Evan Jenkins
RWon the General, 2016 West Virginia U.S. House District 3
West Virginia Justice of the Supreme Court (2019 - Present)
To be claimed
Former Member, Appropriations Committee, United States House of Representatives
Member, Commission for Biomedical Research and Biotechnology, Marshall University
Member, Democratic Leadership Council, West Virginia State Legislative Advisory Council
Former Member, Education Committee, West Virginia State Senate
Former Member, Enrolled Bills Committee, West Virginia State Senate
Former Member, Government Organization Committee, West Virginia State Senate
Former Member, Judiciary Committee, West Virginia State Senate
Former Member, Military Committee, West Virginia State Senate
Former Member, Natural Resources Committee, West Virginia State Senate
Former Member, Subcommittee on Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies, United States House of Representatives
Former Member, Subcommittee on the Legislative Branch, United States House of Representatives
Former Member, Subcommittee on Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, and Related Agencies, United States House of Representatives
Vice Chair, Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies, United States House of Representatives, 2017-2018
Member, Subcommittee on Military Construction, Veterans Affairs, and Related Agencies, United States House of Representatives, 2017-2018
Chair, Commission on Interstate Cooperation, 2006
Former Member, Appropriations Committee, United States House of Representatives
Member, Commission for Biomedical Research and Biotechnology, Marshall University
Member, Democratic Leadership Council, West Virginia State Legislative Advisory Council
Former Member, Education Committee, West Virginia State Senate
Former Member, Enrolled Bills Committee, West Virginia State Senate
Former Member, Government Organization Committee, West Virginia State Senate
Former Member, Judiciary Committee, West Virginia State Senate
Former Member, Military Committee, West Virginia State Senate
Former Member, Natural Resources Committee, West Virginia State Senate
Former Member, Subcommittee on Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies, United States House of Representatives
Former Member, Subcommittee on the Legislative Branch, United States House of Representatives
Former Member, Subcommittee on Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, and Related Agencies, United States House of Representatives
Vice Chair, Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies, United States House of Representatives, 2017-2018
Member, Subcommittee on Military Construction, Veterans Affairs, and Related Agencies, United States House of Representatives, 2017-2018
Chair, Commission on Interstate Cooperation, 2006
1. Do you generally support pro-choice or pro-life legislation?
- Pro-life
1. In order to balance the budget, do you support an income tax increase on any tax bracket?
- No
2. In order to balance the budget, do you support reducing defense spending?
- No
Do you support the regulation of indirect campaign contributions from corporations and unions?
- Unknown Position
1. Do you support federal spending as a means of promoting economic growth?
- Yes
2. Do you support lowering corporate taxes as a means of promoting economic growth?
- Yes
1. Do you support requiring states to adopt federal education standards?
- No
1. Do you support government funding for the development of renewable energy (e.g. solar, wind, thermal)?
- Unknown Position
2. Do you support the federal regulation of greenhouse gas emissions?
- No
Do you generally support gun-control legislation?
- No
Do you support repealing the 2010 Affordable Care Act ("Obamacare")?
- Yes
1. Do you support the construction of a wall along the Mexican border?
- Yes
2. Do you support requiring immigrants who are unlawfully present to return to their country of origin before they are eligible for citizenship?
- Yes
Do you support the legalization of marijuana for recreational purposes?
- Unknown Position
1. Should the United States use military force in order to prevent governments hostile to the U.S. from possessing a nuclear weapon?
