Jay Rockefeller Passed Away!

Jay Rockefeller, a longtime West Virginia senator from 1985 to 2019 has passed away.

One of the richest West Virginia former senators has passed away. The family of Jay Rockefeller confirmed the former Democratic senator has passed away at the age of 89.

Gov. Patrick Morrisey, Sens. Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV) (who won reelection), Jim Justice (R-WV) and former senator Joe Manchin (who was appointed and later elected as a Democrat later became an independent who backed Mike Rogers and Susan Collins, who eventually lost) react to his passing.

Former presidents Barack Obama, Bill Clinton and Joe Biden will react to this.

A descendant of the wealthy Rockefeller family, Jay served as governor and later senator of West Virginia. He was considered progressive and more reliable than former colleague Manchin.

Rockefeller was more valuable to Obama than Manchin. Hell the late Robert Byrd was reliable to Obama despite his controversial past.

Let's rewind to my post in October about how out of touch Republicans are with West Virginia. 

The two Republicans senators and the two House Republican members are very rich. The former independent (elected as a Democrat) is rich. Senator Jim Justice is worth $700 million. Senator Shelley Moore Capito is worth $3.45 million. House member Carol Miller is worth $29.3 million. U.S. House member Riley Moore is worth approximately $358,000.

Former senator Joe Manchin is worth $16 million. Rockefeller was worth $175 million.

Tell me, how is the most poorest state in the United States willing to allow millionaires represent them in the Congress?

The residents who live outside of Morgantown, Beckley, Huntington, Weirton, Wheeling, Martinsburg, Parkersburg and state capital Charleston are definitely suffering.

Every county including the largest populated county Kanawha all went to Trump. The state gave over 78% of national support to the president.

Coal mining was a big business in West Virginia. Many of the residents were generational miners or lumberjacks. The shift into clean energy was supposed to be in West Virginia but some were keen to that. 

That Black guy running the country back then was not talking the talk. Barack Obama's historic run for president was a catalyst for how West Virginia went from once a strong Democratic state to a Republican stronghold. 

For over a century, the state's economy was heavily reliant on a single dominant industry: coal mining. While this brought periods of economic boom, it also created a "resource curse" dynamic, where wealth generated from the state’s natural resources was largely exported by out-of-state corporations, leaving the local infrastructure vulnerable when the industry entered a structural decline due to automation, market forces, and the shift toward cleaner energy sources.

The daily financial struggle for many West Virginia families is severe. According to recent data from United Way initiatives, roughly 45% of West Virginia households are facing financial hardship. This includes families living below the federal poverty line, as well as the "ALICE" population (Asset Limited, Income Constrained, Employed)—individuals who work full-time but do not earn enough to cover basic survival expenses like housing, childcare, and food.

President Donald J. Trump has ended Obama and Biden era policies to allow clean energy for West Virginia. They shot themselves in the foot.

Rockefeller, the last member of his family’s political dynasty — and the only Democrat — who served as West Virginia’s governor and later a longtime U.S. senator, has died. He was 89.

Rockefeller died Thursday night at his home in Washington, said Mary Stewart, vice president for external affairs at WETA, the public broadcasting station where Rockefeller’s wife, Sharon, serves as president and CEO.

Rockefeller came from one of the nation’s richest families to spend a half century in public service in one of the poorest states. He arrived in 1964 as a worker in an anti-poverty program, was elected governor a dozen years later and served two terms, then spent 30 years as a U.S. senator.

“I could not imagine a more rewarding career,” Rockefeller said upon his retirement in 2015.

He was born John D. Rockefeller IV in New York City. His great-grandfather, Standard Oil Co. founder John Rockefeller, died a month before Rockefeller’s birth. His father, John D. Rockefeller III, was a well-known philanthropist. Uncles Winthrop (Arkansas) and Nelson (New York) were Republican governors. Another uncle, David Rockefeller, ran Chase Manhattan Bank.

A detour from his family’s path

Jay Rockefeller went in a different direction.

A few years out of college at age 27, Rockefeller moved to the West Virginia mining community of Emmons to participate in the Volunteers in Service to America program, a time that Rockefeller said proved transformative.

