A picture of Vince George on West Virginia State University's campus.

MEET VINCE

No matter who you talk to, there’s something you can find in common with them.

I’ve lived in West Virginia for most of my life, and I’m running for Congress to serve the community that raised me. I know things haven’t always been perfect here in West Virginia, but, in some ways, they used to be better.

I wasn’t born in West Virginia because, like many families at the time, my parents had to leave Huntington in 1955 in search of work. I was born in Cincinnati, and our family came back home to Dunbar in 1958. Both my parents grew up poor, and even though they climbed their way into the middle class, they never forgot where they came from. They never wanted to be poor again, and my mother raised us all to be fierce advocates for people who grew up like her.

Growing up in South Charleston, my dad was an award-winning salesman, and, although my mom was a homemaker, our family of seven could still afford a pretty good life. Back then, a single paycheck could support a family with multiple kids.

We always had enough food to eat. My parents were homeowners. My four siblings and I went to good public schools, attending Weberwood Elementary School and South Charleston Junior High School. And once I graduated from George Washington High School, I studied political science and commerce and cheered for the Mountaineers at West Virginia University.

NON-PARTISAN PUBLIC SERVICE

I’m not a career politician, and it took me some time to figure out what I wanted to do with my life. I’ve worn many professional hats over my career, and my decades of experience in public service have prepared me well to serve you in Congress.

I’ve helped register folks to vote for the Kanawha County Clerk’s office. I was also a staffer for the West Virginia Legislature. But I spent the most time working with people who use SNAP, Medicaid, and the program we now call TANF. I helped people find out if they were eligible for benefits, walked them through the application process, and stood beside them during some of the hardest moments in their lives.

I also spent several years recruiting doctors to treat people who use Medicaid. We worked in 27 different counties—including the eastern panhandle, north-central West Virginia, and the southern coalfields—bringing healthcare to rural communities that didn’t have enough providers.

We helped people get immunizations, prenatal care, cancer screenings, diabetes medication, and even oxygen for some of the folks with black lung. I grew up here, so I already knew West Virginians struggled to get the care they needed. But it’s one thing to know it and another thing entirely to drive through communities where people’s taps run brown and the closest doctor is over an hour’s drive away.

ADVOCATING FOR CLEAN AIR AND WATER

What I saw changed me forever. And it inspired me to work with the West Virginia Environmental Council and West Virginia Citizen Action Group to fight for clean water and clean air.

Our biggest success was changing the national conversation about mountaintop removal mining. At the time, coal companies were literally blowing up the tops of mountains and doing next to nothing to clean up local streams afterwards, as they leaked toxic mineral waste into people’s drinking water. They weren’t even letting communities use the timber they'd cleared off the mountain tops before detonating them. They’d just throw the wood over the side of the peak.

I worked with liberal environmentalists, conservatives concerned about property rights, faith communities, and even former miners opposed to the unchecked power of those corrupt coal companies. We didn’t get mountaintop removal mining banned, but we did change how closely it’s scrutinized and regulated. And I learned that working class West Virginians have political power when we stop letting politicians divide us.

CAMPAIGN EXPERIENCE

My work with WVEC and WVCAG also got me connected with West Virginia writer, advocate and legend Denise Giardina. Denise was born in southern West Virginia herself and lived in a small coal mining camp there, until the mine closed and her family moved to Charleston.

Denise was a big critic of all the ways coal companies took advantage of West Virginians, and I eventually became her statewide campaign manager during her independent run for governor. Together, we broke our state’s two-party duopoly, collecting the 19,000 signatures needed to get the Mountain Party on the gubernatorial ballot. That experience is something I’ll never forget and something that I’ll take with me to Congress.

UNION STRONG

Over the course of my career, I worked as a teacher at Fairmont State University, Shepherd University, and Martinsburg High School. I was a card-carrying member of what was then called the West Virginia Education Association. I am also a retired union member of the American Federation of State, County & Municipal Employees.