MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – Fresh from a string of local election victories, the Monongalia County Democratic Executive Committee has selected its leadership team to lay the groundwork for the 2022 off-year elections.
“We had a tremendous slate of candidates in 2020, and we are very grateful that the voters of Mon County placed their trust in Democrats to represent them in Charleston and to lead our county government,” said Shane Assadzandi, who was elected Monday to chair the county committee. “We’re proud of the work of our committee this year.”
Four of the five seats in House of Delegates District 51 will be held by Democrats Barbara Evans Fleischauer, Danielle Walker, Evan Hansen and John Williams in the 2021-23 Legislature. Voters also selected Democrat Mike Caputo to take an open State Senate seat representing Monongalia and Marion counties. Democrats will serve in two of the three Monongalia County Commission seats, and as the county sheriff, prosecutor, assessor, and clerk.
Assadzandi, a Morgantown resident, takes over the leadership post from longtime Democratic activist Kathleen Abate, who will continue to serve as a committee member.
“I want to thank Chairwoman Abate for her work leading the committee over the past two years, and her decades of support for our candidates and our state,” Assadzandi said. “We will continue to benefit from her work and her knowledge as we move forward.”At Tuesday’s meeting, county Democrats also selected Rachel Byrne of Morgantown as first vice-chair.
Byrne says her focus will be on expanding the party, not just in Monongalia County, but across West Virginia. “It’s more important than ever to reach out to our community and work to build our base. We suffered some huge losses around the state and it’s clear that we have a lot of work to do over the next few years.”