- Unknown Position
2. Do you support increased American intervention in Middle Eastern conflicts beyond air support?
- Unknown Position
1. Abortions should always be illegal.
- No Answer
2. Abortions should always be legal.
- No Answer
3. Abortions should be legal only within the first trimester of pregnancy.
- No Answer
4. Abortions should be legal when the pregnancy resulted from incest or rape.
- X
5. Abortions should be legal when the life of the woman is endangered.
- X
6. Prohibit public funding of abortions and to organizations that advocate or perform abortions.
- No Answer
7. Require clinics to give parental notification before performing abortions on minors.
- X
8. Other or expanded principles
- No Answer
1. Education (Higher)
- Slightly Increase
2. Education (K-12)
- Slightly Increase
3. Environment
- Maintain Status
4. Health care
- Slightly Increase
5. Law enforcement
- Slightly Increase
6. Transportation and Highway infrastructure
- Slightly Increase
7. Welfare
- Slightly Increase
8. Emergency preparedness
- Maintain Status
9. Other or expanded categories
- No Answer
10. Alcohol taxes
- Slightly Increase
11. Capital gains taxes
- Maintain Status
12. Cigarette taxes
- Slightly Increase
13. Corporate taxes
- Slightly Decrease
14. Gasoline taxes
- Maintain Status
15. Income taxes (incomes below $75,000)
- Slightly Decrease
16. Income taxes (incomes above $75,000)
- Maintain Status
17. Property taxes
- Maintain Status
18. Sales taxes
- Slightly Decrease
19. Vehicle taxes
- Maintain Status
20. Should the state sales taxes be extended to Internet sales?
- Undecided
21. Should accounts such as a "rainy day" fund be used to balance the state budget?
- No
22. Should fee increases be used to balance the state budget?
- No
23. Other or expanded principles
- No Answer
1. Do you support the current limit of terms for West Virginia governors?
- Yes
2. Do you support limiting the number of terms for West Virginia state senators and representatives?
- Undecided
3. Individual
- Yes
4. PAC
- Yes
5. Corporate
- Yes
6. Political Parties
- Yes
7. Do you support requiring full and timely disclosure of campaign finance information?
- Yes
8. Do you support imposing spending limits on state level political campaigns?
- Yes
9. Do you support adopting statewide standards for counting, verifying and ensuring accuracy of votes?
- Yes
10. Do you support prohibiting media exit polling of voters until all polling locations in West Virginia are closed?
- Yes
11. Should West Virginia recognize civil unions between same-sex couples?
- Undecided
12. Should racetracks be able to offer casino-style table games?
- No
13. Should the use of eminent domain be restricted to seizures of property necessary for public use?
- Yes
14. Other or expanded principles
- No Answer
1. Increase state funds for construction of state prisons and hiring of additional prison staff.
- No Answer
2. Implement the death penalty in West Virginia.
- No Answer
3. Support programs to provide prison inmates with vocational and job-related skills and job-placement assistance when released.
- No Answer
4. End parole for repeat violent offenders.
- X
5. Implement other penalties than incarceration for certain non-violent offenders.
- X
6. Decriminalize the possession of small amounts of marijuana.
- No Answer
7. Strengthen penalties and sentences for drug-related crimes.
- X
8. Minors accused of a violent crime should be prosecuted as adults.
- X
9. Require that crimes based on race, ethnic background, religious belief, sex, age, disability, or sexual orientation be prosecuted as hate crimes.
- No Answer
10. Increase state funding for community centers and other social agencies in areas with at-risk youth.
- No Answer
11. Increase state funding for state and local emergency agencies to prevent or respond to terrorism.
- No Answer
12. Increase sentences on sex offenders.
- X
13. Support the restriction of the sale of products used to make Methamphetamine (e.g. tablets containing Pseudophedrine, Ephedrine and Phenylpropanolamine.)
- X
14. Other or expanded principles
- No Answer
1. Support national standards and testing of public school students.
- X
2. Provide parents with state-funded vouchers to send their children to any public school.
- No Answer
3. Provide parents with state-funded vouchers to send their children to any private or religious school.
- No Answer
4. Increase state funds for school capital improvements (e.g. buildings and infrastructure).
- No Answer
5. Increase funds for hiring additional teachers.
- No Answer
6. Support teacher testing and reward with merit pay.
- No Answer
7. Endorse voluntary prayer in public schools.
- No Answer
8. Require public schools to administer high school exit exams.
- No Answer
9. Provide state funding to increase teacher salaries.
- X
10. Increase funding for Head Start programs.
- X
11. Provide state funding for tax incentives and financial aid to help make college more affordable.
- X
12. Support sexual education programs that include information on abstinence, contraceptives, and HIV/STD prevention methods.
- No Answer
13. Support abstinence-only sexual education programs.
- No Answer
14. Other or expanded principles
- No Answer
1. Increase funding for state job-training programs that retrain displaced workers and teach skills needed in today's job market.
