PRINCETON, W.Va. — As was the case during his campaign, Delegate-elect Eric Porterfield, R-Mercer, plans to make conservative values the guiding principle of his upcoming term in the West Virginia House of Delegates.
On Wednesday’s edition of MetroNews “Talkline,” Porterfield said he’s looking forward to working alongside like-minded colleagues and the Republican leadership to continue a four-year period of conservative accomplishments he described as miraculous.
“1st Amendment, 2nd Amendment, religious liberty, pro-life, traditional family, pro-business, right-to-work, we’re not trying to hide anything from anyone,” he said. “We’re just trying to take what (former) Speaker Armstead and what Speaker Hanshaw have done — along with Senate President Mitch (Carmichael) over in the Senate — and just continue to move forward.”
Porterfield became blind in 2006, and later founded the missionary organization Blind Faith Ministries. He said he’s not particularly concerned about being accommodated at the Capitol as a disabled person.
“What’s going to make it more accommodating is to have the right people there that care about what we’re doing, and want to see us succeed and just help us to get acclimated to it,” he explained. “The rest of it from there will be up to me to make decisions on bills and how to get things accomplished, to make sure constitutional conservative agendas move forward.”
During his 2018 campaign, Porterfield said West Virginia’s drug epidemic was being compounded by state policies that were enabling bad choices. He also said he does not consider drug addicts to be victims and advocates for a partnership among faith-based communities, schools and treatment facilities to assist in the rehabilitation of those who chronically abuse drugs.
Porterfield supports passing tougher laws and new sentencing guidelines for those convicted of dealing drugs illegally.
Porterfield was a first-time political candidate when he ran for the seat currently held by current Delegate Marty Gearheart, R-Mercer. Gearheart chose not to run for another term, opting instead to make a bid for U.S. Congress.