Curtis Tate Published

Capito Rises In Republican Senate Ranks To No. 4 Position

A woman with blonde hair and wearing a red jacket gestures to an audience inside a white tent while holding her glasses.
Sen. Shelley Moore Capito.
Curtis Tate/West Virginia Public Broadcasting

U.S. Sen. Shelley Moore Capito has moved up the leadership ladder in the Senate.

On Wednesday, Capito was elected chair of the Republican Policy Committee, the No. 4 spot on the party’s leadership team.

Republican senators also elected their new majority leader, John Thune of South Dakota. He succeeds Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky.

Capito will become chair of the Environment and Public Works Committee. That committee authorizes road and bridge and water and wastewater infrastructure projects.

It also approves the administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Capito has expressed interest in rolling back a number of Biden administration regulations.

Capito will become West Virginia’s senior senator in January after Sen. Joe Manchin departs.

Republicans were able to regain control of the majority from the Democrats due in part to the election last week of Gov. Jim Justice to succeed Manchin, who’s retiring.