Joe Funkhouser
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Joe Funkhouser (Republican Party) is a member of the West Virginia House of Delegates, representing District 98. He assumed office on October 24, 2024. His term ended on December 1, 2024.
Funkhouser (Republican Party) ran for re-election to the West Virginia House of Delegates to represent District 98. He won in the general election on November 5, 2024.
Funkhouser completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2024. Click here to read the survey answers.
Gov. Jim Justice (R) appointed Funkhouser to the West Virginia House of Delegates District 98 on October 16, 2024, to replace Paul Espinosa. [1]
Biography
Joe Funkhouser earned a high school diploma from Jefferson High School, a bachelor's degree from Shepherd University in 2006, and a law degree from the West Virginia University College of Law in 2010. His career experience includes working as an attorney.[2]
Funkhouser has been affiliated with the Jefferson County Farm Bureau and the Bridge Community Church. He has served on the Jefferson County Farmland Protection Board, the Charles Town Horsemen's Benevolent and Protective Association Board, and the Charles Town Racetrack Chaplaincy Board.[2]
Elections
2024
See also: West Virginia House of Delegates elections, 2024
General election
General election for West Virginia House of Delegates District 98
Incumbent Joe Funkhouser defeated Troy Miller in the general election for West Virginia House of Delegates District 98 on November 5, 2024.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ |  | Joe Funkhouser (R)  | 66.1 | 5,117 |
 | Troy Miller (D) | 33.9 | 2,625 | |
| Total votes: 7,742 | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
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Democratic primary election
Democratic primary for West Virginia House of Delegates District 98
Troy Miller advanced from the Democratic primary for West Virginia House of Delegates District 98 on May 14, 2024.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | | Troy Miller | 100.0 | 528 |
| Total votes: 528 | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
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Republican primary election
Republican primary for West Virginia House of Delegates District 98
Incumbent Joe Funkhouser defeated Barbara Fuller in the Republican primary for West Virginia House of Delegates District 98 on May 14, 2024.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | | Joe Funkhouser | 59.4 | 923 |
 | Barbara Fuller | 40.6 | 631 | |
| Total votes: 1,554 | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team. | ||||
Endorsements
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Ballotpedia did not identify endorsements for Funkhouser in this election.
2016
Elections for the West Virginia State Senate took place in 2016. The primary election took place on May 10, 2016, and the general election was held on November 8, 2016. The candidate filing deadline was January 30, 2016. Incumbent Herb Snyder (D) did not seek re-election.
Patricia Rucker defeated Stephen Skinner in the West Virginia State Senate District 16 general election.[3][4]
| West Virginia State Senate District 16, General Election, 2016 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Party | Candidate | Vote % | Votes | |
| Republican |  Patricia Rucker |
52.79% | 22,499 | |
| Democratic | Stephen Skinner | 47.21% | 20,122 | |
| Total Votes | 42,621 | |||
| Source: West Virginia Secretary of State | ||||
Stephen Skinner defeated David Manthos in the West Virginia State Senate District 16 Democratic primary.[5][6]
| West Virginia State Senate District 16, Democratic Primary, 2016 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Party | Candidate | Vote % | Votes | |
| Democratic | Stephen Skinner |
67.21% | 6,904 | |
| Democratic | David Manthos | 32.79% | 3,368 | |
| Total Votes | 10,272 | |||
Patricia Rucker defeated Joe Funkhouser in the West Virginia State Senate District 16 Republican primary.[5][6]
| West Virginia State Senate District 16, Republican Primary, 2016 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Party | Candidate | Vote % | Votes | |
| Republican | Patricia Rucker |
55.95% | 5,359 | |
| Republican | Joe Funkhouser | 44.05% | 4,219 | |
| Total Votes | 9,578 | |||
This district was included in the Republican State Leadership Committee's list of "16 in '16: Races to Watch." Read more »
This district was included in the Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee's list of "2016 Essential Races." Read more »
Endorsements
In 2016, Funkhouser's endorsements included the following:[7]
- West Virginia Farm Bureau Political Education and Political Action Committee (WV FARM PAC)
- West Virginia Conservative Voice.
- Received an A- rating from the NRA.
