CQPolitics

Located in the northernmost part of the state, the Democratic-leaning 1st has a large rural component, but is the most urban of West Virginia’s three districts. It contains six of the state’s 10 largest cities and West Virginia University (WVU), the state’s largest school. Wheeling, an industrial town and commercial center in the north, and Parkersburg, a regional trade center in the west, are two of the main urban areas.

As factories shut down and coal mines began mechanizing operations in the 1980s, unemployment swept through the district and most counties experienced a population decrease. Since 2000, the 1st has seen its unemployment rate peak at more than 7 percent, although the rate has slowly declined since 2003.

Coal and steel are still among the district’s biggest employers, but a budding technology sector has brightened economic prospects. The FBI, Energy Department and NASA have facilities in the district. The Institute for Scientific Research, a joint venture between WVU and the West Virginia High Technology Consortium Foundation, recently opened a software engineering research and development facility in Fairmont, which boasts that it is now one of the largest such centers in the country.

The 1st long has elected Democrats to Congress, but Republicans fare better in statewide and local elections, particularly in Doddridge County. Wheeling, in the Northern Panhandle, is often a target of national political campaigns because its media market reaches into neighboring Ohio and Pennsylvania. The 1st gave George W. Bush 54 percent of the vote in the 2000 presidential election, and Bush expanded on that in 2004, garnering 58 percent of the vote. Only two of the district’s 20 counties, Brooke and Marion, favored Democrat John Kerry in 2004, and both counties only gave Kerry 51 percent of their presidential vote.

Major Industry

Coal, steel, technology, chemicals

Cities

Parkersburg, 33,099; Wheeling, 31,419; Morgantown, 26,809; Weirton, 20,411; Fairmont, 19,097; Clarksburg, 16,743

Notable

The Wheeling Suspension Bridge, opened in 1849, is the oldest operating suspension bridge in the world; Confederate General Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson was born in Clarksburg.