CHARLESTON, W.Va. — South Charleston resident Kayla Young is excited to get to work under the state Capitol dome as a representative in the House of Delegates.
Young, a Democrat, was elected to the 35th Delegate District Tuesday night, finishing fourth out of eight candidates in the unofficial results with 12,253 votes (12%). She edged out Democrat Kathy Ferguson by 245 votes for the final seat.
“At the very end, we managed to pull out a fourth-place win. I was super excited and then I looked at the results from all across the state and it was a rough night for Democrats,” Young told 580-WCHS.
Young was among the rare Democratic wins in the Mountain State Tuesday as Republicans picked up 18 more delegates on its side of the aisle. The party will now take 76 seats into the next Legislative session compared to the Democrats’ 24.
Incumbent Democrat Doug Skaff Jr and incumbent Republican Moore Capito were the top vote-getters in the 35th District with over 15,000 votes each in the unofficial results. Republican Larry Pack finished third with 112 more votes than Young.
She said herself and her Democratic colleagues know a lot of work is ahead of them being in a super minority.
“We are trying to come up with game plans, figure out stuff we can do like broadband that were campaign issues for everybody,” Young said of working with Republicans. “Work on things during the pandemic that were set on fire, problems we already had before that we need to address.”
Even though Young has never held office before, she said she is familiar with many in the House of Delegates based on her past as a lobbyist focusing on environmental and election issues. Young told 580-WCHS she knows Capito and Skaff but has not met Pack.
Young said her campaign began more than one year ago after she realized her current position wasn’t enough to make a difference.
“I’ve been around for a few sessions to get a feel for things and learn how it works. It’s a whole process,” she said.
“I learned how to process work and then I got frustrated that I could not do more in the position I was in so I ran for office.”
The WVU graduate is also an entrepreneur who has had to file for unemployment after the COVID-19 pandemic put a halt to her food truck business.
Part of the work she wants to hit the ground running with is the accessibility within the state Department of Health and Human Resources when it comes to unemployment. She said it has been difficult to get through systems such as SNAP and Medicaid and she resonated with many West Virginians.
She also wants to address more family issues, which was a focus during her grassroots campaign.
Young is a graduate of George Washington High School and finished at WVU studying Political Science, Public Relations, and Integrated Marketing Communications. After college, she moved around the country for a while, and came home to West Virginia in 2013.
Young is a single mother and has two small children, Milo age 6 and Zella age 5.
Story by Jake Flatley