OAK HILL, WV (WOAY) – Newswatch is continuing to cover the 2026 election.
Mat Anderson is running for the House of Delegates in the 50th District as a Democrat. He said Democratic candidates need to focus on the issues that matter most to voters.
“We have to learn how to talk to people again, and we have to really focus on those kitchen table issues that we’ve kind of gotten away from over the years,” he said. “Looking over the sessions the last couple of years and seeing the bills that have come out of there, it’s not really impacted the life of the people here in the Mountain State. So I feel that if we can make a change, get better people in there and make those those changes happen, then we could have better things here in West Virginia.”
Anderson is a local special education teacher and businessman. He says he’s running to make changes for the better. A major piece of his campaign focuses on expanding the tourism industry into other areas of Fayette County.
“I really want to build more around the Oak Hill area,” Anderson said. “I’d like to see a putt-putt golf course go in here, as well as more hotels and accommodations for people to stay. I know there are a lot of Airbnbs here in this area, but people mainly stay in Summersville, Beckley, and Charleston. I would like to see people stay here.”
Anderson told Newswatch he is also concerned about access to clean water, affordable health care and building Fayette County’s tourism industry.
As a teacher, he says he has real experience with the problems educators are facing.
“Being a teacher, especially special education, I can be a voice for those students, especially after they they get out and graduate into the real world setting curriculum. I know how day to day life as a teacher works,” Anderson said. “I know what teachers are mad about, what they’re happy about. It’s one of those things that you have people making these laws who have never walked into a classroom, never set foot in a classroom, and they pass these bills and they have no idea what they’re doing.”
Although he is unopposed in the Democratic primary this May, Anderson says he is fully preparing for the general election. To do that, he said he wants to meet people where they are and address frustrations voters have with state government.
“Fayette County as a whole, if you go past the bridge or you go down to valley, both of those places, oftentimes they feel forgotten,” Anderson said. “There’s just so much more that we could build up here and bring to West Virginia and to Fayette County.”
Elliott Pritt is the Republican incumbent for West Virginia’s 50th district in the House of Delegates.
