University of Virginia Story Archives - West Virginia Public Broadcasting

Looking Ahead To Redistricting: How W.Va.’s Loss Of A Congressional Seat Might Affect What’s Next

Officials with the U.S. Census Bureau announced preliminary data this week that shows congressional reapportionment for the next decade — including West Virginia losing a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives.

As federal officials reported Monday, West Virginia lost 3.2 percent of its population since the 2010 Census — the highest rate of population loss in the entire nation. With the state moving from three seats in the U.S. House to two, its likely two Republican incumbents will be pitted against one another in a 2022 primary.

Reps. David McKinley, Alex Mooney and Carol Miller — who currently hold seats in the state’s 1st, 2nd and 3rd Congressional Districts, respectively — have all said they plan to seek reelection.

However, with census results being delayed due to the coronavirus pandemic, West Virginia lawmakers will have to wait until the fall to consider redistricting on the congressional and state levels. All three of West Virginia’s U.S. House members have said they will reevaluate their reelection bids once that occurs.

Kyle Kondik, managing editor of Larry Sabato’s Crystal Ball at the University of Virginia’s Center on Politics, noted that many have expected the state to be split in half, horizontally, for the new congressional map.

“The suggestion in the past has been for there to essentially be kind of a northern half and a southern half,” Kondik said.

Despite the final results of the census and new maps being months away, Kondik said West Virginians already have some idea how things might look, based on the preliminary data released this week.

“The [current] 3rd District — based on the incomplete numbers we have now — lost the most population, followed by the 1st District,” he said. “The 2nd District — which cuts across the center of the state — actually gained population. So, you’re gonna have to account for those sorts of changes.”

All of this will play a role in the political calculus for McKinley, Mooney and Miller, Kondik said.

“Presumably one of these members will be able to run without a primary. But they’re going to be running in a different district than they’re used to. And that might actually invite a primary challenge — or maybe a general election challenge,” he said.

But Kondik said — given former President Donald Trump’s dominance in West Virginia in the 2020 election, despite losing nationally — it’s improbable that Democrats can regain one of the U.S. House seats.

“West Virginia’s become so Republican at the federal level that Democrats probably can’t put up much of a fight in either of these districts — given what we’ve seen over the past several cycles in West Virginia,” he said.

With West Virginia’s two House districts expected to heavily favor Republicans in 2022, Kondik said one of the state’s current House members may opt out of running this cycle to set their sights on 2024 and the seat currently held by U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin — the lone West Virginia Democrat in federal office.

“I think the Republican Senate nomination in 2024 is a pretty valuable nomination to have because Joe Manchin only won pretty narrowly in 2018 and that should be a very competitive race in 2024 — and one that a Republican may very well be favored to win,” Kondik said.

With the 2020 Census results delayed as a result of the coronavirus pandemic and interference by the Trump administration, many expect court challenges to the drawing of new maps this cycle.

Whether those hold enough merit to further slow the process or change the course of how maps look remains to be seen, but Kondik notes that things should go smoothly in West Virginia.

“There can always be lawsuits with redistricting, although some of the most common lawsuits in redistricting are over the creation of majority-minority districts where Black residents or Hispanic residents or Asian American residents may make up a majority or a near majority of the members of the people in a district,” Kondik said.

But with West Virginia’s overwhelmingly white population, Kondik said those types of lawsuits are unlikely here.

While West Virginia’s constitution and state code imposes no deadline on the Legislature to redraw district maps, the filing period for the 2022 election cycle opens in January — putting at least some pressure on the Republican supermajorities in the House of Delegates and state Senate to give potential candidates an idea of what district they’d be running in.

Lawmakers are expected to return to Charleston in the fall for a special session on redistricting. Final census results, which will inform the new maps, are expected to be released by the end of September.

April 8, 1979: Writer Breece D'J Pancake Commits Suicide

Writer BreeceD’J Pancake died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound on April 8, 1979. The South Charleston native grew up in Milton, which became the fictionalized setting for many of his short stories.

A graduate of West Virginia Wesleyan and Marshall, Pancake taught at two military schools in Virginia before entering the University of Virginia’s Creative Writing Program, where he was influenced by authors James Alan McPherson, Peter Taylor, and Mary Lee Settle. He began writing human interest stories for a Milton newspaper and working on a series of short stories. His big breakthrough came in 1977, when the Atlantic Monthly published his story “Trilobites.”

