BLUEFIELD, W.Va. (WVVA) – Early voting is underway across West Virginia, and the race for U.S. Senate is on every ballot. Incumbent Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.) is seeking a third term against challenger Rachel Fetty Anderson (D-W.Va.,) a pro-bono attorney who has lived in West Virginia for nearly 20 years. Both candidates answered the same set of questions in separate interviews.
Capito pointed to her current committee roles in the Senate.
“I’m now at a point where I chair major committees, the Environment and Public Works Committee, I’m on appropriations. I chair a large subcommittee there, Health Education and Labor, which has big impacts in West Virginia. And I’m also in the leadership, I’m able to set the tone or the direction of where we want to go,” Capito said.
Fetty Anderson said Capito’s voting record sets them apart.
“What I can see is that she consistently votes for her donors and consistently votes for corporate interests,” Fetty Anderson said. “If she wants to serve the people of West Virginia, she has to come to West Virginia, she has to talk to voters, and she has to make herself available.”
Capito supported the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” last year, which created tax breaks on tips and overtime along with cutting certain benefits.
Fetty Anderson criticized the trade-off.
“You cut taxes on tips, but then when you go in to get Medicaid, or you go in to try to figure out if you can get an Affordable Care Act subsidy, most of those folks lost their health insurance completely,” Fetty Anderson said.
Capito addressed changes to the SNAP program.
“When we look at the SNAP program, it just ballooned during COVID, and for good reason,” Capito said. “And basically, what we’ve tried to do is eliminate fraud, eliminate any kind of abuse, and pull it into where it was before COVID.”
Capito said addressing the situation in Iran and increasing domestic energy production could lower prices at the pump.
“First of all, I’m encouraging the president, you know, let’s bring the Iranian situation to a close…But there are other things we can do. We can create and use more of our own domestic energy. I’ve got a bill in there now, major bill, called permitting reform…The more energy we have, the more energy resources that we use that are ours. And the more we build those infrastructure to get that energy to the customer, the lower the bills will be,” Capito said.
Fetty Anderson linked diesel prices to war and tariffs.
“One hundred percent of the rise in diesel prices over the past year is related to the war and tariffs…You know, there’s a whole bunch of people in this state who have a lot to say about how you just never go to war in the Middle East for oil. We got tons of veterans who have ideas about that. They could have consulted with them. They could have listened to them,” Fetty Anderson said.
Constitution Party candidate S. Marshall Wilson is also on the ballot. While he was not available for an interview in time for this report, WVVA hopes to speak with Wilson in the coming days, and will update this report with his answers once that interview is complete.
Early voting runs through Saturday, Oct. 31. Election Day is Tuesday, Nov. 3.
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