Photo by Derek Redd Ace Parsi, the Democratic nominee for the U.S. House of Representatives District 2 seat, made a recent stop in Wheeling.

Ace Parsi hasn’t changed how he has campaigned this election season a bit, whether it was to emerge from a three-candidate field for the Democratic nomination for the U.S. House of Representatives District 2 seat or to take on Republican incumbent Rep. Riley Moore.

“I’ve always wanted to only run a general election campaign,” he said during a recent visit to Wheeling.

And that has meant criss-crossing the state talking to anyone willing to have a conversation – Democrats, Republicans and independents. As Parsi has had those conversations, he has seen that everyone’s root concerns, mainly how they’ll be able to afford living in the face of rising costs everywhere, are more alike than they realize. He wants to head to Washington D.C. to help create solutions. He just has to clear the hurdle of the pesky letter beside his name.

Parsi admits it is a hurdle, that non-Democrats he has talked to have reached common ground with him, but the fact he is a Democrat stops them short. He mentioned that, on a previous trip to Wheeling, he struck up a discussion at a Waterfront Wednesdays event with a MAGA couple. They liked what they heard, he said, but his party affiliation was a bridge too far.

“They were like, oh, you’re a Democrat,” he said. “If you became an independent, I’d vote for you, but you’re a Democrat.

“I think people at this moment have to think about what their community’s interests are and what their interests are of having a representative,” he continued, “and not the ‘D’ or the ‘R’ next to their name.”

In his travels, Parsi has found that many of West Virginians’ concerns boil down to affordability. Their grocery bills are higher. Their utility bills are higher. Their health insurance premiums have skyrocketed. It costs more to fill their gas tanks. They’re also concerned about their school systems and if a company will build a data center in their backyard whether they like it or not.

Parsi has some solutions for that. If elected, he would vote for a War Powers Resolution that would pull the U.S. military back from Iran. That, he said, would reduce costs by restoring oil prices to pre-war levels. He would work to reduce the tariffs that President Donald Trump has enacted on imports from across the world. He would hold those in the business of fixing roads and water systems accountable when those fixes unravel in just a few years.

He also said he wants to invest in a community wealth approach to reverse the extraction of resources and people from the Mountain State. Among his ideas is to turn abandoned buildings in West Virginia cities into community centers that would attract people to live there.

Parsi acknowledges the realities of his campaign. He knows that, in Moore, he is going up against a well-financed, well-connected Republican incumbent in one of America’s reddest states. He’d love to engage Moore in a debate, but isn’t optimistic Moore would agree to one. A basketball fan, Parsi figures Moore and the GOP would rather play stall ball and run out the clock than acknowledge their opponent.

He also isn’t expecting a ton of help from the national Democratic party, which he feels has turned its attention away from West Virginia, which had been a Democratic stronghold for decades.

“If the national party wants to help, that’s great,” he said. “But I’d look at that as the icing, not the cake.”

In the meantime, Parsi will continue with what has worked so far. He’ll travel the state talking to whomever will listen, letting them know that he would be a representative in D.C. that has their best interests at heart, regardless of their party affiliation.

“Any form of government has to deliver for its people,” he said. “They have to make people feel like they are seen and that their lives matter. I want to prioritize making people feel seen and listened to, and that their suffering wasn’t inevitable.

“Your suffering is not inevitable,” he added. “Your pain matters. And there’s a future here that’s better.”