CHARLESTON, W.Va— Democratic Delegates Kayla Young and Hollis Lewis were among the few democrats who were re-elected in the November fifth election last week.
Kayla Young
Young was first elected to the House in November of 2022 and Lewis was first elected in November 2023.
Young was able to win 51.9% of the votes over her opponent Republican Andrew Anderson.
She says that her campaign didn’t go how she wanted it to because people saying things that were true.
“Said things that were, it’s one thing for folks to attack my record with things that they don’t agree with, that’s fine, fair game but just saying things that weren’t true, that I am a danger to children, that I voted on bills that I didn’t vote on, just things that I don’t think are right,” Young said on 580 Live Thursday.
Despite that she was able to resonate with the people who did re-elect her.
And she said that her campaign resonated with people because she listened to them.
“I think I meet voters where they are and I think I am honest and transparent,” Young said. “You know I can’t do everything especially being a super minority, but I listen to people regardless of what they think or what they agree with.”
And Lewis was able to win 54.9% of the votes over his opponent Republican Mark Carter.
Lewis said that his campaign went well.
Hollis Lewis
“We worked really hard, we knocked on a lot of doors, we were out meeting a lot of constituents, but we pulled it through,” Lewis said on 580 Live on Monday.
And he believes that he resonated with the voters because he has been out meeting people in the community even before he was a Delegate.
“However, I’ve been doing work in these communities for years now, I’ve been a coach at South Charleston High School, Dunbar Middle, South Charleston Youth, I’ve been an advocate, just been in the community for a long time, so a lot of people already were familiar with the work that I had previously done,” Hollis said.
Both, Young and Hollis since getting the win, are looking forward to the upcoming session.
Young wants to try to find an answer to the PEIA situation and wants to focus on passing legislation that will benefit people.
“I hope we figure out something with PEIA, I’m hearing from hundreds and hundreds of folks that there very worried about their PEIA going up, I know there’s the roadshow going on this week, where people can show up and voice their concerns with the raising deductibles and premiums, so I know we had a bill on that a while ago, but I’m also hoping we just do a lot less social issues and a lot more helping folks,” Young said.
And Lewis wants to focus on the criminal justice side of things.
“My expertise would be in criminal justice so I want to look at issues surrounding that to see how we can improve our systems,” Hollis said.