Speaker Roger Hanshaw nominated to continue leading House of Delegates
By Steven Allen Adams, The Intelligencer
CHARLESTON, W.Va. – Republican members of the West Virginia Senate nominated Senate Energy, Industry and Mining Committee Chairman Randy Smith as their nominee to be the next senate president in a Sunday afternoon caucus, while House Speaker Roger Hanshaw was renominated by his GOP colleagues.
Smith, R-Tucker, used three words to describe his reaction to his election by his Senate colleagues Sunday night after a nearly three-hour closed-door meeting of the Senate Republican caucus and two rounds of voting: “Shocked, overwhelmed, humbled.”
“I’m not your typical senate president type,” Smith said Sunday night on the Senate Chamber floor following the caucus vote. “I’ve been blue collar working class…if there’s ever an example of the American dream right here, he’s standing in front of you.”
Smith, a retired coal miner who spent much of the final years of his career in mine safety, was first elected to the Senate in 2016. Smith was two-term member of the House of Delegates first elected in 2012, where he served as an assistant House majority whip after Republicans took the majority in the House in 2015.
