CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Republican candidate Ron Walters, Jr. said he’s pursuing West Virginia’s 2nd District congressional seat because “I look at what’s going on in Washington, D.C. and it scares me to death.”
Walters is one of the seven Republican candidates seeking the nomination in the Second Congressional District—the seat Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.) currently holds. She is running for the U.S. Senate this year.
“We need to reform across the board,” Walters said of spending in Washington, D.C.
“It needs to start from within the federal government. I think a lot of what we’ve done over the years, borrowing from Social Security, we need to put an end to that. We need to put an end to wasteful government spending across the board. It’s a start and that’s the important thing.”
Walters, 29, is an insurance consultant and financial planner in Charleston who is making his first run for political office.
“I’m hoping to go to D.C. and set some things straight,” he said.
Politics, though, runs in his family. His father is Del. Ron Walters (R-Kanawha, 39) and his brother is state Sen. Chris Walters (R-Putnam, 8).
According to his campaign biography, he is a graduate of West Virginia University, the University of London-Royal Holloway in the United Kingdom and previously attended Fork Union Military Academy in Virginia.
Walters’ appearance on Thursday’s MetroNews “Talkline” was part of series of interviews with the statewide candidates ahead of the May primary.
In addition to Walters, the other Republican candidates in the 2nd Congressional District are Robert Lawrence Fluharty, an investigator from Charles Town; Alex Mooney, a former Maryland state senator; 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.
The Democrats running in the 2nd Congressional District are Nick Casey, a former state Democratic Party chair, and Meshea Poore, a Kanawha County delegate.