West Virginia Democratic Party | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Chairperson | Mike Pushkin |
| Headquarters | Charleston, West Virginia |
| Membership (2023) |  368,083 [1] |
| Ideology | Modern liberalism Populism Big tent [2] |
| National affiliation | Democratic Party |
| Colors | Blue |
| U.S. Senate | 1 / 2 |
| U.S. House | 0 / 2 |
| Executive offices | 0 / 6 |
| Senate | 3 / 34 |
| House of Delegates | 11 / 100 |
| Website | |
| wvdemocrats | |
The West Virginia Democratic Party is the affiliate of the Democratic Party in the U.S. state of West Virginia.
The state of West Virginia granted itself statehood after its people, through a state constitutional convention, became a free state and broke away from the slave holding state of Virginia in 1861 during the first year of the Civil War. Article IV of the U.S. Constitution requires consent of the newly formed state, the original state, and Congress. The pro-Union Restored Government of Virginia had been recognized by Washington as the legitimate government of the entire Commonwealth, and quickly asserted its right to consent to the formation of the new state. After Congressional consent, self-statehood was gained and political party formation prospered. [3]
The West Virginia Democratic Party was started as a coalition of conservative Pro-Union Democrats, Pro-Confederate Democrats, and former members of the Whig Party. After 1872, its political dominance flourished when restrictions that disenfranchised former Confederates were struck from the state constitution. [4]
The West Virginia Democratic Party controls zero statewide executive office and holds minorities in both the West Virginia House of Delegates and the West Virginia Senate. [5] [6] Democrats hold one of the state's two U.S. Senate seats and none of the state's two U.S. House seats. Incumbent governor Jim Justice was elected as a Democrat in the 2016 election, however switched from the Democratic Party to the Republican Party in August 2017, seven months after taking office. [7]
Democratic and Republican parties have dominated the American political scene for close to two centuries. In West Virginia, the Republican Union-supporting party held political power in the state from 1863 to 1872. The Democrats took power in the 1872 elections and held it until 1896. Republicans once again had control in 1896 until 1932. During the Great Depression, The Democratic Party began its dominance that lasted until 2014.
From 1930 to 2014, Democrats held majorities in both chambers of the West Virginia Legislature. [8]
The party organization is governed by the West Virginia State Democratic Executive Committee. This committee comprises its leadership. The chair is Delegate Mike Pushkin [9] and the vice chairwoman is Wheeling attorney Teresa Toriseva. [10]
{{cite web}}: Missing or empty |title= (help){{cite web}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)Southern Democrats are affiliates of the U.S. Democratic Party who reside in the Southern United States.
These are tables of congressional delegations from West Virginia to the United States House of Representatives and the United States Senate.
John Jeremiah Jacob was a Democratic politician from Green Spring in, in the U.S. state of West Virginia. Jacob served two terms as the fourth governor of West Virginia. He was also elected to the West Virginia House of Delegates from Hampshire County in 1868 and from Ohio County in 1879.
Waitman Thomas Willey was an American lawyer and politician from Morgantown, West Virginia. One of the founders of the state of West Virginia during the American Civil War, he served in the United States Senate representing first the Restored Government of Virginia and became one of the new state of West Virginia's first two senators. He is one of only two people in U.S. History to represent more than one state in the U.S. Senate, the other being James Shields.
The U.S. state of West Virginia was formed out of western Virginia and added to the Union as a direct result of the American Civil War, in which it became the only modern state to have declared its independence from the Confederacy. In the summer of 1861, Union troops, which included a number of newly formed Western Virginia regiments, under General George McClellan, drove off Confederate troops under General Robert E. Lee. This essentially freed Unionists in the northwestern counties of Virginia to form a functioning government of their own as a result of the Wheeling Convention. Before the admission of West Virginia as a state, the government in Wheeling formally claimed jurisdiction over all of Virginia, although from its creation it was firmly committed to the formation of a separate state.
The Oklahoma Democratic Party is an Oklahoma political party affiliated with the Democratic Party. Along with the Oklahoma Republican Party, it is one of the two major parties in the state.
Henry Mason Mathews was an American military officer, lawyer, and politician in the U.S. State of West Virginia. Mathews served as 7th Attorney General of West Virginia (1873–1877) and 5th Governor of West Virginia (1877–1881), being the first former Confederate elected to the governorship in the state. Born into a Virginia political family, Mathews attended the University of Virginia and afterward practiced law before the outbreak of the American Civil War. When Virginia seceded from the United States, in 1861, he volunteered for the Confederate States Army and served in the western theater as a major of artillery. Following the war, Mathews was elected to the West Virginia Senate, but was denied the seat due to state restrictions on former Confederates. Mathews participated in the 1872 state constitutional convention that overturned these restrictions, and in that same year was elected attorney general of West Virginia. After one term, he was elected governor of West Virginia.
