On the first day of the legislative session, the House of Delegates set the rules for how they’re going to conduct business over the next two years.
The nine Democrats, seated at the front of the chamber, offered amendment after amendment to the rules, but each and every time they were shot down.
Because it’s a resolution, the members of the House could vote by voice, so it’s unknown who supported what.
Last year, the Democrats could’ve asked for a roll call vote, where each member must cast a recorded vote with their name on it. But that requires them to have at least 10% of the seats in the 100-member House.
Being just a hair under that threshold, Del. Sean Hornbuckle, D-Cabell, said it didn’t make sense to even bother trying to get a stray Republican to force a roll call.
“We knew the outcome of it,” he said. “That’s not a tactic we’re going to use just to be showmen.”
And with the very first vote of the first day of sessions, Democrats in the House illustrated how the formerly powerful party has been politically neutered.
With essentially no political power, Democrats in the West Virginia Legislature say they’re going to focus on bread and butter issues, like lowering utility bills, addressing child care for working parents and supporting public education. But the best they can do is either get Republicans on their side, or become a speed bump for Republican priorities.
So far, Democrats introduced some legislation addressing these issues – many of which were identified by Mountain State Spotlight during its 55-county tour last year across the state.
Over in the House, Democrats have put forward bills that could lead to the establishment of community solar panel installations and mandating energy efficiency programs by electric companies, all with the explicit goal of lowering power bills. But they’re sitting in committee — and if last year is any indication, that’s where they’ll stay for the remainder of the session.
In the Senate, where only two of the 34-member body are Democrats, Minority Leader Mike Woelfel has a bill that would lead to a refundable tax credit on child care that would put money in people’s pocket, in contrast to the non-refundable bill passed by the Legislature last year.
How far these bills will go remains to be seen. Last year, Woelfel was able to get six bills passed out of his chamber.
“There is a considerable amount of working across the aisle that happens all the time. And if I’ve got a good bill, it’ll move,” Woelfel said.
One of those bills, the Summer Feeding for All Program, would’ve ensured hungry school children had access to meals when school is not in session. It passed the Senate unanimously, but lawmakers in the House did not take it up for the second year in a row. Woelfel chalked his defeats up to having a Democrat as the lead sponsor.
For some bills, Woelfel said he is trying something different this year.
“I’ve got my usual 15 to 20 bills, but I’m giving them to other senators that are Republicans. I write the bill. They like it,” he said. “I don’t care who gets the credit, if we can get bills across the finish line.”
So far, it appears only one — a bill that would beef up penalties for the crime of sexual extortion — has been introduced under a Republican sponsor. Other bills, like the Summer Feeding Program, are still filed under Woelfel’s name.
If passing Democratic bills in the Senate is tough, it’s even harder in the House. Of the 1,698 bills introduced last year, only one sponsored by a Democrat made it to passage. All that bill did was specify who can be barred from sports wagering in West Virginia.
Del. Shawn Fluharty, D-Ohio, a lawyer who works for Play N’Go, a New Jersey based slot machine company, was the sponsor of that bill. He also co-sponsored the Responsible Gaming and Research Act, which requires the state lottery to turn over demographic information to West Virginia University.
Fluharty said he learned about other universities with similar research programs at a conference. He told House Speaker Roger Hanshaw about it and the two worked together to get it passed. Much like Woelfel’s strategy in the Senate, Hanshaw’s name was at the top of the bill.
But opportunities for working together are few and far between. Fluharty said the Republican caucus isn’t a monolith, but divided into factions. Occasionally the Democrats can use that to their advantage.
Like when a bill that would require mandatory collection of DNA when a suspect is arrested for certain types of felonies came to the House Floor last year. The Democrats and a contingent of small-government, libertarian style conservatives banded together to vote it down.
“I think that the alliances that we make generally are with the libertarian, smaller government Republicans,” Fluharty said. “Those alliances are what we will look to build.”
But alliances are temporary, at best. Ideally, if Democrats want more input, they need more representation. Del. Mike Pushkin, D-Kanwaha, said getting people to run has been a struggle.
“The goal is always to find someone to run in every single district,” he said. “ In recent years, it has been more and more difficult, but I think the Republicans are handing us all sorts of issues that are inspiring a lot of Democrats to step up.”
For now, the only thing Democrats can do is attempt to slow down bills barrelling through the Republican-controlled Legislature.
But that doesn’t come into play until the end of the session, when there’s more of a likelihood the clock will run out. For instance, last year the Women’s Bill of Rights, a controversial bill that defined people’s gender by the anatomy they were born with was on track on the very last day for passage.
However, at the 11th hour Del. Kayla Young added more than 20 amendments to the bill, for them to be argued on the House floor. The bill was placed at the bottom of the pile and did not get passed by the midnight deadline.
But most times, the efforts don’t pay off.
On that last day of the 2024 regular session, the Legislature was in gridlock to pass a bill that would cut unemployment benefits. A decent chunk of the House was against it.
Delegates stood up and made impassioned speeches, either denouncing the cuts as an attack on people who are already down on their luck or selling a pitch that it was a necessary move to keep the unemployment fund afloat.
In the middle of all this, Del. Evan Hansen, a Democrat from Monongalia County, requested the bill be read in its entirety, a right of any member under the state constitution.
All it takes is one. No votes. Just one member’s request.
The House schedule ground to a halt as a team of clerks read through the 30 page bill, which included pages of nothing but columns of numbers.
At times, the reading was interrupted as Republican delegates yelled at Hansen for leaving his chair — whenever a delegate asks for this, they have to remain seated.
After it all, Republicans passed the bill.