-term Democratic Rep. Nick Rahall in 2014 by convincing voters he would be a better protector of the 3rd District's most precious and defining resource: coal. He was first elected to office as a Democrat in 1994, serving three terms in the state House of Delegates, and he won a state Senate seat in 2002 after besting the Democratic incumbent in the primary. Jenkins went on to win two more terms in the Senate. In 2013, he announced he was changing his party registration from Democrat to Republican so he could challenge Rahall, the most senior member of West Virginia's congressional delegation. Jenkins and Rahall had similar views on issues such as gun control and gay marriage (both of which they oppose). But it was Jenkins's repeated mentions of two highly charged issues in West Virginia President Obama and coal that gave the GOP a key pickup in the increasingly conservative state. Jenkins has pledged to lead the effort to repeal the Affordable Care Act, a law Rahall supported. And while Rahall emphasized the value his seniority could bring to the state, Jenkins dismissed the longtime incumbent as just another vote for a president who did not win a single county in West Virginia in The fight came down to which man voters believed was more committed to reversing the decline of the state's coal industry. Obama's unpopularity, combined with more than $1.1 million in help from the National Republican Congressional Committee, put the Republican on top. Currently: Representative, WV-03 Elected: 2014 Education: U. of FL, B.S., 1983; Cumberland School of Law, J.D., 1987 Religion: Presbyterian Family: Married (Elizabeth), 3 children Contact: (202) Longworth House Office Washington, DC Supports the coal industry Opposes gun control Opposes gay marriage Opposes the Affordable Care Act House Committee on Appropriations Sources: National Journal Almanac, Ballotpedia General Evan Jenkins (R) Votes: 140,741 Percent: 67.9% Matt Detch (D) Votes: 49,708 Percent: 24.0%