Campaign themes
2024
Ballotpedia survey responses
See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection
Joe Funkhouser completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2024. The survey questions appear in bold and are followed by Funkhouser's responses. Candidates are asked three required questions for this survey, but they may answer additional optional questions as well.
| Collapse all
I am a lifelong resident of Jefferson County who grew up on a farm, graduated Jefferson High School when we were a one high school county, graduated Shepherd University with a degree in Political Science and History, served on the Jefferson County Farmland Protection Board through my term limits for 8 years, and graduated West Virginia University College of Law thereafter. I am an commercial and business civil litigation attorney.
- I seek to make West Virginia a more wonderful place to live, work, raise a family, and retire.
- I am a champion of Jefferson County, grounded in my faith and family.
- I am committed to transparency, accountability, and integrity in every facet of government.
Public policy in which I am passionate about are all areas that makes West Virginia a more wonderful place to live, work, raise a family, and retire.
Mere Christianity.
The core responsibility for Delegate is to represent the good people of Jefferson County's 98th District in the Legislature. This means representing and fighting for the 98th Districts best interests and values, but also balancing that approach to work with colleagues throughout West Virginia for the best interests of the state.
I struggled with alcohol when I was younger. Getting convicted for a DUI turned out to be blessing in disguise in my life—it woke me up to the fact that alcohol was my Achilles heel. By the grace of God, I quit drinking five year ago. I’m now focused on healthy living.
Conquering the demons of alcohol in my life has improved my life beyond measure and made me more resilient to other temptations. I now focus on my health, family, community and feel blessed to have learned this lesson in life.
Collaborative.
Economic development will be an ongoing challenge. The best social program is a good job.
Yes, experience certainly helps understanding how the process works.
Yes. Politics is a team sport, whether you like it or not. You need 51 Delegates, 18 Senators, and usually the Governor to pass a bill, and need to be able to build relationships with colleagues in order to do so.
I have spoken with many residents recently, and there is a common theme that our government is inefficient in many areas; whether it is extremely long permit approvals for basic home improvements at a local level, or cumbersome, burdensome, and/or non-responsive state agency licensure issues, these stories have made me realize we need to optimize government efficiency and improve our current regulatory structures to be more responsive to West Virginia residents.
The legislature should only grant use of emergency powers for what is required by the West Virginia Constitution. A Governor or other government official should not be able to press an emergency button and alter or abolish constitutional rights that are not contemplated under our Constitution.
The first bill I will introduce is increasing the homestead exemption to provide property tax relief to seniors and disabled veterans.
I am endorsed by West Virginia Farm Bureau, National Rifle Association, West Virginians for Life, and the West Virginia Automobile Dealers Association for the 2024 general election so far. I was endorsed in the primary by the West Virginia Citizens Defense League and the Contractors Association of West Virginia.
The committees of Judiciary, Finance, Agriculture and Natural Resources, Economic Development and Tourism, Rules, and Government Organization interest me.
Increasing transparency, accountability, and integrity in government are the cornerstones of my campaign because I feel that we the people have lost our voice in the decisions made by many of our elected representatives. Transparency, accountability, and integrity are intricately intertwined. More transparency will ensure more accountability. By increasing transparency, citizens will understand more about what is going on in the legislative process and make their elected representatives more accountable for their actions. When politicians are more accountable, integrity will be increased in the legislative process, exposing and minimizing backroom deals, obfuscation, and misinformation.
Note: Ballotpedia reserves the right to edit Candidate Connection survey responses. Any edits made by Ballotpedia will be clearly marked with [brackets] for the public. If the candidate disagrees with an edit, he or she may request the full removal of the survey response from Ballotpedia.org. Ballotpedia does not edit or correct typographical errors unless the candidate's campaign requests it.
