Berkeley County Residents Hope Local Priorities Won’t Be Lost In House Seat Shuffle

This year’s legislative session is already underway, but a partisan tug-of-war over the 91st district seat in the West Virginia House of Delegates has not gone to rest.

The 91st district spans southern Berkeley County communities like Inwood, Gerrardstown and Bunker Hill. It is sparsely populated, with a handful of shopping plazas and neighborhoods dotting sprawls of farmland.

For months, however, the rural community has been a focal point in state politics. Joseph de Soto was elected to represent this district in November. But he was arrested by West Virginia State Police in December, and charged with making “terroristic threats” after a heated statehouse dispute.

De Soto was elected as a Republican, then re-registered as a Democrat before his arrest. Under a 2018 state law passed by a Republican majority, expelled delegates are replaced by their party upon removal, which would have been the Democrats. But the House Republican majority vacated the seat before de Soto took his oath, and claimed authority over naming his replacement.

The debate has risen to the Supreme Court of Appeals of West Virginia, with both parties awaiting a response to court petitions. In the meantime, West Virginia Public Broadcasting spoke to Berkeley County residents across the political spectrum, who say they hope the drawn-out search for a successor will not overshadow local priorities this legislative session.

The Letter Of The Law

Berkeley County is one of the fastest-growing regions in the state. Residents of the 91st district, and West Virginia’s Eastern Panhandle at large, often say they worry about fallout from local development. Those who spoke to WVPB say they worry about dwindling greenspace, rising property costs and overcrowding in public schools.

Stephen Willingham is a Democrat from Ganotown. He was tapped by the Berkeley County Democratic Party to serve as one of three Democratic nominees to potentially represent the 91st district in early January.

Per state law, parties submit three nominees to the governor to fill a vacancy. Both believing they had a claim over de Soto’s replacement, the county Democratic and Republican parties submitted three names each for Republican Gov. Patrick Morrisey to consider. Morrisey named a Republican to the seat on Jan. 24: Ian Masters of Gerrardstown.

Based on state law, Willingham does not believe a Republican should hold office, but said he expected the governor to appoint a member of his own party anyway.

“Morrissey did what I expected him to do, quite simply. Right, wrong or indifferent,” Willingham said. “I just felt it was important for the Democrats to step out there and to say, ‘Okay, this is a state law. We need to follow the Constitution.’”

Willingham said issues surrounding development, plus the area’s public schools, need more attention. He hopes representatives focus on local concerns, regardless of how they took office.

“Southern Berkeley County definitely needs the representation, because I think there are issues here that are being ignored,” Willingham said. “I don’t feel that there’s a whole lot of attention being paid to that by Republicans or anybody else. Of course, Democrats don’t have a voice in this situation. … I just don’t think Republicans really care about it all that much.”

During the November general election, no Democrat ran to represent the 91st district in the House. The Berkeley County Democratic Party did not respond to email or phone call requests for comment on this story, and was not present upon WVPB’s in-person visit to their Martinsburg office Feb. 14.

Representing Local Values

Greg Jones is a Republican from the unincorporated community of Arden, which is bisected by the 91st and 93rd House districts. Unlike Willingham, Jones said he agrees with how the appointment process transpired, and feels that Democratic claims to the seat seem tenuous.

“I have mixed feelings. Because, let’s face it, it’s West Virginia. The Democratic Party is a super minority, so they’re scratching and hollering for any little thing they can,” he said. “I can understand why they’re doing it, but I think they’re grasping at straws.”

Republicans outnumber Democrats in Berkeley County by roughly 20,000 residents, and a Republican won the 91st House district last election, its first since being created by statewide House rezoning in 2022.

According to data from the West Virginia Secretary of State’s Office, roughly 43% of Berkeley County voters were registered as Republicans in January 2025, the highest enrollment out of any political affiliation.

Pam Brush is the chair of the Berkeley County Republican Executive Committee. She said a Republican legislator better represents the area’s “long-term sentiments,” no matter the legal technicality.

“I called up one of our former legislators from that area, and that area has been represented by Republicans for over 40 years,” Brush said.

Still, like Willingham, Jones acknowledged a problem with local political engagement. He said gaps in news coverage can make it harder to find information on politics and the information affecting local voters.

“It’s tough to communicate nowadays because we have such a disparity, with no real good source,” he said. “The bottom line is: You get what you vote for.”

Shane Conroy is an independent voter from Inwood who lives just north of the 91st district line. He said he leans blue and tends to be a single-issue voter, focusing on the environment and clean energy.

Conroy finds it concerning that, because of the appointment process, voters did not have a direct say in their representative for this year’s legislative session. But he feels a Republican representing a majority-Republican area makes sense.

No matter who holds office, Conroy wants problems like development and infrastructure addressed.

“I understand that there are concerns about gentrification and additional traffic in the area. It would be probably the best bipartisan decision by any lawmaker to kind of focus on issues like that,” he said. “If that means approving more solar farms, then that's great. I support that.”

From District 91 To The Capitol

Ian Masters is a lawyer, gun rights lobbyist and father of four. He is an alumnus of the West Virginia University College of Law, and his legal experience spans from criminal defense work to abuse and neglect cases.

Masters told West Virginia Public Broadcasting on the House floor Tuesday that he understands the appointment process thus far has been chaotic. But he does not want that to cloud his work as a lawmaker.

“While I am here, my intention is to get to work and represent the folks in House 91,” he said.

Masters said he volunteered to represent the 91st district because he believes his professional background and ongoing political engagement made him an ideal candidate for the office.

“This is a year of change down here — new administrations, new rules,” he said. “I felt I was a little bit versed in the legislative process, and threw my name in there.”

Del. Mike Pushkin, D-Kanawha, chairs the West Virginia Democratic Party, which has led the push for judicial intervention in the appointment process through the state’s Supreme Court of Appeals.

According to Pushkin, the West Virginia Democratic Party maintains that it has a right to the seat. He said Democrats expressed concern over the law altering vacancy protocols in 2018, but that their worries were overlooked.

For Pushkin, vacating a seat to avoid the law-as-written seems like sidestepping the West Virginia Code.

“It’s no longer a hypothetical. The problem is they only want to follow the law when it benefits them,” Pushkin told WVPB on the House floor Tuesday. “The law is the law, and we’re simply asking that the Republicans follow the law.”

Pushkin and Masters both said they are awaiting a response from the state’s Supreme Court regarding recent court petitions over the House seat. Meanwhile, de Soto is currently under home incarceration, and is next scheduled to appear in the Berkeley County Magistrate Court on March 19.

In the meantime, Masters said he wants to represent his district to the best of his ability, and aims to host a town hall to hear directly from his constituents in the future.

Willingham, the Democratic resident of Ganotown, said he hopes Masters will be open to listening to all 91st district residents, no matter their political affiliation.

“I think that’s something that all of us, Republican or Democrat, could do better, and that even includes myself. We can listen better,” he said. “At some point, we have to get back to agreeing that we’re all Americans. I hope that he would feel the same.”

A version of this story was televised on The Legislature Today, West Virginia Public Broadcasting's legislative recap show, for Feb. 20. Watch at this link.