U.S. representative fields questions at Town Hall meeting

U.S. Rep. David McKinley answered questions from potential constituents, fielded by moderator Marsha Chwalik, in the Robert C. Byrd Center for Congressional History and Education on Monday night. Toni Milbourne
SHEPHERDSTOWN — A Town Hall meeting on Monday evening, hosted by the Bonnie and Bill Stubbblefield Institute for Civil Political Communications in the Robert C. Byrd Center for Congressional History and Education, had voters seeking answers to questions from U.S. Rep. David McKinley (R-WV-01).
The meeting, moderated by Marsha Chwalik, who is the news director and host of Panhandle Live! on WEPM radio, allowed attendees to submit written questions that were read aloud and then responded to by McKinley. Prior to the question and answer session, McKinley shared a bit of his background as an engineer, adding that he left that career to go into Congress.
“Tonight I’m speaking to potential constituents,” McKinley said, as he relayed that he has been voted the 34th most effective Congressman currently in office.
McKinley, hailing from Wheeling, has served as a West Virginia representative since 2011. He will face off in the upcoming election against Republican candidates Susan Buchser Lochocki, of Morgantown, Rhonda A. Hercules, of Wheeling, Mike Sakman, of West Union, and Alex Mooney, of Charles Town. Mooney currently serves as a Congressman as well; however, with redistricting in the state, West Virginia will lose one Congressional district this year, eliminating a representative. Each of these candidates hopes to win the bid to represent the state’s Congressional District 2.
“I’m a seventh generation West Virginian,” McKinley told those gathered in the Byrd Center auditorium. “I just want to make it better.”
Questions for the Congressman covered a variety of topics, beginning with a reference to negative campaigning and how to eliminate that.
“The best way to be successful is to show that you can win without a negative campaign,” McKinley said. “I’ve never run a negative campaign.”
McKinley did share that the atmosphere in Washington currently is a bad one.
“It’s horrible right now,” he said. “I’ve tried to reach across the aisle and develop relationships, but sometimes people just don’t want to work together.”
Another topic was the bipartisan infrastructure bill passed in Washington.
“This was for West Virginia,” McKinley said, explaining he had helped work toward an infrastructure bill under Pres. Barack Obama and Pres. Donald Trump, but the bill did not pass during those presidential terms.
Rather than wait for a future majority in both the Senate and the House, McKinley said he saw the current timeframe as necessary to work toward the bill.
“We’ve waited for 12 years,” he said. “I saw something that was good for West Virginia.”
The passage of the bill will bring significant funding to West Virginia for a variety of areas. Some of those were touched upon throughout the evening, including funds to work toward lowering the instances of opioid addictions and deaths.
“Every state has become a border state,” McKinley said, referring to the opioid crisis. “West Virginia is a target.”
Other topics of discussion with regard to the infrastructure bill included the influx of funds that will assist with water and sewer issues in West Virginia, as well as reclamation of abandoned mine lands.
A brief discussion was had on the southern border. McKinley said he has visited the border where he said he expected to seem more of an actual border, but with lack of manpower, individuals simply walk across.
He talked about technology that had come into use, during the Trump administration that, in one way, helped show inequities in vehicles — showing that alterations were made to allow drugs to be smuggled through.
“The use of that technology was discontinued under President Biden,” McKinley said. “We are not doing a good job of capturing those things.”
McKinley also commented on the pain Americans are feeling at the gas pumps, saying that if there was more supply, the prices would come down; however, the current administration shut down the pipelines.
McKinley answered, when asked, that he was not in favor of American soldiers on the ground in Ukraine.
“But we need to send more than blankets to help them,” he said. “We need to support NATO to help Ukraine.”