MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — The two major party candidates and the Libertarian Party nominee for the 13th District West Virginia Senate seat have made their pitch ahead of the 2026 General Election on November 3.
Incumbent 13th District Senator and Republican Party nominee Mike Oliverio, Democratic Party nominee and current 80th District West Virginia Delegate John Williams and Libertarian Party candidate participated in a debate hosted by MetroNews Thursday night where they highlighted their goals if they’re elected or re-elected to the seat.
Oliverio has served in West Virginia state politics for over 30 years, including time as a member of the House of Delegates.
“I’m a former Army officer and have run a successful business here in Morgantown for over 30 years,” said Oliverio. “I’ve helped West Virginia get our financial house in order, and I’ve prepared West Virginia and positioned us for strong growth in healthcare delivery and quality of care.”
Williams has served as a member of the House of Delegates since 2016, in addition to becoming House Minority Vice Chair on the House Banking and Insurance Committee and the House Finance Committee.
“I have worked for 10 years in the House of Delegates, and I have tried to be a model as a legislator,” said Williams. “As someone who can serve with strong conviction, but I can roll my sleeves up when there are areas of opportunity to work across the aisle.”
Richmond, a West Virginia University graduate, has lived in Monongalia County for over a decade after growing up in the southern part of the state. He is running as a strong advocate for limited government and minimal government spending.
“I’m running because I believe that voters in the 13th deserve a distinct option and difference between the other two candidates,” said Richmond. “I’m the principled, pragmatic candidate who simply wants to get Charleston out of your lives, out of your wallet, and out of the way.”
Among the topics where the candidates differentiated the most were efforts to address education and affordability. For economic development, Oliverio mentioned his work to help the state pull an approximately $370 million budget surplus as recently as Fiscal Year 2026.
“I supported the effort to eliminate the West Virginia personal income tax on Social Security benefits, and I’ve helped pass the largest tax cut in the history of West Virginia to allow West Virginians to keep more of their own money to address the affordability concerns that many are having,” said Oliverio.
Williams stated that the approach towards addressing public education concerns on a state level needs to be multi-faceted, with increases in spending to account for shortcomings in the funding formula. Williams also advocated for the support of state employee benefits such as PEIA while also advocating for responsible energy development.
“When you look at the size of these things compared to that, it is every bit of high impact, so when it comes to a data center coming to the 13th district, I at the very least want my people’s county commissioners to be able to weigh in on the issue,” said Williams. “Certainly, there are municipalities to be able to weigh in on the issue.”
For economic development, Richmond stated that he would support a fully free-market capitalist approach towards economic development in the state. He also called for complete consolidation of the State Board of Education during the debate.
“We need to reduce and eliminate the 55-county Board of Education model down to a 10- to 12-school district model, and when we eliminate the administrative bloat that comes with that,” said Richmond. “We can return dollars back to the classrooms and teachers where it actually is needed.”
Despite having select approaches to energy production, data center development and Automated License Plate Readers (ALPRs) all three candidates stated that they would like to see some level of moderation on such policies on a state level.
Oliverio stated that he would push for strict regulations on data center development and ALPRs if re-elected to the Senate.
“These cameras should be allowed, but there should be some regulations on them,” said Oliverio, discussing ALPRs. “I think a warrant should be required if they’re going to surveil a person, I think there should be privacy concerns taken into consideration, and I think there should be accountability for anybody that misuses this information.”
Williams also stated that he would call for major reforms around ALPR technology, as well as supporting an expanded energy approach to reach the 50 by 2050 goal.
“Instead of saying, let’s put this industry up, let’s put this industry up, and saying that we’re just an energy state, the West Virginia rate payer needs to be at the front of this discussion, which leads to all the above energy approach,” said Williams.
Richmond noted that he would support energy and data center development while advocating for legislation that would completely oppose ALPR technology.
“We do not need government surveillance, government overwatch to make us any bit safer, we as a society through the free market have adopted a much greater reliance on personal surveillance,” said Richmond. “That can be leveraged in cases of emergency through the Fourth Amendment in a very safe and effective way.”
In their final pitches to voters, Oliverio and Williams each highlighted their respective decades of work in the legislature in the Senate and the House, with Richmond continuing his advocation as a third-party candidate that aims to avoid the arguments seen by both parties.
“We need a principle candidate that actually is going to go down and make sure that Charleston is good stewards of your hard-earned taxpayer dollars and not gamble with them or not over-regulate and over-tax you like my opponents will do,” said Richmond.