To help you find the truth in West Virginia politics, reporters and researchers from PolitiFact West Virginia examine statements by elected officials and candidates – and anyone else who speaks up on matters of public importance – provides context for those statements and then rates their accuracy according to PolitiFact’s Truth-O-Meter. PolitiFact West Virginia is a partnership of 100 Days in Appalachia, Pulitzer Prize winning PolitiFact and the Reed College of Media at West Virginia University.
West Virginia Democrat Richard Ojeda — who lost a U.S. House race in 2018 but has announced a run for president in 2020 — shot a video clip at General Motors’ Detroit headquarters to call out the company’s announcement that it was closing five plants and laying off more than 14,000 employees […]
Read More
Less than a year after West Virginia experienced a major teachers’ strike, Republican state Del. Paul Espinosa touted GOP efforts to raise teacher salaries — and attacked Democrats for causing the problem of low pay in the first place. On Oct. 9, Espinosa, who chairs the House Committee on Education, tweeted, […]
Read More
In a West Virginia MetroNews debate before he won another term in Congress, U.S. Rep. David McKinley, R-W.Va., defended President Donald Trump’s handling of the economy, saying the state had benefited disproportionately. “Last year we had the eighth fastest-growing economy in the country in West Virginia,” he said, responding to Kendra Fershee, […]
Read More
Politicians often point to the success of America’s middle class as a barometer for the health of the broader American economy. On Sept. 29, the West Virginia Republican Party tweeted, “Thanks to President Trump and Republican policies, middle-class income rose to a record level in 2017 as the strong economy lifted […]
Read More
Kendra Fershee, a Democrat who is challenged U.S. Rep. David McKinley, R-W.Va., took aim at the poverty rate in a Sept. 19 Facebook post. “Poverty in WV is more than 5% higher than the national average,” Fershee wrote in the post. “The poor are getting (much) poorer and if you look […]
Read More
Does West Virginia have the nation’s leading rate of overdoses? On Oct. 3, Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., tweeted, “#WV has the highest overdose rate per capita of any state in our nation. That’s why I made sure the SUPPORT for Patients & Communities Act included a set aside for states like […]
Read More