Jeffrey Kessler

CHARLESTON — Jeff Kessler, a former longtime state senator and former president of the West Virginia Senate, has a history of public service to the Northern Panhandle and the state.

After taking a break from public service, Kessler wants to represent West Virginia in the U.S. Senate.

Kessler is the latest Democratic candidate to announce for the May primary for the U.S. Senate currently held by U.S. Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va. Kessler traveled to the West Virginia Secretary of State’s Office in the State Capitol Building in Charleston on Friday to file his statement of candidacy one day before the midnight Saturday deadline.

“This race is about one simple question: Do we keep sending someone to Washington who sells us out, or do we finally elect a senator who will fight like hell for West Virginia,” Kessler said in a statement Friday. “I’ve stood up to powerful interests my entire career. I’m ready to take that fight to the U.S. Senate — and I will never stop fighting for West Virginia.”

Kessler, a native of Glen Dale, served in the West Virginia Senate for 20 years, representing the 2nd senatorial District. He was appointed to the state Senate in 1997 and won election in 1998. Kessler later served as the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee.

When former senate president Earl Ray Tomblin became acting governor in 2010 after former governor Joe Manchin won a special election for the U.S. Senate seat held by the late Robert C. Byrd, Kessler was chosen as acting senate president.

Kessler was also a candidate for governor in the 2011 Democratic primary special election, but following Tomblin’s special election win for governor, Kessler became the 50th senate president and the final Democratic senate president prior to the Republicans taking the majority in the Legislature in 2015. Kessler served two years as senate minority leader of the 16-member Senate Democratic caucus.

He later ran in the 2016 Democratic primary for governor in a three-person race, coming in third behind former U.S. attorney for the southern district of West Virginia Booth Goodwin and the winner, businessman Jim Justice, who would go on to win the general election against former Mercer County Republican senate president Bill Cole. Justice would switch from a Democrat to Republican in 2017.

Most recently, Kessler ran unsuccessfully in a special election for the West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals.

Speaking by phone Friday afternoon as he drove back to Glen Dale, Kessler said he was running to reverse the cuts Capito voted for in President Donald Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act – also called the Working Families Tax Cut Bill – that continued Trump’s 2017 tax cuts and made significant changes to Medicaid.

Kessler also criticized Capito and Congress for allowing the COVID-era Affordable Care Act subsidies to expire at the end of 2025. While Congress is debating a possible one year or three-year extension of the subsidies, approximately 60,000 West Virginians saw increases in their ACA premiums.

“There’s been a lot of fanfare recently about the (expiration of the) enhanced tax credits that are going to virtually affect 67,000 West Virginians,” Kessler said. “When they passed that Big Beautiful Bill, they also built into that … the reduction of Medicaid.”

There approximately 522,000 children and adults enrolled in West Virginia’s Medicaid program, with the program covering 46% of births, 45% of children, 24% of adults between the ages of 19 and 64, 51% of working-age adults with disabilities, 19% of Medicare beneficiaries, and 77% of nursing home residents. West Virginia receives roughly $4.5 billion in federal Medicaid funding.

According to the Kaiser Family Foundation, estimates for the combined effects of Medicaid changes and changes made to the Affordable Care Act could cause West Virginia to lose as much as $1 billion in annual federal health care funding once fully phased in. Capito has said the $1 billion estimate is overstated in past statements, but Kessler said the effects could be much worse.

“If you add those up, there’s nearly 600,000 West Virginians that are going to get royally sticker shocked if not screwed when it comes to either obtaining (health insurance) or the affordability of the health care they’re getting,” Kessler said.

Tomblin announced in 2013 that West Virginia would participate in the Medicaid expansion program made possible through the ACA, which went into effect in 2014. Kessler supported Tomblin’s enrollment in ACA expansion as senate president.

“I was a key mover behind the ACA expansion of Medicaid benefits to West Virginia, which decreased the uninsured rolls in our state by hundreds of thousands of people,” Kessler said. “It’s a travesty to see that what we fought so hard for is now going to be kicked to the wind. What are these third of our West Virginia citizens going to do when their health care evaporates, gets reduced or is just lost altogether? That’s a major concern of mine.”

Kessler was also critical of Capito for being a rubber stamp for Trump’s political agenda, cabinet nominations, and actions. Kessler said West Virginia needs a U.S. senator who will hold Trump and the executive branch accountable.

“I’ve seen a complete abdication of their legislative duties when it comes to performing their constitutionally required functions,” Kessler said. “They pass bills and then the President can just ignore them and there’s no consequence.”

Kessler cited the law – the Epstein Files Transparency Act – that required the Justice Department to release files 30 days from Nov. 19 regarding the investigation into the late accused sexual offender Jeffrey Epstein. While the Justice Department announced the release of more records Friday, federal officials have still not fully complied with the law.

Kessler said Trump also meddled in programs and federal funding set forth in the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act and the Inflation Reduction Act, both passed by Congress and signed into law by former Democratic president Joe Biden.

“They pass legislation authorizing appropriations and they just get cut without anyone ever raising a stink about it,” Kessler said. “Many of those are projects that were going to help and benefit programs and projects in West Virginia … Congress should not just sit back and watch their legally mandated appropriations ignored. I don’t see anybody kicking back on the Republican Party.”

Having been both the leader of the Democratic majority in the Senate and a minority leader, Kessler said he has the ability to work in a bipartisan manner across the political aisle and communicate with Republicans.

“I prided myself on advancing, introducing, or championing legislation that made sound public policy choices and decisions, and legislation that actually improved the lives of the people that lived in my district and state,” Kessler said. “I think over 99% of the bills that passed during my tenure as senate president passed overwhelmingly, unanimously by the members of both parties, the Democratic and the Republican Party. I don’t see that kind of dialogue going on anymore right now.”

Kessler is the founding partner of the Berry, Kessler, Crutchfield, Taylor and Gordon law firm in Moundsville. He has four sons: Jacob, Jackson, Hastings, and Griffin.

Kessler will have several Democratic opponents in this year’s May primary. According to the most recent listing of candidates Friday, he will face Mercer County community organizer Zachary Shrewsbury, who lost the 2024 Democratic primary for former U.S. senator Joe Manchin’s seat to former Wheeling mayor Glenn Elliott. Other candidates include South Charleston attorney Thornton Cooper, Rachel Fetty Anderson of Morgantown, and Rio Phillips of Charleston.

Capito also has a contested GOP primary, facing state Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Tom Willis, R-Berkeley; former failed 2024 2nd Congressional District Republican candidate Alex Gaaserud, Janet McNulty of Martinsburg, and David Purkey of Fairmont.

Those wishing to file as candidates for the May 2026 party primaries for federal statewide, legislative, and judicial races have until midnight Saturday to file their certificates of candidacy.