CHARLESTON, W.Va. — One of the seven Republican candidates for Congress in West Virginia’s Second District says, above all else, he is a conservative candidate.
“All my life, I’ve fought hard for conservative values,” said Alex Mooney, the son of a Cuban immigrant and Vietnam veteran. “I was just raised to fight for freedom and that’s what I do. I don’t apologize for that. I’m a passionate believer in individual rights, our Constitution.”
Mooney is in a crowded field of Republican candidates seeking the nomination for the seat in the massive 17-county Second District that Congresswoman Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.) currently represents. Capito is running for the U.S. Senate this year.
A Dartmouth graduate, Mooney first ran for public office in New Hampshire.
He went on to serve in the Maryland State Senate, representing District Three which includes parts of Frederick County and Washington County, from 1999-2010. In Dec. 2010, Mooney was elected chairman of the Maryland Republican Party.
In 2012, he considered a run for the Republican nomination for the U.S. House in Maryland’s Sixth Congressional District, but opted not to get into that race.
Mooney and his wife, Dr. Grace Gonzalez Mooney, moved to Jefferson County in 2013 where they now live with their two children near Charles Town.
“I love living in a state that shares my values,” he said. “I am a candidate who has a life-long record of fighting for conservative principles, the same values that West Virginia voters have. Not all the candidates in this race can say that.”
He said the Affordable Care Act needs to go. “We should repeal Obamacare completely. I believe in the free market, folks can purchase their own plan. I don’t believe there should be a mandate, by the government, that you have to buy insurance,” he said.
Mooney’s appearance on Monday’s MetroNews “Talkline” was part of a series of interviews with the statewide candidates that will continue ahead of the May 13 primary election.
The other Republican candidates in the Second Congressional District are Robert Lawrence Fluharty, an investigator from Charles Town; Steve Harrison, a former Kanawha County state senator; Charlotte Lane, a former PSC chair and former commissioner of the U.S. International Trade Commission; Jim Moss, a cost management specialist with Toyota Motors Manufacturing; Ken Reed, a pharmacist in Berkeley Springs and Ron Walters, Jr., an insurance and financial consultant in Charleston.
The Democrat candidates in the Second Congressional District are Nick Casey, a former state Democratic Party chair, and Meshea Poore, a Kanawha County delegate.