WV SENATE: Patrick Morrissey (R)
About Patrick:
Patrick Morrisey is West Virginia’s first Republican Attorney General since 1933. Elected in 2012 and reelected in 2016, Morrisey is a conservative champion for Mountain State families and taxpayers. His conservative principles and record of standing up to President Obama is one reason why his colleagues named him national chair of the Republican Attorneys General Association.
Growing up in a working-class family, Morrisey learned the importance of a strong work ethic. The son of a World War II veteran and a Veterans Administration nurse, Morrisey paid his way through school and understands what it means to live paycheck to paycheck.
Since becoming Attorney General, Morrisey has assembled a long list of conservative accomplishments. He quickly developed a reputation as a “go-to” leader against President Obama’s unlawful and radical agenda. He led a 27-state coalition in securing an unprecedented win against Obama’s EPA and his so-called “Clean Power Plan” at the U.S. Supreme Court, saving many coal miners’ jobs.
Morrisey also led the way to obtain a national stay of Obama’s “waters of the United States rule,” a regulation that would have hurt farmers, homeowners, small businesses, and others in energy jobs.
A consistent conservative and advocate of the rule of law, Morrisey worked with a coalition of states to defeat Obama’s unlawful amnesty program. More recently, he led a 10-state effort to support President Trump’s anti-sanctuary city policy.
Morrisey fights for the little guy and stands up for the most vulnerable. One hundred percent pro-life and a champion of religious liberty, his work helped pave the way for passage of the Pain-Capable law and for several key victories against the Obama administration’s assault on religious freedom.
A strong defender of the Second Amendment, Morrisey has earned A+ ratings from the NRA and the West Virginia Citizen’s Defense League. He has secured dozens of gun reciprocity agreements with other states to expand West Virginians’ rights, and he took on the gun grabbers in court.
Aggressively tackling the state’s terrible substance abuse problem, Morrisey’s office formed the first ever drug abuse unit and reached record-breaking settlements with pharmaceutical distributors, totaling $47 million. Morrisey also established a “best practices” initiative – supported by dozens of local and state groups – to dramatically reduce opiate use. He has advanced new initiatives to facilitate treatment options and educate students and citizens about the perils of addiction.
A champion for taxpayers, Morrisey has helped the state and consumers garner hundreds of millions of dollars, including returning more than $40 million voluntarily to the state’s general fund. He also saved $4.4 million in just 15 months by establishing a disability fraud unit.
Before being elected as Attorney General, Morrisey worked as a health care attorney in the private sector at several large firms, where he participated in the challenge to Obamacare. Morrisey also served as deputy staff director and chief health counsel to the U.S. House of Representatives Energy and Commerce Committee, where he worked on Medicare, Medicaid, and bioterrorism legislation.
A resident of Harpers Ferry since 2006, Morrisey is married to Denise and has a stepdaughter, Julia. He graduated with honors from Rutgers College in 1989 and earned his juris doctorate from Rutgers Law School-Newark in 1992. An avid tennis fan, Morrisey once served as a professional tennis umpire at the U.S. Open.
The biographical information above was sourced from the campaign website; see link above for more information.
