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Clements, Longwell Seek Election in West Virginia’s 2nd District Senate Contest

MOUNDSVILLE — Political newcomer Denny Longwell seeks to unseat incumbent Charles Clements in West Virginia’s 2nd District Senate race.

Longwell, 71, of New Martinsville, is making his first bid for public office after having served as Chairman of the Wetzel County Democratic Executive Committee. He is a lifelong Democrat.

Longwell said the three main issues facing West Virginians are education, jobs and healthcare. Of those, education is the key to improving the others, he said.

“Education touches every issue, so quality education is needed for us as a state to move forward,” Longwell said. “We need to pay teachers competitive wages and offer good benefits to retain the good teachers we have and attract new ones. … It’s a proven fact that jobs will come to the state when you have a good education to offer the peoples’ children, and health care goes hand-in-hand with those other two.”

He was a member of Ironworkers Local 549 for 14 1/2 years, worked at Consolidated Aluminum for 17 years and worked for the United Steelworkers International Union for 18 years before retiring in 2014.

Clements, 75, of New Martinsville, was appointed to fill the unexpired term of Kent Leonhardt, who was elected state Commissioner of Agriculture in 2016. Clements, a Republican, previously served in the West Virginia House of Delegates in the 1990s.

If he wins the election, Clements hopes to continue working to make sure West Virginia is in better shape than when he was appointed.

“I’ve lived in West Virginia all my life, and I really want to see West Virginia better when I leave then when i got here,” he said. “There’s so many opportunities ahead of us, with the development of the natural gas industry and the downstream products that will come from that industry, I want to make sure we’re doing it right. … We want to make sure the developers are doing things the right way.”

Now retired, Clements owned his own business, was an office manager with H&R Block for 12 years and served as executive director for the W.Va. 2-Interstate 68 Authority.

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