photo by: Steven Allen Adams

U.S. Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., launched her campaign for a third U.S. Senate term Monday.

CHARLESTON – U.S. Sen. Shelley Moore Capito launched her 2026 reelection campaign Monday, seeking her third six-year term in the Senate where she believes her experience places her in the best position to deliver wins for West Virginia.

“I feel like I’ve not only hit my stride, but really exceeded my ability to really be influential for West Virginia,” said Capito, 72, during an interview Monday morning from her campaign offices overlooking the Kanawha River in downtown Charleston. “I’m in positions of leadership. I’m committee chair and other things, but I also have the relationships now, I think, between Washington and West Virginia, where I could really max out my ability to help people. And that’s really why I’m here. I want to continue that.”

Capito, R-W.Va., has been in Congress since 2001, first as a member of the House of Representatives, then the Senate since 2015, succeeding former Democratic U.S. senator Jay Rockefeller. Capito also served two terms in the West Virginia House of Delegates. She is the daughter of former three-term Republican Gov. Arch Moore.

Capito has steadily risen the ranks of Senate GOP leadership, beginning the year as the 18th chairperson of the Republican Policy Committee and fourth ranking member in the Senate Republican majority. She chairs the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, which helps direct billions of dollars of infrastructure dollars. Capito also serves as chairwoman of the Labor, Health and Human Services, Education and Related Agencies Appropriations Subcommittee.

Capito said she would like to continue playing a role in securing federal funding that affects not just West Virginia but the nation as a whole.

“As always, these decisions are personal decisions,” she said. “They impact not only the state, but you, me, individually as a person and others, and I think we couldn’t have a better time to ask the people of West Virginia to send us back and to keep that momentum going.”

Capito helped negotiate what became the $1.2 trillion Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, signed into law in 2021, which included $42 billion to expand high-speed broadband access across the United States through the U.S. Department of Commerce’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment program.

West Virginia was awarded $1.2 billion by the NTIA in 2023. The agency approved the state’s B.E.A.D. application, allowing the use of $546 million to connect 73,000 residents to last-mile broadband. Capito has long been a proponent of access to the internet through the Capito Connect effort she launched in 2015.

“Finally, we’re going to see the real wheels turning here and get that last house connected. I am excited about it,” Capito said. “I was a pivotal person in bringing that … to the president’s desk and having it signed. So, I am ready to make sure that when I go to that next classroom and ask for the kids to raise their hands when I ask who ‘doesn’t have connectivity,’ that no hands will go up.”

Another major goal for Capito is to see substantive infrastructure permitting reform pass Congress.

“I am right now in the middle of negotiating a package on permitting that I think will be transformative,” Capito said. “It eliminates the time and expense without giving up any of the environmental review, because that’s exceedingly important as well.”

Capito said she also has a number of transportation infrastructure projects in the state she wants to continue to see through to their completion, such as the Harmony Grove intersection. in Morgantown, roundabout projects in Inwood, improvements to U.S. Route 35 and the completion of Corridor H.

“You look at the things that we still need to do, those were projects I’ve had a big influence on through my career, and that’s what I want to continue to do,” Capito said. “Obviously, the completion of Corridor H would be a major, a major win. But we’re getting there.”

The Environment and Public Works Committee has a large role in directing federal funding for clean water and wastewater infrastructure projects. While there have been improvements in West Virginia, several parts of the state still struggle with clean drinking water or wastewater treatment.

“It’s not the most glamorous thing to talk about, but there’s still pockets of West Virginia that don’t have clean and drinkable water,” Capito said. “That’s an area that I can be influential, along with the (U.S. Army) Corps of Engineers for our commerce and manufacturing.”

During her public service career, Capito said she’s taken an interest in helping direct federal funding toward medical research, such as childhood cancer, Parkinson’s disease and Alzheimer’s disease, which afflicted both of her parents. Capito wants to continue work in those research areas, as well as utilize telehealth to provide greater access to health care to rural West Virginians.

“Health care is something I really am passionate about … but the area that I’ve been focusing on the most are cures for some of the diseases that afflict West Virginians,” Capito said. “I’ve been able to push those three and others that I think will have impacts on West Virginia. Telehealth folds into that and that’s a broadband and a health care thing.”

Capito has been instrumental in supporting the agenda of President Donald Trump, including efforts to control illegal southern border crossings and Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act – now called the Working Families Tax Cut Bill – used to extend Trump’s 2017 tax cuts. The law also includes a temporary tax break for those earning tips and overtime.

“In several weeks, people are going to be filling out their tax reforms, and if they’ve gotten tips or if they’ve worked overtime, there’s going to be no tax on that,” Capito said. “These are economic development aspects of getting more money in people’s pockets to decide how they want to spend their money.”

Trump endorsed Capito’s reelection campaign all the way back in May with a social media post.

“Senator Shelley Moore Capito is doing a tremendous job representing the Wonderful People of West Virginia, a State I love and WON BIG in 2016, 2020, and 2024,” Trump said. “Senator Shelley Moore Capito has my Complete and Total Endorsement for Re-Election – SHE WILL NOT LET YOU DOWN!”

“I was very appreciative,” Capito said.

There are a handful of challengers to Capito so far in the Republican primary which takes place on Tuesday, May 12, including newly appointed Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Tom Willis, R-Berkeley. Capito expects those candidates to challenge her from her right, but she says her conservative beliefs have been consistent over her time in public service.

“My conservative credentials are, I think, as deep and as wide as anybody in the state,” she said. “I have defended gun rights. I’ve defended pro-life rights. One of the issues I care about is that girls have the opportunity to play in sports with just other girls. That is an issue that raises the hackles of a lot of people, including me, having been a sports person myself and our daughter who’s an athlete.”

As the state’s senior senator, Capito said she is in the best position she has ever been in to help bring funding to West Virginia and raise the concerns of the state with leaders all the way up to Trump, Vice President JD Vance and key cabinet officials.

“I think the important thing here is that I have the seat at the table that represents West Virginia,” Capito said. “So, my voice is heard all across the leadership at the White House. …That’s kind of a combination of not just influence, but also constituent service. I started my career as wanting to help West Virginia, even when I first started in the House of Delegates. That’s the spirit that drives me.”