Jay Rockefeller, West Virginia’s longtime senator, dies at 89

Rockefeller arrived in West Virginia in 1964 to work in an anti-poverty program, then stayed to enter politics as a Democrat in a state where his family’s tradition was Republican. He served in the state House of Delegates, as secretary of state and as governor for two terms before winning a U.S. Senate seat in 1984. He served five terms and retired in 2015, saying, “I could not imagine a more rewarding career.”

Born John D. Rockefeller IV in New York City, he was the great-grandson of Standard Oil founder John Rockefeller. At 27, he moved to the mining community of Emmons to join Volunteers in Service to America. In a 2014 farewell speech, Rockefeller called the experience transformative, saying it shaped “every policy I pursued and every vote I have cast.” He lost the 1972 governor’s race to Republican Arch A. Moore Jr., but remained in the state and became president of West Virginia Wesleyan College in 1973. Four years later, he defeated Cecil Underwood to become governor.

In the Senate, Rockefeller chaired the Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee and backed consumer protections, broadband expansion and a measure to limit companies’ tracking of customers’ online activity. He authored the 1997 legislation that created the Children’s Health Insurance Program. He also led committees on Veterans’ Affairs and Intelligence, and later said he regretted voting in 2002 to authorize the Iraq war.

His political career was marked by tensions as well as alliances. Rockefeller opposed some Obama-era environmental regulations affecting coal mining, while serving a state that was the nation’s second-biggest coal producer. He also drew attention for using his inherited fortune in campaigns, spending at least $21 million of his own money, including $9 million in his close 1984 Senate race against John Raese.

Rockefeller helped bring Toyota to West Virginia, using longstanding ties with the automaker’s founding family to support its choice of a Buffalo cornfield for an engine-parts plant in 1996. The plant, valued at $2 billion, now employs about 2,200 people. Republican Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, who succeeded him in 2014, called him “a true gentleman” and said their friendship “transcended politics.”