2016
Funkhouser's campaign website highlighted the following issues:
| “ |
Education In recent years, economic success of a locality, state, or country has been tied directly to the quality of education of its youth. Because of this, it is important that West Virginia address the educational needs of its students and their teachers. My priorities and first bills introduced addressing the educational needs of the Eastern Panhandle are: 1) Authorizing locality pay and a more objective school aid formula based on enrollment in both public and higher education. The Recht decision (1982) that deems paying teachers across the state similar salaries is "thorough and efficient," is no longer effective given adjustments in cost of living factors and extreme growth in the Eastern Panhandle in recent years. For example, the average price for a house in McDowell County is $40,000, while in Jefferson County it is $240,000. I have seen too many good teachers go to Virginia and Maryland because they cannot earn an adequate salary in West Virginia. If a Constitutional amendment is necessary, I will sponsor it. 2) Fully implement the education audit to reduce the education bureaucracy in Charleston and send those resources to the front lines in the schools, while improving efficiency and cutting costs. 3) Repeal Common Core and replace it with curriculum and standards that are age appropriate for children, while still meeting their academic needs for success in the real world. 4) Eliminate burdensome testing requirement, saving over $20 million annually, and allow more flexibility to local school systems to determine their schedules based on instructional minutes, not days. Tax Reform Pro-Growth tax reform is necessary for West Virginia's economic development. Making West Virginia's tax code simpler, fairer and flatter is one of my priorities. Specifically, I will introduce legislation to: 1) Lower the gas tax so West Virginians fill up here and pay for our roads instead of Virginia and Maryland; and 2) Eliminate the income tax against social security and other retirement benefits. I know many good people and positive contributors to West Virginia's tax base who have left West Virginia or are planning on leaving West Virginia when they retire and move to states that do not tax their retirement income. West Virginia cannot continue to deter people from living, working, retiring, and investing in West Virginia. Increasing Broadband My strategy to increase high speed broadband has 3 parts: 1) Build a middle mile for providers to subscribe to and increase competition, without any taxpayer expense (SB 315 failed to pass this year, but something similar; 2) tax credits for the home owner, business or utility for building the last mile; and 3) consumer protection by requiring any utility that advertises "high speed broadband" or any variation thereof, to be a minimum of 25 megabytes per second. The 21st century economy requires no less for West Virginia to be competitive. Google and other tech companies would invest in West Virginia if we had reliable and fast broadband. Transparency, Accountability, And Integrity Increasing transparency, accountability, and integrity in government are the cornerstones of my campaign because I feel that we the people have lost our voice in the decisions made by many of our elected representatives. Transparency, accountability, and integrity are intricately intertwined. More transparency will ensure more accountability. By increasing transparency, citizens will understand more about what is going on in the legislative process and make their elected representatives more accountable for their actions. When politicians are more accountable, integrity will be increased in the legislative process, exposing and minimizing backroom deals, obfuscation, and misinformation. How am I going to accomplish this? The first bill I will introduce will provide a website for each member of the legislature to make them more accountable to their constituents. Each website will have a secure poll on every bill that all constituents or registered voters can weigh in on, in support or opposition. Phone and Email simply do not go far enough in making public officials more accountable. Some flexibility would be needed depending on each official on how this platform operates. This may help forge consensus, as West Virginians will have a reliable poll that will inform where their constituents stand on legislative issues. The media talks about all these public opinion polls which are completely random. The way a question is asked or phrased can manipulate these polls. Let’s provide a true poll for all West Virginians to make sure that all politicians know the opinions of their constituents, making them accountable to the people who elected them.[8] |
” |
| —Joe Funkhouser, [9] | ||
Campaign finance summary
Note: The finance data shown here comes from the disclosures required of candidates and parties. Depending on the election or state, this may represent only a portion of all the funds spent on their behalf. Satellite spending groups may or may not have expended funds related to the candidate or politician on whose page you are reading this disclaimer. Campaign finance data from elections may be incomplete. For elections to federal offices, complete data can be found at the FEC website. Click here for more on federal campaign finance law and here for more on state campaign finance law.
See also
2024 Elections
External links
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Candidate West Virginia House of Delegates District 98 |
Personal |
Footnotes
- ↑ ‘’Office of the Governor Jim Justice,’’ "Gov. Justice appoints Raymond “Joe” Funkhouser to 98th District in House of Delegates,” October 16, 2024
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Information submitted to Ballotpedia through the Candidate Connection survey on September 26, 2024
- ↑ West Virginia Secretary of State, "Candidate search," accessed November 4, 2016
- ↑ West Virginia Secretary of State, "2016 official general election results," accessed May 3, 2017
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 West Virginia Secretary of State, "Candidate Listing by Office," accessed January 30, 2016
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 West Virginia Secretary of State, "Statewide Results - Primary Election - May 10, 2016," accessed August 2, 2016
- ↑ Joe Funkhouser, "Main page," accessed May 9, 2016
- ↑ Note: This text is quoted verbatim from the original source. Any inconsistencies are attributable to the original source.
- ↑ Joe Funkhouser, "Issues," accessed May 9, 2016
| Political offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by Paul Espinosa (R) |
West Virginia House of Delegates District 98 2024-Present |
Succeeded by - |
