PERSON: Jay Rockefeller

Senator (Retired)

John Davison “Jay” Rockefeller IV (born June 18, 1937) is an American retired politician who served as a United States senator from West Virginia (1985–2015). He was first elected to the Senate in 1984, while in office as governor of West Virginia (1977–1985). Rockefeller moved to Emmons, West Virginia, to serve as a Volunteers in Service to America (VISTA) worker in 1964 and was first elected to public office as a member of the West Virginia House of Delegates (1966–1968). Rockefeller was later elected secretary of state of West Virginia (1968–1973) and was president of West Virginia Wesleyan College (1973–1975). He became the state’s senior U.S. senator when the long-serving Senator Robert Byrd died in June 2010.

Rockefeller was the only serving politician of the Rockefeller family during his tenure in the United States Senate, and the only one to have held office as a Democrat, in what has been a traditionally Republican family (though was originally a Republican until deciding to run for office in the then-heavily Democratic state). He did not seek reelection in 2014 and was succeeded by Republican U.S. Representative Shelley Moore Capito.

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