John James Davis was an American attorney and politician who helped found West Virginia and later served as a United States representative in Congress from that state.
The West Virginia Republican Party is the affiliate of the United States Republican Party in West Virginia. Elgine McArdle is the party chair. It is currently the dominant party in the state, and is one of the strongest affiliates of the national Republican Party. It controls both of West Virginia's U.S. House seats, one of the U.S. Senate seats, the governorship, and has supermajorities in both houses of the state legislature.
The RestoredGovernment of Virginia was the Unionist government of Virginia during the American Civil War (1861–1865) in opposition to the government which had approved Virginia's seceding from the United States and joining the new Confederate States of America. Each state government regarded the other as illegitimate. The Restored Government attempted to assume de facto control of the Commonwealth's northwest with the help of the Union Army but was only partly successful. It raised Union regiments from local volunteers but depended upon recruits from Pennsylvania and Ohio to fulfill its commitments. It administered this territory until, with its approval, the area became part of West Virginia in mid-1863.
West Virginia's 2012 general elections were held on November 6, 2012. Primary elections were held on May 8, 2012.
Elections in Virginia are authorized under Article I of the Virginia State Constitution, sections 5–6, and Article V which establishes elections for the state-level officers, cabinet, and legislature. Article VII section 4 establishes the election of county-level officers. Elections are regulated under state statute 24.2-102. The Virginia State Board of Elections oversees the execution of elections under state law. In a 2020 study, Virginia was ranked as the 12th easiest state for citizens to vote in.
Virginia v. West Virginia, 78 U.S. 39 (1871), is a 6-3 ruling by the Supreme Court of the United States that held that if a governor has discretion in the conduct of the election, the legislature is bound by his action and cannot undo the results based on fraud. The Court implicitly affirmed that the breakaway Virginia counties had received the necessary consent of both the Commonwealth of Virginia and the United States Congress to become a separate U.S. state. The Court also explicitly held that Berkeley County and Jefferson County were part of the new State of West Virginia.
The 2016 West Virginia gubernatorial election took place on November 8, 2016, to elect the Governor of West Virginia, concurrently with the 2016 U.S. presidential election, as well as elections to the United States Senate in other states and elections to the United States House of Representatives and various state and local elections. The primaries were held on May 10.
Edwin Maxwell was an American lawyer, judge, and politician in the U.S. state of West Virginia. Maxwell served as Attorney General of West Virginia in 1866 and was an associate justice of the Supreme Court of Appeals of West Virginia from 1867 until 1872. He was elected to the West Virginia Senate and the West Virginia House of Delegates.
The 2022 United States House of Representatives elections in West Virginia was held on November 8, 2022, to elect the two U.S. representatives from the State of West Virginia, one from each of the state's two congressional districts. The elections coincided with other elections to the House of Representatives, elections to the United States Senate, as well as various state and local elections.
The 2024 United States Senate election in West Virginia will be held on November 5, 2024, to elect a member of the United States Senate to represent the State of West Virginia. Primary elections will take place on May 14, 2024.
Danielle Walker is an American politician and community activist, who served as a Democratic member of the West Virginia House of Delegates from 2018 until her resignation in 2023. Through her tenure, Walker was the only Black woman serving in the West Virginia Legislature. In June 2022, Walker was elected vice chair of the West Virginia Democratic Party, she later resigned as vice chairwoman after her selection as the leader of the American Civil Liberties Union of West Virginia.
Lisa Beth Zukoff is an American politician and businesswoman. She served as a Democratic member of the West Virginia House of Delegates from the 4th district.
The 2024 West Virginia gubernatorial election will be held on November 5, 2024, to elect the governor of West Virginia, concurrently with the 2024 U.S. presidential election, as well as elections to the United States Senate and elections to the United States House of Representatives and various state and local elections. Incumbent Governor Jim Justice is term-limited and cannot seek re-election to a third consecutive term in office and is instead running for the U.S. Senate. First elected in 2016 as a Democrat by 6.8 percentage points, Justice switched parties in August 2017 and won re-election in 2020 as a Republican by 33.3 percentage points. Primary elections will take place on May 14, 2024.