Alex Mooney running for U.S.Senate visits Bluefield

Jun. 20—BLUEFIELD — A candidate seeking the Republican nomination for the U.S. Senate seat now held by Senator Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., paid a visit Friday to Bluefield to speak with local leaders about his plans and his campaign.

U.S. Rep. Alex X. Mooney R-2nd, District stopped at the Blue Spoon Cafe & Coffee in downtown Bluefield and spoke with the Bluefield Daily Telegraph about his record in Congress and about what he could do for West Virginia in the U.S. Senate.

"The voters of West Virginia have elected me five times now to the U.S. House of Representatives," Mooney said. "I represent two thirds of the state. I don't represent here at this time, but I've decided that I will run for the U.S. Senate. The seat's currently held by Joe Manchin; and unlike the other people running, I am the only proven conservative running for the U.S. Senate. It's my view that West Virginians deserve a conservative senator."

Mooney, who lives with his wife, Grace, in Jefferson County where they raise their three children, said he was elected in 2014 to represent West Virginia in Congress, adding that he is the son of a Vietnam veteran and that his mother came to the United States after fleeing Cuba. His youngest daughter was born in Charleston.

"I'm just going to run on my record," Mooney said about his campaign.

Describing himself as "a fighter for West Virginia," Mooney, 52, said he had a "100 percent pro-life voting record and an NRA A+ rating." He also said that he is opposed to the Biden Administration's Green New Deal and "efforts to kill coal."

Mooney said he supports the nation's military and veterans, and calls for defending the nation's border and fighting illegal immigration. Protecting Social Security, fighting the Biden Administration's "reckless spending" and fighting the spread of fentanyl while funding programs fighting opioid addiction were among his priorities.

"I'm a West Virginian by choice," he said. "A lot of people like to attack me for that, but I'm proud of my choice to live in West Virginia and raise my family here. I have a voting record I will run on. This is my ninth year in Congress and I now represent the northern half of the state." U.S. Rep. Carol Miller, R-W.Va., represents the state's southern half.

Mooney added that he has never voted for a tax hike.

"I'm in this group called the Freedom Caucus. Jim Jordan helped found that, so I'm a fighting conservative and I have the record to prove it," he stated. "People can say what they want when they're running for different offices, but I have a record to stand on. I'll submit that record to the voters and again, I'm the only proven conservative running and I believe West Virginians deserve a conservative U.S. Senator. I will do a lot of good for West Virginia and frankly America."

Mooney spoke about the growing national debt and how it could impact West Virginia.

"I will say that West Virginia is part of America. If America fails, West Virginia goes right down with it," he added. "The crazy debt we're seeing right now, $32 trillion. Going up to $36 trillion. I mean, it's out of control. We cannot continue this. We're past anything responsible fiscally, so like other Republicans I've been voting against these spending bills because they create more debt. There's a lot of pressure to go along with the spending. Both parties frankly go along with the spending too much in my opinion. I have this proven record that I will vote against this out-of-control spending that's frankly full of little ironies, climate change stuff, anti-coal. They stick these in these bills and I think we have to rein in out-of-control federal government. Spending bills often don't rein them in. This 80,000 IRS army that Biden pushed through, we have every right to repeal that in the House of Representatives."

One issue Mooney said he would like to address in the Senate is "government overreach."

"As a senator, you have a lot of say over people who run these departments," he stated. "And when I tour West Virginia either in my official duty as a congressman or here as a candidate for U.S. Senate, I hear a lot of complaints about out-of-control overreach from the Executive Branch. Like when I was first elected, the war on coal being waged by (former President) Obama. And Barack Obama was abusing the Department of the Interior to ban long wall mining within 100 feet of a trickle of water, which wasn't within the purview of the Department of the Interior to do that."

"So it's my view as a Congressman and especially as a U.S. Senator, we have the right to stop these regulations," Mooney said. "And senators have to approve cabinet secretaries. Right now you have a Democrat U.S. Senate, so anybody Biden puts in now, they get approved. And in my view they're riding roughshod over the fossil fuel industry — oil and gas and coal. And farmers, too. A lot of businesses. As a senator, you can hold those appointments up and make sure if they're going to get the job, helping oversee this country in the department that does exist, that they're not going to be unfair to people who live in rural areas and depend on oil, gas and coal."

Mooney was asked about security along the nation's southern border.

"When President Trump was in office, he almost finished building the wall; I mean, there's not that much left," Mooney said. "Obviously, we have to finish building the wall. It is an atrocity that the Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security is flagrantly ignoring the law he's charged with doing. Even Barack Obama would deport people who were over here illegally. He actually enforced the law. If one doesn't like the law, you work to change the law, but the law is the law."

Mooney said that he endorses Donald Trump.

"Though you didn't see it in the southern part of the state, but the northern part of the state that I represent we had a very tough primary, a Republican primary," Mooney recalled. "The other congressman was David McKinley. He and I both ran for the seat. We were both incumbents and President Trump, again acknowledging that I'm conservative and a fighter, like him, endorsed me in that race as did other conservative organizations, like even now the Senate Conservatives Fund has endorsed me, a group called Gun Owners of America has endorsed me, CPAC, they endorsed me, Senator Rand Paul has endorsed me, Senator Ted Cruz has endorsed me, so conservative endorsements are helping my campaign."

Mooney praised Trump's administration.

"President Trump did a great job when he was president. I was proud to vote for his tax cuts," Mooney said. "They were good for America. We delivered those tax cuts for America and he's running again, and I think he's been very badly treated by the Department of Justice. I think they witch hunted with him. Senator Manchin holds the seat now and he voted to impeach Donald Trump twice and convict him and remove him from office. Senator Manchin voted to convict an innocent man, and I think that's an outrage. I do not think he represents West Virginia by voting to remove Donald Trump as president."

On the rising inflation being seen throughout the country, Mooney said it can "quite easily" be correlated to out-of-control federal spending.

"Biden has spent over $5 trillion dollars. That's too much government spending causing inflation. And frankly, the COVID shutdowns Biden overreached on as well, has caused supply chain problems," he said. "People just weren't working for over a year and that has caused a smaller supply of goods and services, so the prices have gone up. I actually think the Democrats know what they're doing with inflation. I think they're good with it, because inflation takes money from people who have saved and essentially they can spend it now on their priorities. I think it's very unfair to people living on fixed incomes like senior citizens, people living off their savings when they're retired. Inflation hits them the hardest."

"It's only getting worse under Biden. More and more spending means more debt and more inflation," Mooney added. "That's a huge concern."

Mooney also shared his thoughts about the nation's highways and bridges.

"Infrastructure is something that's bipartisan, building roads and bridges. I did vote in the past, in my nine years in Congress, I have voted for transportation bills that live within their means and focus on roads and bridges like the King Coal Highway," he said. "What we have to fight back against as conservatives and people who live in rural areas is the desire to use transportation dollars for things like metros in New York or climate change environmental works that are not connected to roads and bridges. Protect those dollars and bring them here specifically for roads."

"I spent my first two years on the Natural Resources Committee,: he said. "A lot of problems with building a road is something that's declared endangered like a plant or something and they stop the road, and there's not a good system right now for the clearing of endangered plant species and animals. That's been a big problem not only in West Virginia but around the country for getting roads finished, so we need to make sure we use common sense in the environmental policies as well."

— Contact Greg Jordan at gjordan@bdtonline.com

Contact Greg Jordan at gjordan@bdtonline.com