West Virginia was a popular locale for Pancake’s tales. In addition to Milton, which he fictionalized as “Rock Camp,” he wrote about the southern coalfields, Huntington, the north-central mountains, and curvy roads like Route 60 across Gauley Mountain. His stories are stark, with ironic humor, featuring characters who are trapped either by forces beyond their control or by their own past.

A collection of his short stories was published in 1983, four years after his death, bringing Pancake widespread acclaim in literary circles.

Texting is Helping W.Va. Students Get Ahead in Higher Ed

High school seniors in West Virginia who sign-up to receive text message reminders for college preparedness are doing better in their first-year of college, according to a recent study. And findings show this prep tactic is even more effective in rural areas. West Virginia Public Broadcasting explored why and brings you this report.

Five years ago, select schools in West Virginia’s GEAR UP program, or “Gaining Early Awareness and Readiness for Undergraduate Programs,” participated in a national text message initiative to get high school seniors more prepared for college. That initiative spread statewide to all West Virginia high schools almost two years ago.

A University of Virginia study found that high school seniors in West Virginia who received these text reminders were almost 7 percent more likely to persist through their first-year of college. But among students from rural areas, that number jumps to 8 percent. Why?

“The magnitude of the effect is larger for rural students than it is for students overall,” said Katharine Meyer, a graduate student in Education Policy from the University of Virginia who helped author the study. She spoke with West Virginia Public Broadcasting via Skype.

“Particularly, rural students are coming from an area where we know from other studies, they may be the first person from their community to attend an individual college, because they’re coming from smaller high schools,” she noted, “and so we saw these messages as sort of, sending students messages of support, messages of belonging, and helping them feel like they were supported and welcome in the new community.”

The University of Virginia founded the national text message project. West Virginia was one of the first states to help pilot the project when it began five years ago.

West Virginia’s text message service is called “Txt 4 Success,” and it’s spearheaded here by the West Virginia Higher Education Policy Commission.

Students who opt into the program receive reminders throughout the year about things like financial aid deadlines and information about declaring a major. Most of these texts are automated, but if a student texts back with a question or concern, they’ll more than likely hear from a real person from either the West Virginia HEPC or a counselor at one of the program’s eight college partners.

20-year-old Concord junior Chelsea Goins is a first-generation college student and comes from a rural area. She commutes to Concord from Princeton and she’s involved in a lot of activities…

“I currently work in Concord University’s president’s office, admissions office, and campus bookstore,” Goins said, “I’ve cheered since my freshman year for our football and basketball teams. I also teach dance classes at Princeton Dance Studio and Princeton Health and Fitness Center.”

A lot… Goins says a big part of why she’s been able to stay organized and on top of all these activities while also doing well in school is “Txt 4 Success.”

“The text messages provide informational links and deadlines for orientations, FAFSA, enrollment checklists, sending transcripts, payment plans, and a lot more,” she explained, “It definitely helped me as a high school senior, because the texting service provided information I had never heard of.”

Goins says she found the program most helpful when it came to filling out the Free Application for Federal Student Aid.

“In high school deadlines are kind of negotiable. If you’re late, it’s okay, but with FAFSA, if you’re late, it’s over,” she noted, “you have to file it. And so, that was a hard thing to understand, that there was a deadline.”

Goins says she thinks the service has also been helpful overall for her age-group, because texting is how she and her peers communicate most frequently.

It was for that reason West Virginia HEPC Chancellor Paul Hill says he wanted West Virginia to help pioneer this program – because it’s an efficient way to communicate with young people and because it helps those first-generation students.

“We have found some mechanisms to reach student populations that we have not reached traditionally in the past; that through increased communication, we can have an impact on students by providing them with the types of information that they need to get, so I think it’s opening up a channel of direct communication to reach those students who need it most,” he said.

Hill says there are more than 22,000 students registered in the state’s texting service. All high schools in West Virginia are involved in the program, as well as Bluefield, Marshall, Shepherd, Concord, Fairmont, and West Virginia State universities, and Southern West Virginia Community and Technical College and West Virginia Northern Community College.

Hill says the HEPC’s focus now is on pushing more college prep in elementary and middle schools.