- X
2. Reduce state government regulations on the private sector in order to encourage investment and economic expansion.
- No Answer
3. Provide low interest loans and tax credits for starting, expanding, or relocating businesses.
- No Answer
4. Provide tax credits for businesses that provide child care for children in low-income working families.
- X
5. Increase state funds to provide child care for children in low-income working families.
- X
6. Include sexual orientation in West Virginia's anti-discrimination laws.
- No Answer
7. Increase the state minimum wage.
- X
8. Other or expanded principles
- No Answer
9. Public employment
- No Answer
10. State college and university admissions
- No Answer
11. State contracting
- No Answer
1. Promote increased use of alternative fuel technology.
- X
2. Support increased production of traditional domestic energy sources (e.g. coal, natural gas, and oil).
- No Answer
3. Use state funds to clean up former industrial and commercial sites that are contaminated, unused, or abandoned.
- No Answer
4. Increase funding for improvements to West Virginia's power generating and transmission facilities.
- X
5. Support funding for open space preservation.
- X
6. Enact environmental regulations even if they are stricter than federal law.
- No Answer
7. Other or expanded principles
- No Answer
1. Maintain and strengthen the enforcement of existing state restrictions on the purchase and possession of guns.
- No Answer
2. Ease state restrictions on the purchase and possession of guns.
- No Answer
3. Repeal state restrictions on the purchase and possession of guns.
- No Answer
4. Allow citizens to carry concealed guns.
- No Answer
5. Require background checks on gun sales between private citizens at gun shows.
- No Answer
6. Require a license for gun possession.
- No Answer
7. Other or expanded principles
- No Answer
1. Ensure that citizens have access to basic health care through managed care, insurance reforms, or state-funded care where necessary.
- X
2. Transfer current Medicaid recipients into managed care programs.
- No Answer
3. Limit the amount of punitive damages that can be awarded in medical malpractice lawsuits.
- X
4. Support patients' right to sue their HMOs.
- X
5. Guaranteed medical care to all citizens is not a responsibility of state government.
- No Answer
6. Legalize physician assisted suicide in West Virginia.
- No Answer
7. Allow doctors to prescribe marijuana to their patients for medicinal purposes.
- No Answer
8. Other or expanded principles
- No Answer
1. Support increased work requirements for able-bodied welfare recipients.
- No Answer
2. Increase funding for employment and job training programs for welfare recipients.
- X
3. Increase access to public transportation for welfare recipients who work.
- X
4. Redirect welfare funding to faith-based and community-based private organizations.
- No Answer
5. Use federal TANF (Temporary Assistance to Needy Families) funds to extend health and child care subsidies to the working poor.
- X
6. Support marriage promotion programs for welfare recipients.
- No Answer
7. Eliminate government-funded welfare programs.
- No Answer
8. Other or expanded principles
- No Answer
On an attached page, disk, or via email, please explain in a total of 75 words or less, your top two or three priorities if elected. If they require additional funding for implementation, please explain how you would obtain this funding.
- No Answer
Latest Action: House - 07/16/2018 Referred to the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform.
Tracker:Latest Action: House - 07/18/2018 Motion to reconsider laid on the table Agreed to without objection.
Tracker:Latest Action: House - 06/28/2018 Referred to the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform.
Tracker:By Evan Jenkins The opioid crisis touches nearly every family in West Virginia, with too many lives lost to the disease of addiction. It's an issue I hear about every day as your representative in Congress and one we must work together to change. Here in the U.S. House of Representatives, we're taking action to stop the spread of fentanyl, help people enter treatment, and ensure opioids are prescribed responsibly. A national crisis requires a national response, and I've helped pass more than 30 bills last week as the House focuses in on the opioid epidemic. Fentanyl remains one of the very deadliest aspects of the opioid crisis -- just a grain is enough to kill. Heroin is laced with unknown quantities of fentanyl, often resulting in deadly overdoses. In Huntington back in April, a raid led by federal, state and local officials took enough fentanyl off the streets to kill 250,000 people. We all know fentanyl is only legal for controlled medical use, but drug traffickers have found a loophole. They change a fentanyl molecule or two and suddenly they have a new, unregulated drug. We're closing that loophole in the Stop the Importation and Trafficking of Synthetic Analogues Act. This bill, which I was proud to cosponsor, will allow the U.S. attorney general to quickly make new fentanyl derivatives illegal. Our law enforcement officials will be able to respond quicker to stop Chinese and Mexican drug traffickers and hold them accountable for peddling their poisons in our communities. As we're taking drugs off the streets, we must also make sure treatment options are available for people ready to start their path to recovery. In Congress, we've provided billions of dollars yearly for grants to recovery programs. We're expanding that by authorizing another $15 million a year to help support community-based, peer-delivered recovery programs. Many of the most successful recovery programs, like Recovery Point in West Virginia, use people in recovery to help counsel and