Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis., answers a question at a roundtable event at the Marriott Town Center with about 12 local residents, business owners and job seekers. He was in town to help the U.S. Senate campaign of Rep. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., who is seated beside him.
CHARLESTON, W.Va. — While Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis., blasted federal energy and health care policies Monday in Charleston alongside Rep. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., his main argument was clear: West Virginia must elect Capito to the U.S. Senate.
“If you want to stop the war on coal, if you want to have an accountable federal government, then you need to have Shelley Moore Capito come to the United States Senate and help us bring normalcy back to Congress. It’s just that simple,” Ryan said in a brief session with the media after the hour-long event.
Capito faces Democratic nominee Natalie Tennant, current Secretary of State for West Virginia, in the race to succeed the retiring Sen. Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va. Right now Democrats have 53 of the 100 seats in the Senate, but the GOP is confident it can pick up Rockefeller’s seat and several others in the 2014 election to take the majority.
He labeled the Democrat-controlled Senate as a “graveyard” for legislation from the GOP-controlled House.
Capito said it “means a lot” to her that Ryan came to the state, noting the 2012 GOP vice presidential nominee’s success in West Virginia with running mate Mitt Romney.
“I will remind you that every single county in this state voted to make Paul Ryan our vice president,” Capito said.
“His policies and his vision for our future … by him putting his stamp of approval on my campaign, that’s a lot for me.”
In addition to his vice presidential nomination, Ryan is well known for his conservative policies consistently presented in his annual budget proposals as the chairman of the House budget committee…