CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Republican members of the West Virginia House of Delegates said Tuesday that their priorities for the upcoming 2026 regular session will be policies focused on economic development and job creation.
House Speaker Roger Hanshaw, R-Clay, made the announcement during a news conference with lawmakers in the House Chamber Tuesday afternoon.
He said that members of his caucus will be putting their legislative efforts into a three-pillar approach to increase jobs in the state and grow the economy through investment across multiple industries.
Those three pillars, Hanshaw said, will be: job training, workforce development and retention; an emphasis on “job-creating businesses” and, lastly, practicing “responsible economic growth.”
As part of workforce development, Hanshaw said lawmakers will be eyeing another pay raise for the state’s teachers and school service personnel.
West Virginia has one of the lowest teacher pay rates in the country. Before the 2025 legislative session, Gov. Patrick Morrisey called for teacher pay raises during his State of the State address. During the session, however, lawmakers shot down a bill that would have tied teacher pay to the home values in the counties where they live.
In November, state Treasurer Larry Pack — who does not have any legislative authority — said he would be backing legislation to ensure all teachers in West Virginia make at least $50,000 annually. Those already at that threshold, he said, should receive a $2,000 raise.
Hanshaw did not provide details of the potential 2026 teacher pay raise bill Tuesday. He said House Republicans want “to be sure that (they) are continuing to try to be responsive to market demands” regarding teacher and school personnel pay to ensure educators are able to remain in the state.
Hanshaw said other priorities for the first pillar of his economic development plan include the “Recharge West Virginia Act,” which would “support” local businesses in the state that increase their staffing. He said he also wants to see the state government expand support for training and apprenticeship programs for high school- and college-aged students to enter the workforce.
A large focus in general for the House Republicans — in Hanshaw’s first pillar and beyond — will be a “doubling down” of support for the state’s aviation industry, including in expanding manufacturing and training efforts while also examining opportunities at the state’s numerous regional airports. He said Republicans will introduce a bill to create a “technician, maintenance, repair and operation program” for aviation.
“We know that in so many of our communities across West Virginia, the aviation industry represents one of the fastest growing segments of our economy, particularly of our manufacturing economy,” Hanshaw said. “That’s important to us. We’ve doubled down on it already … It’s a priority for this caucus. We want it to be a priority for this Legislature. We want it to be a priority for this government, and that’s one way in which we’ll do it.”
The second pillar of the House Republican’s strategy will see potential tax cuts for businesses and further cutting of regulations and “red tape” that Hanshaw said has hindered business growth in the state.
Other initiatives in the second pillar include updating statutes relating to advanced manufacturing in the state, incentivizing businesses to offer certain benefit packages for employees and working with electric utilities to find “opportunities West Virginia is perhaps missing” that could stabilize power costs for consumers.
The first bill introduced by the House this session, Hanshaw said, will be the TEAM-WV Act, an acronym meaning Technology, Energy, Aviation and Manufacturing. The act, Hanshaw said, is modeled under the same guiding principles of the nearby JobsOhio. In West Virginia, the potential bill would propose creating a “competitive, statewide” nonprofit to help form a more “cohesive” approach for developing sites for industry and growing partnerships between sectors.
Regarding “responsible economic growth,” Hanshaw said House Republicans want to see the state invest in “lasting infrastructure” that meets the needs of people currently living in the state as well as those who could move here in the future.
The speaker said one of the most pressing issues will be confronting the state’s ongoing housing crisis, where there has been little development of affordable housing while, overall, wages have remained stagnant. Hanshaw said the focus will be on making the construction of housing more affordable for developers, but did not address how those cost savings would be passed on to residents.
Overall, priorities shared by Hanshaw Tuesday were largely vague. He said more details will become available as legislation is put together and, in January, filed as proposed bills.
Del. Kayla Young, D-Kanawha, sat in the House Chamber as Hanshaw — surrounded by dozens of members of the House Republican Caucus — announced their plans for session.
She said that while details were few, she was “excited” to see the body’s Republican members approach issues she said the Democrats in the House have been trying to address for years. Momentum for those initiatives, though, has been inconsistent in the body where Republicans hold a supermajority.
“We’ve just never seen those bills move for one reason or another,” Young said. “I’m personally excited to see the (Republican) majority focus on something other than social issues for the first time in a very long time.”