Politics
Right on the Mooney?

Right on the Mooney?

Is this politician for me? As part of a series of articles, we give the backgrounds and voting records of some noteworthy U.S. politicians — both good and bad — in the 2016 election. ...
Christian Gomez

Congressman Alex Mooney of West Virginia (shown) is the son of a Cuban mother, who spent seven weeks in jail for opposing the Marxist-Leninist regime of Fidel Castro, and an Irish father, who grew up in Long Island, New York. Mooney first entered public service when he was elected to the Maryland State Senate in 1998, serving there from 1999 to 2011. In 2013, Mooney moved to Charles Town, a small town in the Eastern Panhandle of West Virginia, where he ran to represent West Virginia’s Second Congressional District in the House of Representatives.

Despite running in an open primary with no incumbent challenger, Mooney faced an uphill battle against the Republican Party establishment. Among his opponents was former U.S. International Trade Commissioner Charlotte R. Lane, the handpicked candidate of then-House Majority Leader Eric Cantor’s “Young Guns” program of the National Republican Congressional Committee. On March 27, 2002, President George W. Bush appointed Lane to the International Trade Commission, where she served from 2003 to 2011.

Mooney, on the other hand, ran as a constitutional conservative candidate, receiving the endorsement of the Gun Owners of America Political Victory Fund and backed by various local Tea Party groups. Despite his establishment challenge, Mooney won the primary on May 13, 2014, in a landslide upset. He then went on to win the general election, defeating Democratic candidate Nick Casey, former chairman of the West Virginia Democratic Party. Now, Mooney is running for reelection to the House of Representatives.

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