Alex Mooney

Alex Mooney
Member-elect of the U.S. House of Representatives from West Virginia's 2nd district
Taking office January 3, 2015
Succeeding	Shelley Moore Capito
Member of the Maryland Senate from the 3rd district
In office January 13, 1999 – January 12, 2011
Preceded by	John W. Derr
Succeeded by	Ronald N. Young
Personal details
Born	(1971-06-07) June 7, 1971 Washington, D.C., United States
Political party	Republican
Alma mater	Dartmouth College
Religion	Roman Catholic
Website	.commooneyforcongress

Alex X. Mooney (born June 7, 1971) is an American politician and member of the Republican Party. He served in the Maryland State Senate, representing District 3, from 1999 to 2011 and is a former Chairman of the Maryland Republican Party. He ran for West Virginia's 2nd congressional district in the 2014 elections, and became representative-elect after winning the general election. He is the first Hispanic elected to Congress in West Virginia history.^[1]

Early life, education and early career

Mooney's mother was a Cuban refugee who escaped from political imprisonment shortly after the Bay of Pigs Invasion.^[2] From a family of Irish immigrants, his father Vincent grew up in Long Island, New York. Mooney was born in 1971 in Washington D.C. He graduated from Frederick High School. There he was elected as Student Government Association President.^[2] In 1993, he received his B.A. in philosophy from Dartmouth College. While attending Dartmouth, he ran for the New Hampshire House of Representatives in Grafton County's 10th District. He finished in last place with 8% of the vote.^[3]

After college, Mooney served as staff assistant to U.S. Representative Roscoe G. Bartlett, remaining as his assistant until 1995. That year, he became a legislative analyst for the Republican Conference of the U.S. House of Representatives.^[4]

In addition to his political work, Mooney also is a member of the Knights of Columbus. He served as the executive director of the National Journalism Center from 2005-2012. In 2007, Mooney was elected to the Executive Committee of the Dartmouth College Association of Alumni.^[5]

Maryland Senate

He formerly represented Maryland's District 3rd, which covers parts of Washington and Frederick Counties.

Elections

Mooney has run for public office in three different states: New Hampshire, Maryland, and West Virginia.^[6] His first run for public office was in New Hampshire, where he lost a bid for the New Hampshire State House while attending Dartmouth College. Mooney was a member of the Maryland State Senate from 1999 through 2011. He is currently running for Congress in West Virginia. When Mooney ran for the Maryland Senate in 1998, he defeated incumbent Republican John W. Derr in the primary election and Democrat Ronald S. Bird in the general election.^[7] In 2002, Mooney won re-election defeating Democrat Sue Hecht, with 55% of the vote.^[8] Mooney won re-election in 2006 with 52% of the vote against Candy Greenway.^[9] In 2010, Democrat Ronald N. Young, Mayor of Frederick defeated him 51%-49%.^[10][11]

Tenure

Mooney received the Maryland Taxpayer of the Year award in 2000 and the National Hero of the Taxpayer Award for 2003. He has also received the top business rating in the state by the Maryland Business for Responsive Government.

Mooney traveled to New Hampshire to testify in support of a state bill that would require legislative approval for amendments that the private Board of Trustees of Dartmouth College wished to make to its charter.^[12]

Committee assignments

In the Maryland State Senate, Mooney was a member of the Judicial Proceedings Committee, the Joint Committee on Investigation, and formerly a member of the Joint Committee on Federal Relations, and the Education, Health and Environmental Affairs Committee. He served on the Maryland Rural Caucus, the Taxpayers Protection Caucus, and the Maryland Veterans Caucus.

Post-Senate career

Chairman of the Maryland GOP

On December 11, 2010, Mooney was elected as Chairman of the Maryland Republican Party.

2012 congressional election

After redistricting, 85 year old Republican incumbent U.S. Congressman Roscoe Bartlett was placed into a district that Obama won. Portions of Baltimore and Harford counties as well as Carroll County were taken away from the 6th District during redistricting. More of Montgomery County was put into the district, while another part of Montgomery County was removed and added to northern Frederick County to reform the 6th District.^[13] His current district has Obama at just 40%, while the newly redrawn district has Obama at 56%.^[14] After creating an exploratory committee to run for the nomination,^[15] Mooney decided not to challenge Bartlett.^[16]

2014 congressional election

In March 2012, Mooney filed as a candidate in the 2014 Republican primary for Maryland's 6th congressional district. However, he subsequently had to withdraw his candidacy because he was still Bartlett's part-time outreach director at the time he filed papers to run in 2014. House ethics rules do not allow congressional staffers to remain employed in a congressional office while campaigning.^[17][18]

Mooney subsequently moved to West Virginia and declared his candidacy for West Virginia's 2nd congressional district. Seven-term Republican incumbent Shelley Moore Capito was giving up the seat to run for the United States Senate.^[19] During his campaign, Mooney was accused by Democrats that he was a "carpetbagger," since he recently moved to West Virginia.^[20]

He received the Republican Party nomination on May 13 beating six other opponents in the Republican primary. Mooney won 15 of the 17 counties in the congressional district with an overall total of 36.02 percent of the vote.^[21] Mooney faced Democrat Nick Casey in the 2014 General Election.^[22]

On November 4, 2014, Mooney defeated Casey in the general election, 49 percent to 47 percent. He won Berkeley County, part of the Washington area, by 5,000 votes--more than the overall margin of 4,900 votes.^[23] Mooney was also helped by long coattails from Capito, who carried every county in the district (and the state).^[24]

Mooney became the first Latino elected to West Virginia's congressional delegation in the state's history.^[1]

Electoral history

• 2010 Race for Maryland State Senate – District 3^[25]

Name	Votes	Percent	Outcome
Ronald N. Young, Dem.	22,710	51.09%	Won
Alex X. Mooney, Rep.	21,666	48.74%	Lost
Other Write-Ins	75	0.17%	Lost

• 2006 Race for Maryland State Senate – District 3^[9]

Name	Votes	Percent	Outcome
Alex X. Mooney, Rep.	21,844	51.9%	Won
Candy O. Greenway, Dem.	20,111	47.8%	Lost
Other Write-Ins	104	0.2%	Lost

• 2002 Race for Maryland State Senate – District 3^[8]

Name	Votes	Percent	Outcome
Alex X. Mooney, Rep.	21,617	55.0%	Won
C. Sue Hecht, Dem.	17,654	44.9%	Lost
Other Write-Ins	66	0.2%	Lost

• 1998 Race for Maryland State Senate – District 3^[26]

Name	Votes	Percent	Outcome
Alex X. Mooney, Rep.	18,399	56%	Won
Ronald S. Bird, Dem.	14,212	44%	Lost

References and notes