West Virginia House of Delegates

West Virginia House of Delegates
87th West Virginia Legislature
Type
Type	Lower house of the West Virginia Legislature
Term limits	None
History
New session started	January 8, 2025
Leadership
Speaker	Roger Hanshaw (R) since August 29, 2018
Speaker pro tempore	Matthew Rohrbach (R) since January 8, 2025
Majority Leader	Pat McGeehan (R) since January 8, 2025
Minority Leader	Sean Hornbuckle (D) since August 8, 2023
Structure
Seats	100
Political groups	Majority   Republican (91) Minority   Democratic (9)
Length of term	2 years
Authority	Article VI, West Virginia Constitution
Salary	$20,000/year + per diem
Elections
Voting system	Plurality voting in single-member districts
Last election	November 5, 2024
Next election	November 3, 2026
Redistricting	Legislative Control
Meeting place
House of Delegates Chamber West Virginia State Capitol Charleston, West Virginia
Website
www.wvlegislature.gov

The West Virginia House of Delegates is the lower house of the West Virginia Legislature in West Virginia. Only three states—Maryland, Virginia, and West Virginia—refer to their lower house as the House of Delegates.

Regular sessions begin with an organizational day on the second Wednesday of January of each year.^[1] The length of regular session is limited to 60 calendar days.^[1] The governor can call for special sessions.^[1]

Delegates are elected for terms of two years.^[1]

Delegates submit bill proposals to the Office of Legislative Services or legislative staff counsel, who draft the bill.^[2] Once the bill draft is approved by the delegate, it is submitted for introduction.^[2] Bills then undergo committee review and three readings in the house of origin and then the other house of the state legislature.^[2]

An unusual feature of the West Virginia legislative process is that revenue bills can originate in either house.^[1] The state constitution also prohibits multiple subjects in a single bill.^[1]

If approved by both the West Virginia House of Delegates and the West Virginia Senate, bills are submitted to the governor, who may sign them into law or veto them.^[1] State legislators can override the governor's veto of bills with a simple majority vote of both houses, unless the bill is a revenue bill, in which case two-thirds of the members elected to each house are required to override the governor's veto or line-item veto.^[1]

The House is composed of 100 members elected for two-year terms.

Prior to the 1970 Census, districts always respected county lines, with each district consisting of either a single entire county, or several entire counties. Following the redistricting cycle of the 1970 census, the state began to use smaller geographic areas.

Following the 2010 Census, the legislature was required to redistrict, with the Democratic Party in control. The Republican Party, and groups from the growing eastern panhandle and Putnam County, were among those calling for 100 single member districts. The state was divided into 67 districts, of which 47 were one-member districts, 11 two-member districts, 6 three-member districts, 2 four-member districts, and 1 five-member district. The five-member district, covering most of Monongalia County, remained among the ten largest multi-member lower house districts in the country.

In response to the 2020 Census, the legislature was again required to redistrict, this time with the Republican Party in control. The legislature abandoned the practice of multi-member districts and divided the state into 100 single member districts. Each district contains about 1/100 of the state's population, or about 17,500 persons. These changes took effect with the 2022 election.^[3]

The Speaker of the House is selected by its members. In contrast to the tradition of the Speaker of the United States House of Representatives, the Speaker must vote unless excused. The House rules state that in some cases, the speaker is not required to vote unless the House is equally divided, or unless the speaker's vote, if given to the minority, will make the division equal. In the latter case, the question is lost.

• List of speakers of the West Virginia House of Delegates
• List of West Virginia state legislatures

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Members of the West Virginia House of Delegates.

• Official website
• Chronology of Women in the West Virginia Legislature

38°20′9.8″N 81°36′41.5″W / 38.336056°N 81.611528°W / 38.336056; -81.611528