Who is Josh Holstein?

 

Josh Holstein, 22, is an elected member of the West Virginia House of Delegates, representing Boone County (32nd District), as a Republican, since January 1, 2021. 

 

Josh lives in Ashford, WV in Boone County, is a proud son of generations of West Virginia coal miners, and a devoted Christian. Josh attended Sherman High School in Seth, WV and, upon graduation in 2019, attended Marshall University. He completed his studies at Marshall University and graduated with a Bachelor's Degree in Economics on April 30, 2022.

 

He was first elected to the West Virginia Legislature in November of 2020, defeating a popular Democrat incumbent who had held various elected offices in Boone County for a couple of decades. Josh's election was hard fought and was also a complete surprise to the political establishment in Boone County as he became the youngest elected official in county history and only the second Republican to represent Boone County in the West Virginia House of Delegates in over eight decades.

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Josh's Story

 

Growing up in Boone County in the early 2000's, I was blessed with a family that was financially stable. We weren't rich and probably weren't even considered middle class, but we were stable. My father was a life-long coal miner and my mother worked in the clerical department of a doctor's office. In the springtime, my maternal grandfather, Jerry, and my father, Terry, would ride ATV's, or 'four-wheelers' as we call them, in the mountains and search for 'Molly Moochers' (morel mushrooms). In the summer, we spent every evening on the porch listening to Papaw's stories, cooking out, camping, or driving across the Mountain State, exploring. We'd visit Hawk's Nest State Park, the New River Gorge Bridge and surrounding Fayetteville frequently, among many other places. As for the fall, that was solely for hunting. Dad would hunt every chance he had and brought me along with him each time I wanted to go. In the winter, we spent time with family during the holidays and ate way more than we should've. In summary, we were a normal, Appalachian family.

 

Politics were never really discussed until the 2008 election. Mom and Dad were both raised in devout Democrat-supporting families, and carried that tradition on when I was a child. I remember specifically the promise of a brighter future for the working men and women of our state that my Dad would oftentimes associate with the Democratic Party and the greed and 'for the rich' labels he would place on the Republican Party. Naturally, I fell right in line with their ideology. In 2008, the nation, with the help of my parents and all of my extended family, elected President Barack Obama. Boone County voters continued their decades-long trend of support for Democrats, electing them from the top of the ticket to the very bottom.

 

But as the political winds of the nation began to shift, the hardworking folks of West Virginia, who had long been the core of the Democratic Party, were left behind. The coal miner was replaced with a climate activist who told them that they were killing the planet by simply working to provide for their families just like generations of their fathers before them. The high school graduate was replaced by a college-educated generation addicted to brandishing their degree in the faces of those without them all while swimming in tens of thousands of dollars in debt and bleak employment prospects. The Christian was replaced by the atheist who pitied the faithful for their "ignorance". The love of family was replaced by the love of government and adoration of celebrities instead of American heroes. Simply, the worker was replaced by the elite. West Virginians, a state wholly comprised of working people that were so loyal, were discarded. 

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It wasn't long before the lay-offs began. I can remember just how quickly our communities began to sink. Everyone was losing their job, families were fleeing the state to find work elsewhere, our school systems' funding was drying up...we were drowning. This continued for nearly another decade and seemed to get worse year by year. As the economy worsened, so did the drug epidemic. It started with narcotics, then progressed to meth, and eventually heroin and fentanyl. Our communities fell apart and have still never recovered.

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Around this time, Dad got injured in the mines and our family nearly lost everything. My mother's income alone could not support our family. It was at this point in time, that my political perspective was formed. My parent's, who had worked their entire lives, were losing everything because of policies determined in Washington D.C. I made it my mission as a teenager to do all that I could to change the hearts and minds of my fellow West Virginians and make it clear that we had to think differently now when electing our government.

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At 18 years old, I filed the paperwork to run for a long-shot bid to serve Boone County in the legislature. I was up against everything; the political establishment, a well-funded and well-liked opponent, the electoral history of the district, and a voter registration gap that was 40% against me. I knew that I had very little chance of winning, but I decided to make the most of it and hopefully change some minds while I ran. Over the course of the next 18 months, I knocked on over 1,300 doors, talking to voters about the need for New Leadership and a change in direction. I ran for two reasons; to break up the political establishment that was so comfortable with failure and to defend the values of West Virginians that were being constantly maligned by nearly every major institution in the nation. On November 3rd, 2020, I was elected to the West Virginia House of Delegates. My family, friends, neighbors, and fellow Boone Countians, gave me a shot to work for them and put their desires first. 

 

Over the past three years in the House of Delegates, I have kept these principles close to my heart. I have voted to lower taxes and lessen regulations to entice businesses, and in turn, jobs to West Virginia, voted to protect precious life in the womb and defend our second amendment rights, protect our elections, and improve educational opportunity for our children. We have accomplished so much in just a short period of time and have stood as a bulwark against the disastrous Biden administration and their anti-West Virginia policies. As long as I am able, I will work to do my part to serve our people and to restore West Virginia to 'Almost Heaven'.