“It explains every policy I pursued and every vote I have cast. It was where my beliefs were bolted down, and where my passions met my principles,” he said in an emotional farewell speech from the Senate floor on Dec. 4, 2014.

While he intended for his stay in the state to be brief, Rockefeller broke from his family’s Republican tradition and was elected to the state House of Delegates as a Democrat in 1966. By combining money with hard work in a traditionally Democratic state, Rockefeller overcame suspicions of political opportunism and rose from state legislator to secretary of state to governor.

A turning point came after Rockefeller’s only political defeat in the 1972 governor’s race to Republican Arch A. Moore Jr., whose daughter, Republican Shelley Moore Capito, was elected in 2014 to Rockefeller’s Senate seat upon his retirement. Capito on Friday called Rockefeller “a true gentleman” who treated her with respect, kindness and encouragement.

“Over the years, we developed a wonderful friendship that transcended politics, and I will always be grateful for that,” she said in a statement.

After the defeat, Rockefeller remained in West Virginia, a decision he called the most important of his career. He became the first without a theological degree to become president of West Virginia Wesleyan College in 1973. His popularity there — and a change in his stance to embrace strip mining — translated to a landslide win over Republican Cecil Underwood in the 1976 governor’s race.

As governor, Rockefeller emphasized development of the state’s infrastructure, such as roads, sewers and bridges. Those issues, he said, are “not very sexy things, I grant you but very, very necessary in West Virginia.”

Current Gov. Patrick Morrissey said Rockefeller helped shape the state and left a lasting mark on the lives of generations of West Virginians.

“From his early work in some of our state’s most disadvantaged communities to his efforts to strengthen healthcare, protect coal miners and their families, and support our veterans, Senator Rockefeller demonstrated a deep commitment to the people of West Virginia,” Morrissey said in a statement.

Onward to Washington

After Rockefeller defeated Arch Moore in a rematch in 1980, he won a U.S. Senate seat in 1984 after the retirement of longtime Democrat Jennings Randolph. It came despite a landslide victory that year for Republican President Ronald Reagan.

Rockefeller and his wife, Sharon, daughter of former Republican Sen. Charles Percy of Illinois, fit easily into the capital’s social scene, purchasing a multimillion-dollar estate for their family. Never shy or apologetic about using his inherited $150 million fortune to win his races, he spent millions upon millions from his own pocket. He won by comfortable margins in each of his five terms.

Rockefeller’s vast wealth was always a source of conversation and an undercurrent in his political races. He spent at least $21 million of his own money in his political campaigns, including $9 million to win a close 1984 Senate race against Republican novice and fellow multimillionaire John Raese. In Rockefeller’s 1980 gubernatorial race against Republican Arch Moore Jr., bumper stickers appeared saying: “Make Him Spend It All, Arch.”

The state’s junior senator for 25 years, Rockefeller carved his own path of influence in Sen. Robert C. Byrd’s immense shadow. Byrd died in 2010 as the longest-serving senator in U.S. history, winning an enduring reputation for steering billions of dollars over many decades to boost his impoverished state.

Rockefeller’s influence was less showy. As chairman of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, he championed consumers’ rights, upgrading broadband infrastructure and sponsoring a bill to block companies from tracking online activity of their customers. He authored legislation in 1997 that created the Children’s Health Insurance Program, which assists poor families whose incomes are too high to qualify for Medicaid.

He also was head of committees on Veterans’ Affairs and Intelligence, frequently sparring with President George W. Bush over foreign policy. Rockefeller said he regretted his 2002 vote to authorize the war against Iraq.

But Rockefeller also differed with the Democratic administration of President Barack Obama over mining-related regulations. With his state the nation’s second-biggest coal producer, Rockefeller was among several West Virginia officials who opposed the Obama-era Environmental Protection Agency’s oversight of the mountaintop removal method of surface mining.

College studies in Tokyo laid the groundwork for Rockefeller’s efforts to bring business from Japan to West Virginia. He had known Toyota’s founding family since the 1960s and was instrumental in helping the Japanese automaker pick a Buffalo, West Virginia, cornfield for an engine parts plant in 1996. The $2 billion plant now employs about 2,200 workers.