CHARLESTON, W.Va. — The high stakes of an open Senate seat election will be plainly evident in West Virginia Monday when two nationally known figures come to the Mountain State to campaign on behalf of the two candidates seeking the position.
U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Massachusetts) will be at the Shepherdstown Train Station Monday afternoon alongside Secretary of State Natalie Tennant, the Democratic Party’s nominee for the seat being vacated by longtime U.S. Senator Jay Rockefeller.
Warren champions education legislation in the Senate. She’s introduced a number of student loan bills which remain stalled. Tennant is expected to reveal much of her education platform during the visit to Jefferson County. The plank is expected to reflect strong support for some of the bills Warren has been frustrated in moving forward.
While Tennant and Warren are courting voters in the state’s eastern panhandle, Republican Congresswoman Shelley Moore Capito will be in Charleston backed by a visit from Republican Representative Paul Ryan of Wisconsin. Ryan was the Republican vice-presidential nominee in 2012.
Ryan and Capito are expected to talk about fiscal policy and to denounce President Obama’s handling of the economy during a roundtable discussion Monday afternoon. The rhetoric is expected to be particularly sharp when it comes to West Virginia’s coal industry which is on the ropes amid proposed EPA policy which would virtually eliminate burning coal to produce electricity in the United States.
Both campaigns have criticized the other for bringing in the surrogates—the topics of criticism have been Obamacare and budget cuts.