8th House district candidate Q&A: David Kelly talks bullying, family violence and financial stress

When we visited northwestern West Virginia, students frequently said they’re worried about school and campus safety. Others interviewed in the region often brought up violence and threats, including bullying and family violence like domestic and child abuse. Another common theme was financial stress.

As part of Mountain State Spotlight’s “Citizens Agenda” approach to covering this year’s elections, we asked candidates for the area’s 8th District House of Delegates seat about these issues. David Kelly is the Republican incumbent and is running unopposed.

Find out which House district you live in here .

These interviews have been edited for clarity and length.

MSS: Residents often wanted to talk about types of violence. Charity workers told me they often see single mothers who were once in abusive relationships. They also see grandparents caring for abused children removed from their homes. School-age students mentioned two recent suicides at Tyler Consolidated that followed bullying, and I spoke to many young people who had also been bullied. Young people in high schools worried about school safety and college-age youth worried about concealed carry, and what that could mean for students that are struggling with mental health issues or drunk, essentially.

As a lawmaker, how have you worked to prevent violence like bullying and abuse, and what will you commit to doing to prevent violence in schools and in families?

Kelly: I think the Legislature as a whole has worked diligently to try to prevent any kind of abuse, whether it’s domestic violence, it’s child abuse, it’s bullying in school, and that’s that’s something that we have to continue working on because we may pass legislation this year and realize we didn’t go far enough, so we’ll take it back up, and, of course, try to do whatever we can to make any piece of legislation better.

There is no place in the school for bullying. There’s no place for that. That’s an issue that is statewide like all the other things that you mentioned in the question. They’re all statewide issues. They’re major issues, and they’re issues that the Legislature is attempting to address every time we’re in session.

MSS: People in these communities also frequently brought up their finances. Working people said they were struggling to make ends meet as they deal with rising costs. Charity workers are seeing more need. Those charity workers also didn’t see that oil and gas jobs had reduced the number of people who were relying on their services. Some said that people are sometimes in predicaments that force them to use social programs, like single mothers who’ve left abusive relationships. I did interview someone in that situation that’s going to be in the story. Some people said they believe people don’t want to work. I didn’t find anyone who admitted that in an interview. And lots of residents also spoke about low-wage jobs in the area. They said higher paying oil and gas jobs have sometimes gone to out-of-state workers or required travel outside the state.

As a lawmaker, what have you done and what will you do to help people boost their incomes, and what will you commit to doing in the future to help people become more financially secure and self-reliant?

Kelly: I think one of the biggest things we’ve done as a Legislature, and I’m proud to have been part of that, was to begin to reduce the state income tax for folks in West Virginia. That puts money in their pockets, and that’s very important.

Look, I go to the same gas stations, and we’re all struggling with the issues – high prices at the gas pumps, food prices are skyrocketing, and that’s something that the state doesn’t have control over but, but we’re all aware of it, and we’re trying to meet the needs. Again, with the income tax relief that we’re giving state residents is a good start. We’re not finished with that. There continues to be a period of time where we’ll continue to decrease that.

As far as jobs, we kind of live in this area where you have oil and gas, and that’s the major driving thing right now in the area where I represent, and we have Momentive, which is also in that general area. It’s a chemical plant. Beyond that, our folks may struggle with finding a job that will put gasoline in their cars and buy their groceries and get their prescriptions.

To me, it’s heartbreaking and I’m not sure what we do on the state level to fix that. A lot of those things happen on the federal level. But what I can tell you is that I will continue to work to cut taxes where we can cut taxes, and to provide relief where we can.

And the single mother who is struggling and finds herself going for help, thank God those are out there, thank God there’s Medicaid for her and her children, if they need it. The charitable organizations in the district try to step up.

We talked a little bit about churches being involved in Doddridge County. You went to one of the churches in my district , and they were doing something. And so I think that’s what’s representative of what the church community will do. If there’s a need, they’ll try to help address that need, whether it’s a food pantry or whether it’s other types of necessity. Deodorant, toothpaste. Those are things that the church community does, and other charitable organizations as well.

8th House district candidate Q&A: David Kelly talks bullying, family violence and financial stress appeared first on Mountain State Spotlight , West Virginia's civic newsroom.