MORGANTOWN — The state Senate Republican mega-majority grew another notch on Thursday, as Putnam County Democrat Sen. Glenn Jeffries announced a party switch.
“I have the greatest respect for the many friends and supporters I have been blessed with during my time in public office,” Jeffries said in his announcement. “I hope to continue and strengthen those relationships going forward.”
The Republican-Democrat count in the Senate was 23-11, counting Jeffries as a Democrat. Voters widened the gap on election day — when four Democrat incumbents lost — to 30-4 for the 2023 legislative session.
Jeffries’ switch makes the current count 24-10, and come 2023 it will be 31-3.
Jeffries was first elected in 2016 and re-elected in 2020. He will face the voters again in 2024.
He said that when he was elected he pledged to work in a bipartisan way to find solutions for the biggest problems in West Virginia, and he plans to continue those efforts.
“Our politics have gotten so personal and difficult,” Jeffries said. “I want to make sure that I serve constituents and our state in a respectful, thoughtful way that leads to a better life for all West Virginians.”
In his announcement, Jeffries touted his most-recent accomplishment. Last year, he wrote a letter to Berkshire Hathaway Chairman Warren Buffett inviting him to visit West Virginia. That led the company to bring two Berkshire Hathaway subsidiaries, Precision Castparts Corp. and BHE Renewables, into West Virginia.
BHE Renewables is buying more than 2,000 acres in Ravenswood to build the first-of-its-kind renewable energy microgrid-powered industrial site. Precision Castparts will be the first company to locate there to develop a titanium melt facility that will use 100% renewable energy to manufacture titanium products for the aerospace and other industries. The project represents a $500 million investment in West Virginia.
The three remaining Senate Democrats for the 2023 session will be Mike Caputo of Marion County, Robert Plymale of Wayne and Mike Woelfel of Cabell. The four incumbents who lost are Majority Leader Stephen Baldwin of Greenbrier, Hannah Geffert of Berkeley, Richard Lindsay of Kanawha and Ron Stollings of Boone.
The state Democratic Party issued a scathing response to Jeffries’ switch, citing former President Trump’s recent dinner with the rapper who had been called Kanye West and white supremacist Nick Fuentes.
Party chair Mike Pushkin, also a Kanawha County Delegate, said, “For Sen. Jeffries to claim he doesn’t like the direction of the Democratic Party, barely a week after his new party’s de facto leader had dinner with a Holocaust-denying white supremacist, is like being called ugly by a frog.”
Somewhat more positive, Pushkin also noted that last year, Jeffries received the highest score of any state senator from Climate Cabinet Action, an environmental justice group.
“Hopefully, Glenn will be permitted to continue to be an environmental justice champion in his new party,” Pushkin said.
Jeffries is owner and president of Cornerstone Interiors of Eleanor, which specializes in commercial interior finishing. Before starting Cornerstone in 1997, he worked as a union carpenter for 15 years. He maintains his membership in the carpenters union.
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