SCOTT ADAMS

WHEELING — Republican Scott Adams of Wellsburg has experience as a state trooper and now wants to add experience as a state legislator. Adams is running for the GOP nomination for the West Virginia Senate 1st District.

Adams, 53, retired from the West Virginia State Police in 2017. He also worked at the Ohio County Prosecutor’s Office.

He said he is running for the seat because he believes residents of the 1st District and their values are not being represented properly in Charleston.

“I’d never run for public office before. I was very content working with my wife (Angel). She’s a minister in Follansbee and we have a church there,” he said. “So I felt like I was led to run.”

Scott and Angel Adams have been married for 30 years. They have three children together: Abbey, Mac and Ben.

If elected, Adams said his top priority would be to represent the people of the Northern Panhandle and their values.

“I believe the family has taken second place behind everything else,” he said.

Adams said he would vote for measures “that are positive for the family” including for religious and medical freedom.

“What I initially ran on was protecting children. … Our laws are very soft on people convicted of child crime, which is what I worked in my entire life. I’m a retired state trooper and that’s what I concentrated on my entire career,” he said. “I’m looking to up the sentencing for people who harm children. The low end of sentences are terrible. They’re awful. Someone who gets convicted of a crime against a child can possibly only spend two years in prison. That’s awful.”

Adams said he also wants to stand up for land owners and mineral rights owners. In addition to protecting family values, Adams believes one of the biggest issues facing the region is the state of its roads and infrastructure.

“I was a state trooper for 25 years and half of that time was in the Northern Panhandle. So I know that Charleston basically ignores the Northern Panhandle,” Adams said. “You can look at our roads; our roads are the worst in the state by far. We have three bridges in the Northern Panhandle that are completely closed with no hope of opening. That is one thing that I’m very passionate about.”

Adams said he also believes parents’ rights are important and should be protected by the state.

“That was a bill that didn’t get passed in Charleston — Parents Rights. It was pushed aside and not voted for. I believe parents have the God-given right and ability to decide things for their children,” he said. “The government is trying to take that away from us. I believe all those rights — medical, religious, parental freedoms — are something we should hold on to.”