mentor new enrollees, providing them unique mental support. West Virginia and Appalachia have been hit particularly hard by the opioid crisis, and the rural nature of our state makes access to care and recovery programs that much harder. That's why I was proud to help pass the Treating Barriers to Prosperity Act, which will help the Appalachian Regional Commission expand programs and grants for drug abuse prevention and recovery. Finally, we're working to make sure healthcare providers have the tools and guidance they need to prescribe opioids responsibly while also recognizing addiction risk factors. Congressman David McKinley of West Virginia is a leader on this issue with his legislation, the Preventing Overdoses While in Emergency Rooms Act, which directs hospitals to develop protocols on discharging patients who had been treated for an opioid overdose. No patient who has recently overdosed should be sent home without a follow-up plan and resources for recovery options. In West Virginia, we've also heard much about the story of Jessie Grubb, a West Virginia native who died of an opioid overdose. Jessie, who was in recovery, was prescribed 50 oxycodone pills after hip surgery and fatally overdosed the day after her discharge. Had her medical records clearly stated that she had struggled with substance abuse, this tragedy could have been prevented. We've just passed Jessie's Law, named in her memory, to set up a way for patients and doctors to better communicate about past opioid addiction. If a patient consents, a note will be made on the patient's medical history regarding a past opioid addiction, making sure that any pain management decisions will take this history into account. This information can help prevent tragic deaths and strengthens the relationship between the doctor and the patient. The opioid crisis cannot be solved overnight, but we must keep fighting. Communities throughout West Virginia have come together to respond, and so our nation must do the same. This is not a partisan issue; it is a human issue. Together, we can make a difference and defeat the opioid epidemic.
By Rep. Evan Jenkins In the final weeks of his administration, President Barack Obama pushed forward yet another job-killing regulation aimed at West Virginia's coal miners. Having lost thousands of coal jobs over those eight years, West Virginians could not afford yet another federal effort to close mines and put miners out of work. But that's exactly what the stream buffer zone rule would do -- and why Congress is putting a stop to it. On Wednesday, the House will act on legislation I've introduced to stop the stream buffer zone rule, the final component of the last president's war on coal. It's no coincidence that this rule went into effect the day before President Donald Trump took office. We will now use every tool at our disposal to roll back this and other job-killing, overreaching regulations to protect our jobs and save our coal communities. The loss of a coal job and the closing of a coal mine affects the entire state. Coal has been our state's backbone for more than 100 years. Its severance tax revenues help to fund our schools, pay for our police and fire departments and put money in the coffers of our local governments. As mines have closed and less coal has been mined, these taxes have dried up. That means our cities and towns are now making tough cuts, laying off first responders and consolidating schools. When we lose coal jobs, we lose other jobs as well. When coal families lose a paycheck, they aren't able to buy goods and services like they used to. When a coal family goes out to eat, the restaurant owner can pay employees and the rent. Cooks and servers spend their earnings to pay their bills and shop at local businesses. Coal mines buy goods from suppliers, who create a network of related jobs and spending. Without the good paycheck that coal provides, everyone down the line is affected. Closing a mine hurts us all. That is why stopping these regulations is so critical -- our state simply can't afford to lose any more jobs or any more opportunities. I have helped lead the effort in the U.S. House of Representatives to stop the stream buffer zone rule using what's known as the Congressional Review Act. By introducing a resolution using the Congressional Review Act, Congress has to take an up-or-down, simple majority vote on the regulation. If Congress votes to overturn the regulation, it's done. It can't be introduced again, even in a similar form, unless Congress votes to allow it. This provides certainty for our state and our mines that a future administration can't come in and force the stream buffer zone rule on us again. This regulation has less to do with clean water and more to do with Washington bureaucrats adding red tape. There is no evidence that this rule would make water any safer or protect the environment -- it simply duplicates standards that our state agencies already oversee. We can all agree that clean water is important and vital for our residents, but this rule would do nothing to protect it. This rule is simply about killing an industry that the previous administration opposed, threatening the jobs and livelihood of thousands of American workers. I am proud to fight for the people of West Virginia and for a better future for our state. We can work together to stop rules and policies that hurt our state while pushing for solutions that create opportunities for all. We have had a change in leadership in the White House, and now we can put an end to the war on coal once and for all. This is about defending jobs, protecting families, and giving West Virginians new opportunities in West Virginia. And it starts with repealing this job-killing rule so West Virginia can grow again.