CHARLESTON, W.Va. –More than a dozen residents attended the West Virginia House Democrats’ Kitchen Table Tour on Tuesday night at the Woman’s Club of Charleston.

(Left to right) Del. Mike Pushkin, Del. Kayla Young, Del. Anitra Hamilton, Del. Sean Hornbuckle, Del. Joey Garcia, and Del. Hollis Lewis

The tour gives them the opportunity to meet with constituents and hear about the most important issues facing individuals in West Virginia. At Tuesday stop, House Democratic Leader Sean Hornbuckle, Delegate Kayla Young, Delegate Joey Garcia, Delegate Mike Pushkin, Delegate Anitra Hamilton, and Delegate Hollis Lewis answered questions and listened to residents.

Hornbuckle said the idea originated after Delegate Young shared an article in November 2024 about the political landscape in America.

“From that I deduced that we just simply need to be going out and meeting with our constituents more, so it started with an email from Kayla, an idea from me to come out and reach people, and then Delegate Sean Fluharty had the phrase of kitchen table because that’s what we prioritize as a caucus are issues that we think that put food on the table,” Hornbuckle said.

He also said that residents often talk about issues such as energy bills, putting food on the table, and education.

Their stop in Charleston marked the fourth of ten planned stops. They have already visited Huntington, Martinsburg, and Morgantown.

Hornbuckle said the main concerns they heard at all four stops were Medicaid and education.

“Those have been the ones that people are concerned about, again I think those are kitchen table issues and that’s what we need to prioritize as a legislature, not the decisive stuff, not the ugly stuff, not the stuff that don’t matter they only hurt people,” he said.

Changes to Medicaid include the addition of ‘community engagement requirements,’ which mandates at least 80 hours per month of work, education, or service for able-bodied individuals without dependents. Currently, 504,000 West Virginians are enrolled in Medicaid.

Regarding education, people expressed concerns about school safety, funding related to the School Aid Formula, and the Hope Scholarship.

Hornbuckle said the turnout was amazing and they hope to keep the momentum going for the other stops.

“I loved it and what I also loved about Charleston was the diversity of their questions and their concerns, which is really really good, so we want to keep building on this, this is awesome,” he said.

Some other issues that came up with water pollutants especially in Institute, how they can encourage others to vote for a democratic candidate, and suggestions on how they can help keep kids engaged especially after school.

Hornbuckle said it was important for them to visit all parts of the state as they went on this tour

“We knew that we would go to Huntington, to Charleston and Morgantown, but that’s sort of where it came from people don’t go see folks in the Southern Coalfields they’re not doing that, they’re not traveling up to the Northern panhandle or the Eastern panhandle or central West Virginia around Flatwoods, so it was really trying to go small town America and go to the places where people never get attention, never get heard

The rest of the stops include:

Fairmont- October 14
Wheeling-October 16
Gilbert-October 21
Lewisburg- October 23
Flatwoods-October 28
Beckley-November 3

All events will begin at 6 p.m.