Matthew Pinson (mattpinson) [Message] Huntington, WV 25701 (304) 654-0087

West Virginia's Region Three Campaign includes the Campaigns of Cabell County, Boone County, Fayette County, Greenbrier County, Lincoln County, Logan County, Mcdowell County, Mercer County, Mingo County, Monroe County, Nicholas County, Pocahontas County, Raleigh County, Summers County, Wayne County, Webster County, and Wyoming County.

The Third Congressional District of West Virginia is among the poorest rural districts in the United States. Located in the southern part of the state, it is based in the state's second largest city, Huntington and includes Bluefield and Beckley. The district has been represented by Democrat Nick Rahall since 1976, and had been the 4th District before West Virginia lost a seat in Congress after the 1990 Census.

The modern district has its roots in the politics of the 1960s. For much of its history, the district had been focused on Huntington and the mill towns and farm communities north of that city along the Ohio River. Since 1959, it had been represented by Democrat Ken Hechler, an opponent of the state's Democrat Party machine. The state legislature, reducing the state from five to four seats following the 1970 Census, merged the Huntington area with much of the old 5th District, comprised of several Democrat Party political machine-dominated coal-mining counties. That district had been represented by Democrat James Kee of Bluefield since 1965, and his family had held the district continuously since 1933. Even though the district's geography appeared to favor Kee, Hechler won the 1972 Democrat Party nomination by a wide margin, which was tantamount to winning the General Election in the heavily Democrat Party district. In 1976 he ran for governor and the seat was won by Rahall, a staffer for the then Senator Robert Byrd (whose home had been in the district, until moving his home to Washington DC and leaving a Post Office Box address in the District).

Following the 1990 Census, West Virginia lost another district. The 4th was renumbered the 3rd, and much more territory was added to it. The current major areas of the district include the industrial and university city of Huntington; the coal producing southwestern part of the state, which is among the poorest rural regions of the country and which regularly return Democrat Party candidates by margins of up to 90-10% in spite of the more conservative farm and timber region of the southeastern part of the state. Due to the influence of Huntington, Bluefield and Beckley, it is arguably the most Democrat Party district in a heavily Democrat Party state.

The district will continue to exist until the WV Legislature redistricts for the results of the 2010 Census, indicating it has again lost a large amount of population and need to be expanded in area again.