By Steven Allen Adams
The Parkersburg News and Sentinel
CHARLESTON — Nearly 10 years after first being elected to the West Virginia Senate, Patricia Rucker will start the 2026 legislative session as the body’s new assistant majority leader.
In a press release Monday afternoon, Senate President Randy Smith, R-Preston, said he was appointing Rucker, R-Jefferson, to the position of assistant majority leader, serving under Senate Majority Leader Patrick Martin, R-Lewis.
“Going into a new session, I knew that I wanted a strong leadership team that would be able to guide us through whatever challenges come our way,” Smith said. “Senator Rucker’s years of service and experience combined with her expertise in critical policy areas like education make her a natural fit for a role that gives her even more of an opportunity to be a leader.”
“I am honored and happy to do what I can to ensure the West Virginia Senate represents and serves the great people of West Virginia,” Rucker said.
In her new role, Rucker will assist Martin with managing floor sessions during the 60-day annual legislative session that begins at noon Wednesday, Jan. 14. Rucker will also work with Smith and leadership in the Senate Republican caucus as they develop their legislative agenda.
Rucker was appointed last year by Smith as chairwoman of the Senate Government Organization Committee after Smith was elected as Senate president, succeeding Craig Blair after he lost his 2024 Republican primary election in the Eastern Panhandle to current Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Tom Willis.
A new Senate Government Organization Committee chairperson will be announced at a later date, but Rucker will continue to serve as a voting member of the committee. Rucker will also continue to serve on the Senate’s Agriculture, Government Organization, Health and Human Resources, Judiciary, Rules and Transportation and Infrastructure committees.
Rucker was elected to the state Senate in 2016 following the retirement of former Jefferson County Democratic Sen. Herb Snyder.
Smith also appointed Rucker as chairwoman of a new Senate School Choice Committee, which will focus on legislation aimed at regulating the state’s growing network of public charter schools, virtual charter schools, learning pods, microschools and private/parochial schools. The committee will also work with home school parents and recipients of the Hope Scholarship educational voucher program.
During her legislative service, Rucker was appointed as chairwoman of the Senate Education Committee in 2019 by former Senate President Mitch Carmichael, R-Jackson. After Rucker mounted a challenge to his Senate presidency in 2022, Blair appointed state Sen. Amy Grady, R-Mason, as chairwoman of the Senate Education Committee. Rucker was later appointed to the now-defunct Select Committee on Alternative Educational Opportunities.
A first-generation immigrant in the early 1980s from Venezuela, Rucker is a former school teacher and resides in Harpers Ferry, where she raised five children with her husband, James Rucker Jr. She also serves on the executive board of the American Legislative Exchange Council and West Virginia Court Appointed Special Advocates.
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