Oye Owolewa: What West Viriginia Taught This "Shadow" Representative to Congress
Tasked with lobbying for DC statehood and expanded enfranchisement is Oye Owolewa, “shadow” DC envoy to Congress. (Oye Owolewa)
August 24, 2021
By Oye Owolewa
In my office as an elected “Shadow Representative” from Washington, DC, I am dutifully bound to lobby for DC Statehood and issues that concern my residents. It’s fascinating to see other federal officials habitually vote against the best interests of their constituents. In West Virginia, no two examples better fit the description than Senator Joe Manchin (D) and Senator Shelly Moore Capito (R). Instead of relying on the conversations in Capitol Hill, I set off to the Mountain State for 3 days to witness how out of touch Senators Manchin and Capito are from their voters.
West Virginia is home to some of America’s hardest workers, possessing a rich history of generational coal miners who empower American energy and steel. Nowadays, with a debilitated coal industry, southern counties like Boone and Logan have experienced extreme decline. Unemployment rates remain high, leading to higher rates of drug abuse, depopulation, and economic decay. Neglecting to lobby for renewable energy contracts and attract new businesses to a distraught community, Senator Manchin has publicly sided with extraction corporations that continue to ravage West Virginian ecosystems.
Manchin has backed fossil fuel industries that continue to damage local water supply. West Virginian activist Loretta Young recalls her neighbors in Coalwood, “turning on their bathtub faucet only to find brown water gushing out of it.” Manchin’s refusal to embrace the jobs of tomorrow has led to a dwindling population in McDowell County to 20,000 people. Today, 63% of West Virginians support the federal minimum wage increase to $15 an hour. Meanwhile, Senator Manchin sides with his billionaire donors that suppress the livelihood of his residents and remains missing in action when his state needs him most.
Mylan Pharmaceuticals in Morgantown, WV, one of the country’s largest medication producers, has announced it is offshoring to India. Instead of fighting for the tens of thousands of West Virginians at risk of losing their jobs, the WV Democrat flew to Texas to meet with GOP donors. This closure does not only hurt an already reeling economy—it affects our entire country as a whole. As local union representative JD Wilson states, this facility served to safely filter all imported medications for American consumption. Manchin has dropped the ball and routinely proved his interests take precedence over his constituents and their challenges. West Virginia deserves better. In addition, his daughter was the CEO of Mylan and received a windfall of millions of dollars.
West Virginians direly need elected officials that invest in them. The median salary in the Mountain State averages $25,000. The working class has greatly suffered from the COVID pandemic. In a state where 1 in 5 children experience poverty, food pantries serve beyond capacity, and massive food insecurity is a fighting reality—voters expect their Senator to fight for more resources. Unfortunately, Senator Capito has turned her back on her working-class constituents.
Senator Capito has scoffed at a multi-trillion-dollar infrastructure bill, complaining about its high price tag. The senator derided the term “human infrastructure,” which includes senior care, childcare, parental leave, universal preschool, and free community college. Hypocritically, Capito serves the nation’s 3rd leading state in elderly constituents and the highest percentage of grandparents raising grandchildren. Capito does not support legislation that directly impacts their lives, but bizarrely voted for a multi-trillion-dollar Trump Tax Cut in 2017. This bill resulted in a stock market boom for the wealthier class and left most of her constituents behind. Senator Capito has aligned her interests with Wall Street and not the Main Streets of McDowell, Boone, and Wyoming Counties.
Although the interests of West Virginians are repeatedly ignored by their Senators, hope is still on the horizon. HR-1, known as “For the People Act,” has the potential to create transparency in campaign finance. HR-1 provides value to over 75% of West Virginians who support ending political corruption by allowing voters to identify the billion-dollar sponsors influencing their Senators’ decisions. Once HR-1 is passed, the fossil fuel industry will be forced to retire their strongholds over the lawmaking process in WV.
Only then, will renewable energy jobs exist and revive the Southern West Virginia economy. Kim Felix, a WV resident notes, “College Grads won’t have to leave the state to find employment.” Recent graduates like Elliot Dotson will have the opportunity to empower their families and communities locally. Renewable energy and increased funding for vocational training in high schools are the solution. HR-1 will force Senators Manchin and Capito to fight for the working class. Once DC becomes a state, more congressional members will pass bills that support West Virginia’s working class, even if their senators won’t.
In 2020, Oye Owolewa was elected as the District of Columbia “shadow representative” to Congress to lobby for DC statehood and other issues of importance to District voters. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) is the non-voting Congressional Representative for the District of Columbia.
Follow BuzzFlash on @twitter
Continue the conversation at the BuzzFlash Nation group on Facebook