Evan Jenkins (politician)

Early life

Jenkins, a lifelong resident of Huntington, is the son of Dorothy C. Jenkins and the late John E. Jenkins, Jr. He attended public schools.

Jenkins earned his B.S. in Education/Business Administration from the University of Florida in 1983. He went on to earn his J.D. from Cumberland School of Law in 1987.

He was the Executive Director of the West Virginia State Medical Association, and taught business law as an instructor at Marshall University. He is also the former Co-Chairman of the Health Care Committee in the West Virginia State Chamber of Commerce.

West Virginia Legislature

Jenkins served on both sides of the legislature in Charleston, having first been elected as a member of the West Virginia House of Delegates in 1994. He lost a race for the Supreme Court of Appeals of West Virginia in 2000.

Jenkins was then elected to the West Virginia State Senate in 2002, after defeating Democratic incumbent Marie Redd in the primary election and former State Senator Thomas Scott in the general election. In 2006, Jenkins once again defeated Redd in the primary election, and Scott in the general election (with 64% of the vote). In 2010, Jenkins was again re-elected to the West Virginia State Senate, District 5, running unopposed in the general election.

Elections

In July 2013, Jenkins announced he was switching to the Republican Party in preparation for a run at West Virginia's 3rd congressional district seat, held by 19-term Democrat Nick Rahall. He had actually grown up as a Republican, but became a Democrat in 1992 prior to his run for the House of Delegates. On switching parties, Jenkins stated that: “West Virginia is under attack from Barack Obama and a Democratic Party that our parents and grandparents would not recognize." West Virginia's 3rd district had long been a Democratic stronghold, but had been swept up in the growing Republican tide that had swept the state since the turn of the century. In 2012, it went for Mitt Romney 66-32 percent, making it the second-most Republican district in the nation to be represented by a Democrat. Jenkins and Rahall had contributed to each other's campaigns in the decade's previous election cycles.

Jenkins ran unopposed in the Republican primary. He faced Rahall in the general election in November 2014. An early poll showed Jenkins with a double-digit lead over Rahall.

The National Right to Life Committee, West Virginia Chamber of Commerce, and West Virginians for Life, all of which had previously supported Rahall, supported Jenkins in 2014, and the West Virginia Coal Association endorsed Jenkins in September 2014. On October 2, managing editor Kyle Kondik of Sabato's Crystal Ball said the race was a toss-up, calling it "Super close, super expensive and super nasty." Rahall outspent Jenkins in the election by a two-to-one ratio.

In the general election, Jenkins defeated Rahall, taking 55% of the vote to 45% – the second-largest margin of defeat suffered by an incumbent in the 2014 cycle. As a measure of how Democratic much of this district once was, when Jenkins took office on January 3, 2015, he became the first Republican to represent what is now the 3rd since 1957 (the district was numbered as the 4th before 1993), and the first Republican to represent most of the district's southern portion since 1933 (most of which was the 5th district before it was eliminated in 1973). In addition, Jenkins' victory, along with those of Alex Mooney and David McKinley, meant that West Virginia had an all-Republican House delegation for the first time since 1923.

2016

Jenkins defeated Democratic candidate Matt Detch in the November, 2016 general election with 67.9% of the vote.

Committee assignments

U.S. Senate election, 2018

Jenkins announced his intentions to run for the United States Senate seat currently held by Joe Manchin on May 8, 2017. His main competitor for the Republican nomination is state Attorney General Patrick Morrisey.

Environment

Jenkins opposes federal cap and trade restrictions on coal emissions. He feels that some Environmental Protection Agency regulations are too strict, such as those affecting the coal industry and the use of wood-burning stoves. He supported Pres. Donald Trump's decision to withdraw from the Paris Climate Accord. “The Paris accord puts the United States on an uneven playing field, forcing us to make costly reductions, all while countries like China and India make their own rules,” he told the Charleston Gazette-Mail.

Health care

In May 2017, Jenkins voted for the American Health Care Act (AHCA), the GOP bill to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare), saying that he supported "coverage for pre-existing conditions, mental health care and substance abuse treatment... Under this legislation, West Virginia would have a choice about what will work best for us." Later in Jun 2017, Jenkins said that while AHCA allowed states to opt out of the requirement that insurers not discriminate against individuals with preexisting conditions and the requirement that insurers provide "essential health benefits", he did not want West Virginia to seek waivers from those requirements. Asked about the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office's estimate that 23 million Americans would lose their insurance under AHCA, Jenkins questioned the accuracy of the CBO's prediction and said that the numbers failed to account for people who will get insurance due to economic growth.

Personal life

Jenkins and his wife Elizabeth have three children, two sons and one daughter.