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PARKERSBURG - A former state treasurer seeking a second term in Congress is facing a former nonprofit executive crisscrossing the district to speak to voters.
Rep. Riley Moore, R-W.Va., and Democrat Ace Parsi are competing for the U.S. House of Representatives seat representing West Virginia's 2nd District.
Moore, 46, said "it's been a real honor to be able to represent and serve the people of the 2nd District."
The House is "a challenging body to work in," he said, different from the West Virginia House of Delegates in which he served before being elected treasurer in 2020 and to Congress in 2024. "It's obviously a frustrating place at times," he said, but added there have been some successes.
He sponsored a bill modeled after successful legislation in West Virginia to prevent financial institutions from tracking the purchase of guns and ammunition and a bill banning gender transition surgeries on minors.
"My voting record in totality ... reflected the will of the people of West Virginia," Moore said.
He supported the SAVE America Act, which would require voters to show proof of citizenship to register to vote and require documents to be brought in person instead of registering through the mail or online. Critics have said it will disenfranchise people by making it harder to vote.
"The people it prevents from voting are not U.S. citizens," he said, adding it is widely supported.
On the topic of data centers, Moore said he helped pass the Rate-Payer Protection Act establishing "guidelines and guardrails" for states in an effort to keep costs of data centers from being passed along to electrical customers and others.
"Local control is the key to this," he said. "If a community does not want it, they should not be forced to have it."
All of that legislation has passed the House and is awaiting consideration in the Senate.
As a member of the House Appropriations Committee, Moore said he's been able to deliver more than $130 million in project funding to the district.
Moore acknowledged that affordability is a "problem that needs to be addressed." One way to do that and combat high gas prices is by "unleashing American energy," Moore said. Permitting reform legislation like that championed by his aunt, U.S. Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., would cut the time it takes to do a variety of projects like pipelines, he said.
"We have an ocean of oil here in the U.S.," he said. "We have to build out this infrastructure here."
Moore said he wants to continue "the good work that we've been able to do" over the last two years, including lowering taxes and securing the southern border. He said fentanyl deaths have dropped significantly as a result of efforts to protect the border. Asked about the deaths of people protesting ICE raids earlier this year, Moore said "any loss of life is an absolute tragedy" but protesting in such situations is "a dangerous position to be in."
"If we are a sovereign country, we must have defensible borders," he said. "We're not just an international economic free trade zone."
Parsi, a 44-year-old Morgantown resident who emigrated from Iran with his family when he was 8, said he believes in borders and a sound immigration system but said even some Republicans are uncomfortable with "masked agents" who don't show badges pursuing people who aren't violent offenders.
"I think you can have secure borders and still be true to this nation's core values," he said.
Prior to running, Parsi served as director of coalition engagement for CivxNow, a nonprofit project supported by more than 400 organizations to emphasize civics and history education for young people.
Parsi said people are "getting crushed" by high prices, particularly gasoline, which is up due to the war in Iran. The Constitution makes war and tariffs the responsibility of Congress, yet both of those actions have been implemented by President Donald Trump, with no check by Congress, he said.
Moore has supported both those efforts by the president, Parsi said.
"These are things that my opponent has been a leader on," he said. "I think that we need to re-exert the power of Congress in terms of tariffs."
There is also no check on data centers, Parsi said, which is why he announced the first piece of legislation he would introduce would be the Neighbors Not Servers Act, establishing a two-year moratorium on new, large data centers and giving local communities a say in whether they’re built.
An urgent matter for the next Congress to address is major cuts to Medicaid Parsi said are set to take effect after the election and will impact access to health care and put some hospitals in danger of shutting down.
"That is a time bomb that we have to defuse immediately," he said.
Parsi said he's talked to thousands of people as he campaigned and only a handful have declined to speak with him. Recently, he's made a habit of visiting Dollar Generals, saying the people who work there don't make a lot of money and folks who shop there know how to stretch their dollars.
"I love talking to people that disagree with me," he said. "People are tired of the partisan football. Their lives aren't professional wrestling.
"There's not a Republican discount for gas. We're all facing that immense weight of affordability."
Parsi said he wants to represent West Virginians, whether they vote for him or not, and he would work with whoever is in the White House, regardless of party affiliation.
Parsi said if he is elected, voters should hold him accountable for doing what he said he would on the campaign trail.
"I will apologize for my mistakes, and I will work every day to be a representative that is worthy of the decency I see out there with everyday West Virginians," he said.
Evan Bevins can be reached at ebevins@newsandsentinel.com.