Washington, D.C. – Club for Growth Foundation released its 2025 State Economic Scorecard for West Virginia, detailing how each elected official voted on limited-government policies.
The Scorecard analyzes policies and votes to assign an Economic Growth Score from 0 to 100, with 100 representing the highest support for pro-growth policies. In 2025, the Foundation’s study examined over 1,200 floor votes and ultimately included 16 West Virginia House and 17 West Virginia Senate votes.
“West Virginia lawmakers missed the mark in 2025,” said Club for Growth Foundation President David McIntosh. “After passing key civil service reforms, ending taxpayer-funded DEI initiatives, and enacting a prohibition on green vehicle mandates, lawmakers lost their way. A 6.6% budget increase will inflate costs, nearly doubling managed care taxes will eat into paychecks, and an additional $45 million in Medicaid spending balloons a fraud-riddled program. Moving forward, legislators should look towards the Governor and enact an agenda that will prioritize sustained economic success.”
Click here to view the full 2025 West Virginia State Economic Scorecard from the Club for Growth Foundation.
Key Highlights from the 2025 West Virginia Scorecard:
West Virginia House:
- Average Republican Score: 37%
- Average Democrat Score: 24%
- Highest Rated Republican(s): Del. Elias Coop-Gonzalez (HD-67): 87%
- Highest Rated Democrat(s): Del. Hollis Lewis (HD-57): 30%
- Lowest Rated Republican(s): Del. David Elliot Pritt (HD-50): 18%
- Lowest Rated Democrat(s): Del. John Williams (HD-80): 8%
West Virginia Senate:
- Average Republican Score: 43%
- Average Democrat Score: 18%
- Highest Rated Republican(s): Sen. Tom Willis (SD-15): 68%
- Highest Rated Democrat(s): Sen. Mike Woelfel (SD-05): 19%
- Lowest Rated Republican(s): Sens. Charles Clements (SD-02), Amy Grady (SD-04), Tom Takubo (SD-17), and Ryan Weld (SD-01): 28%
- Lowest Rated Democrat(s): Sen. Joey Garcia (SD-13): 16%
Notable Pro-Limited Government Policies:
HB 2013 – SIGNIFICANT CIVIL SERVICE REFORMS
- Exempts new hires, future employees, and state employees who leave their current positions within the Department of Administration, the Department of Environmental Protection, the Department of Revenue, the Department of Veterans’ Assistance, and the Bureau of Senior Services from access to state grievance procedures and from classified civil service status
- Provide significant flexibility for hiring, promoting, transferring, or terminating government employees within key agencies, protecting hardworking taxpayers from a permanent, unaccountable class of state bureaucrats who work in opposition to the policies of the elected executive
SB 474 – DISMANTLING TAXPAYER-FUNDED DEI INFRASTRUCTURE
- Prohibits entities that receive taxpayer money from funding or operating woke DEI offices, training, and programs that promote race essentialism, and from contracting with entities that engage in such practices
SB 573 – PROHIBITION ON GREEN MANDATES FOR VEHICLES
- Prohibits state agencies and municipalities from restricting the sale or use of motor vehicles based on the type of energy used to power the vehicle
- Prevents zealous political subdivisions from attempting to mirror costly and destructive emissions policies created in states like California that effectively ban the internal combustion engine, imposing new costs on hardworking families and entrepreneurs
Notable Anti-Limited Government Policies:
HB 2026 – PROFLIGATE BUDGET AGREEMENT
- Allocates $5.32 billion for FY2026, a 6.6 percent increase over state spending in FY2025
- Includes a 25.7 percent year-over-year increase in the Medicaid State Share Fund, a 21.5 percent year-over-year increase in the Medicaid Services Trust Fund, incorporates $210 million in supplemental government funding above the newly designated spending baseline, directs $75 million in surplus funds to the Division of Economic Development for expanded crony corporate welfare grants, and diverts another $34 million into a legislative slush fund instead of returning tax dollars to hardworking families
HB 2473 – INCREASED MANAGED CARE TAXES
- Significantly increases the tiered tax brackets for health maintenance organizations (HMOs) for both Medicaid and non-Medicaid patients
- Estimates suggest this would nearly double existing tax revenue derived from managed care organizations from $59.8 million annually to $116.5 million annually, a move that will further ratchet up federal matching funds and significantly increase Medicaid programmatic spending baselines
HB 3349 – SUPPLEMENTAL MEDICAID SPENDING
- Directs an additional $45 million in “excess revenue” from the state’s lottery fund to further increase the Medicaid spending baseline and serve as supplemental funding for the current fiscal year
- West Virginia unwisely expanded the fraud-prone and costly Medicaid program to healthy adults in 2014, resulting in nearly 30 percent of the population being enrolled in Medicaid and the program devouring nearly one-third of the state’s budget more than a decade later
Note: This Scorecard is based on selected votes and does not reflect a legislator’s entire voting record. The Club for Growth Foundation does not endorse or oppose any legislator for public office.