WASHINGTON, D.C. — Club for Growth Foundation today released its Missed Votes West Virginia scorecard for the Legislature’s 2021 regular and special sessions. The newly launched Missed Votes Scorecards calculate how often lawmakers show up to vote and how often they miss votes.
Lawmakers miss votes for a whole host of reasons, including medical issues, family concerns, prior commitments, purely political motivations, or other reasons. The Club for Growth Foundation generally doesn’t analyze why a lawmaker has missed a vote and is simply publishing this quantified information for educational purposes only.
According to Club for Growth Foundation President David McIntosh, “Constituents need to know the missed votes records of their representatives so they can decide for themselves if elected officials are avoiding a difficult vote or have a legitimate reason for missing a particular vote. Sadly, this information is often not available, and that is why the Club for Growth Foundation is publishing Missed Votes scorecards.”
This scorecard is based on a review of all floor votes taken in the West Virginia Legislature from January 13, 2021 to October 20, 2021. There are inherent limitations in judging the overall qualifications of any legislator based on how many votes he or she has missed, and the Club for Growth Foundation does not endorse or oppose any legislator for public office.
Key Insights
West Virginia Senate
The average West Virginia senator missed 4 percent of 799 total floor votes, with Republican senators on average missing 3 percent of all floor votes and Democrat senators on average missing 5 percent of all floor votes. Sen. Michael Maroney (SD-2) missed the most votes – 135 votes out of 799 – for a score of 17% missed votes. By not missing a single vote, the following senators received a perfect attendance score:
- Craig Blair (SD-15)
- Owens Brown (SD-1) *Brown assumed office on 10/7/2021
- Amy Grady (SD-4)
- Rupert Phillips (SD-7)
- Rollan Roberts (SD-9)
- William Swope (SD-6)
- Eric Tarr (SD-4)
- Charles Trump (SD-15)
West Virginia House of Representatives
The average West Virginia House member missed 3 percent of 863 total floor votes, with Republican members on average missing 3 percent of all floor votes and Democrat members on average missing 4 percent of all floor votes. Rep. Rickey Griffith (HD-19) missed the most votes – 169 out of 863 – for a score of 20% missed votes. By not missing a single vote, the following house members received a perfect attendance score:
- William Anderson (HD-8)
- James Barach (HD-36)
- Vernon Criss (HD-10)
- Tom Fast (HD-32)
- Shawn Fluharty (HD-3)
- Heather Glasko-Tully (HD-41)
- Evan Hansen (HD-51)
- Austin Haynes (HD-32)
- John Hott (HD-54)
- Dean Jeffries (HD-40)
- Joseph Jeffries (HD-22)
- Roland Jennings (HD-53)
- Nicholas Keaton (HD-11)
- Dennis Kimes (HD-9)
- Margitta Mazzocchi (HD-24)
- George Miller (HD-58)
- Anthony Paynter (HD-25)
- David Pethtel (HD-5)
- Mike Pushkin (HD-37)
- Charles Reynolds (HD-4)
- Amy Summers (HD-49)
- Terrishie Sypolt (HD-52)
- Bryan Ward (HD-55)
- Guy Ward (HD-50)
- Lisa Zukoff (HD-4)
We asked lawmakers who missed at least 10% of the votes if they’d like us to include an explanation. Here a few of the responses we received:
Sen. David Stover (SD-9): Sorry for delay, Senator David Stover missed votes during session due to heart related issues that required his stay at Raleigh General Hospital.
Rep. Brandon Steele (HD-29): Thanks for messaging me. I contracted Covid, testing positive on March 20, 2021. I missed March 22 through March 26, 2021 due to quarantine. I returned on March 29.