CHARLESTON, W.Va. — A former U.S. State Department official announced Wednesday she will challenge U.S. Rep. Alex Mooney, R-W.Va., for his congressional seat in 2018.
Talley Sergent said the 2nd Congressional District needs representation that stands for affordable and accessible health care, economic growth and an improved future for the state.
“People in communities across the district have told me that they are worried — about their healthcare, their next paycheck and what the future may hold. Starting today, we begin the march to win back the Second Congressional seat for the people of this great state,” Sergent said in a statement.
Sergent, 37, was raised in Huntington and currently resides in Charleston. After graduating from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, she took a position with then-Sen. Jay Rockefeller.
She then worked at the U.S. Department of State, where she said she would on efforts to empower women and prevent human trafficking. During the 2016 U.S. presidential election, she was the West Virginia state director for Hillary Clinton’s campaign.
As for private sector experience, she was once an executive at The Coca-Cola Co., working on multiple projects including the Special Olympics World Games.
Sergent said Mooney needs to be challenged, especially after his vote for the American Health Care Act. According to the Congressional Budget Office, the legislation would leave 23 million more Americans without insurance coverage compared to if former President Barack Obama’s health care law remained in place.
“Alex Mooney is Washington through and through — he’s not one of us,” Sergent said. “His vote to take away healthcare is clear evidence that he hasn’t heard his constituents’ concerns, doesn’t understand us and puts his political party’s interests over the best interests of the people of West Virginia. His deciding vote on a healthcare bill that hurts the people of West Virginia and that President Trump called ‘mean’ will be stamped on his forehead.”
“It takes audacity for someone like Talley Sergent or Joe Manchin to stand on stage with Hillary Clinton and then try to tell West Virginians they aren’t liberals who want more abortions and less coal,” West Virginia Republican Party Conrad Lucas said in a statement. “That’s just the sad D.C. truth about these kinds of folks.”
Army veteran and former nonprofit director Aaron Scheinberg announced Monday he would also run for the Democratic nomination in 2018. Mooney was first elected in the 2014 midterm election.