WHEELING – Republican Derek Ennis has experience in both mining and industrial safety, as well as being a parent, and he wants more jobs with safe working environments to keep West Virginia’s children in the state.

Ennis is a 4th District candidate for the West Virginia House of Delegates this year, and he faces a GOP primary against Dolph Santorine. The winner will take on Democratic candidate Joe Jividen in the general election.

“There’s a lot of positives in our area that are unique to West Virginia as a state,” he said. “We have the opportunity of diverse infrastructure, and diverse economic opportunities. We have a little bit of a different lifestyle in the Ohio Valley than what other rural areas of the state can enjoy.

“My mining background took me all over West Virginia… so I am well-versed with managing employees across West Virginia. I know how cultures and lifestyles can change depending on where you grew up, and where that childhood was.”

Ennis grew up in West Liberty and graduated from Wheeling Park High School in 1997. He lives in the Valley Grove/West Alexander area.

He attended West Liberty University before transferring to Marshall University. While there, he earned a master’s degree in safety management.

Ennis started in construction and was the construction manager for the company that built the AEP chimney in Marshall County.

“Every day I went up 1,000 feet on top of the chimney and hung out for work,” he continued. “One day I was reading a newspaper article about 35-year (CONSOL) contract for coal with AEP. I didn’t want to leave my family for the next stack job in Texas, so I started in the coal mines.”

He spent more than 13 years with a mine safety job in the mining industry, during which time CONSOL was sold to Murray Energy.

Ennis got involved with the Fire Brigades Mine Protection, a group of underground first responders, mine rescue and search teams. He served as the corporate trainer for the program at Murray Energy.

Later, his position was eliminated during corporate restructuring, prompting him to leave the mining industry.

“Today, I sell a product that cleans air in manufacturing settings,” Ennis said.

He said he chose a career in industrial safety in memory of his father, Larry Ennis. The elder Ennis, a coal miner, died of chemical pneumonia after a career of breathing in harmful chemicals while working.

“His passing changed my family, and that affected my career choices,” Ennis said.

Ennis added that he also owns apartment buildings in West Liberty. While serving as student government president at West Liberty University in the early 2000s, he became aware that available housing there was an issue.

Later, he saw the issue had not been addressed and invested in an apartment building.

Ennis has three children and two stepchildren. Among them is an 18-year-old son who is high-functioning autistic, and he is about to enter a two-year program at West Virginia University, Ennis said.

Ennis said West Virginia needs jobs if young people are to stay in the state.

“That is pretty much why I am running – to be a part of that future,” he continued.

Ennis also wants to see some changes in the state’s family court system and Child Protective Services.

“Nothing personally happened to me, but I went through the process and had a little bit of exposure to how opinions run that system,” he said. “A lot of times you don’t need evidence or facts with family court. You just need the opinion of somebody, and that can lead to life-changing decisions.

“When you remove somebody from a house… that really affects the children.”

Ennis noted that a federal audit released in November 2025 found that West Virginia’s Bureau for Social Services and Child Protective Services failed to comply with federal standards in 91% of sampled child abuse and neglect reports.

“That was the icing on the cake that screamed to me that there’s a glaring systemic problem, and get involved,” he said. “It is not something that I saw that is unique to me. This is a statewide problem.”