The U.S. Capitol, pictured March 25, 2025 in Washington, DC (Photo by Shauneen Miranda/States Newsroom)
Three Democrats are running for the chance to unseat Republican Congressman Riley Moore in West Virginia’s 2nd Congressional District.
Democratic voters will choose between Ace Parsi, an Iranian-born community organizer, Stephanie Spears Tomana, a science teacher and youth sports coach, and Steven Wendelin, a Navy veteran. The primary election will take place on May 12th.
Ace Parsi
When Ace Parsi was eight years aged, his family immigrated to the United States to escape the authoritarian regime in Iran. His brother was supposed to be drafted into the military.
For a time, his family lived on wages from his brother’s job at the grocery store and money his mother earned from sewing and babysitting. Parsi said the community around him helped him overcome poverty.
“I believe that with all of these stories we hear, success is something we simply do together, not something we achieve just as individuals,” he said. “I think that’s kind of the ethic that I bring to my life and this race. What can we do to really help people who are really struggling?”
Parsi and his wife moved back to West Virginia, where she grew up, 10 years ago when their daughter was born.
“There is this grace and there is … just an openness and a real kindness about West Virginia and the people of West Virginia,” he said. “And we thought… that’s where we want to raise our daughter.”
Parsi served as coalition engagement director for iCivics, a coalition of national groups that support civics and history education. He said he left office earlier this year to run for Congress.
If elected, Parsi said he wants to address issues related to affordability, care and empowerment.
As an example, he said that communities should decide whether or not data centers can be relocated to their neighborhood.
“I’ve talked to a lot of West Virginians, they just feel like they don’t have a voice in their government. They don’t have a voice in what’s happening in their community,” Parsi said. “For example, on the issue of data centers, I think that every time the issue comes up there needs to be a collective referendum on them.”
Parsi said he would also work to create incentives for people to take up professions such as teaching, nursing and other care-related professions.
“I think we need to be able to both validate and respect them and create incentives and ladders for them to get into these professions,” Parsi said. “We don’t pay them enough for the type of training they have.”
As an Iranian watching the United States and Israel’s war against his homeland, Parsi said the president was behaving “more like a Marvel villain” than a president. The president threatened to wipe out “an entire civilization.” Social media post last week. Attacks on infrastructure are a war crime, said Parsi.
“I consider myself a Christian. That’s not what we do,” Parsi said. “We do not treat people this way… our elected officials must hold this person accountable. Congress has not voted on a war authorization.”
Parsi said Congress should have more say in war decisions.
“If we want to declare war, Congress has to decide and have oversight of it, and they are absolutely not doing that right now,” he said. “And that’s as much the fault of our elected congressmen as Donald Trump, because they’re not demanding this.”
Steven Wendelin
Steven Wendelin of Lost River is a Northern California native who settled in West Virginia after a 39-year career in the U.S. Navy. The military took him all over the world, but when he had to choose where he wanted to live, he chose West Virginia, he said.
“It’s the most beautiful place in the world,” he said. “It’s a great climate, so I was naturally drawn to it. Then I started meeting my friends and neighbors here, and we’re really wonderful people up here.”
Wendelin ran for Congress for the first time in 2024. He remained unchallenged in the 2024 Democratic primary but lost to Moore in the general election.
Wendelin said he had an idea of what kind of congressman Moore would be, and he said he was right — Moore cared more about foreign affairs than what was going on in West Virginia, he said.
“Honestly, the reason I’m running this time is out of a sense of duty,” he said. “I served in uniform for a very long time. I have grown children, I have grandchildren. And I don’t want to sound like this is a huge exaggeration, but, you know, our Constitution means something, and it seems like the President’s administration is not respecting it and Congress is failing in its constitutional duties, and it needs to change.”
Wendelin, who retired from the Navy as a commander, said his military career gave him the leadership experience that would serve him well in Congress.
“I spent 39 years learning how to be a leader,” he said. “And I’ve been in a lot of leadership positions, and part of leadership is that you also have to work as a team and so build these coalitions and partnerships. It’s not just about telling people what to do. That’s not leadership.”
It also helped him understand how the federal government’s budget and fiscal cycle works. He said he considers himself a fiscal conservative. He said Congress must balance the federal budget.
“We can’t run our budgets with deficits. That doesn’t work,” he said. “And so we need to look at how we spend our money…And when we have a $39 trillion federal deficit…we’re essentially tying our children and our grandchildren, our great-grandchildren, to this debt, and we need to get it under control.”
Wendelin is also against the war in Iran, which he called a “distraction.” Wendelin said Congress had neglected its responsibilities as a war power.
If elected, Wendelin said, he would support legislation that would limit the president’s power to wage wars.
“This is a war of choice. And if Congress stands by and does nothing, that’s not OK,” he said. “And by the way, they can stop it in an instant by checking the wallet and demanding the money back.”
Wendelin said universal health care has become an essential issue for him, especially in lightweight of his wife’s breast cancer diagnosis.
“If we hadn’t still been in the military system, because as a retiree I’m still in the military system, two things probably would have happened,” he said. “First of all, we would be bankrupt, and second of all, she would potentially be dead. And so I’ve become a real advocate for fixing this problem, and it’s not that difficult.
He called for-profit health care “immoral.”
“We need to take advantage of this system because this business model is literally killing people and corrupting them,” he said.
Stephanie Spears Tomana
Stephanie Spears Tomana is a science teacher in Fairmont and a lifelong West Virginia resident. She said she was inspired to run for office after seeing how West Virginia was continually exploited.
“And I see how hard West Virginians work, and I see that we are expected to get by with next to nothing,” she said. “We deserve better. We’re at the bottom of literally every metric that matters. And I don’t think that has to be our story.”
Tomana ran for House of Representatives in 2022 and 2024, losing twice to Republican Del. Phil Mallow.
She said that as a teacher, what she sees every day is a reflection of what is going on in communities.
“Every day I go into the classroom, and every day you have to look into the eyes of poverty. You have to look into the eyes of abuse. You have to look into the eyes of neglect. And you have to really take responsibility towards their needs and at the same time the needs of society,” she said.
“One in four children in West Virginia live in generational poverty. I have students who can’t afford a pencil, who come to school to get clean clothes and a shower, who have lunch packed and who go to the dentist at school,” she said. “I don’t think people in Washington see these needs.”
If elected to office, responsibility for infrastructure, education and health care will be priorities, Tomana said. Infrastructure is essential for a growing economy, she said.
“Infrastructure is about whether our children can get to school safely in the winter,” she said. “It’s about whether it gets hot in the winter, it’s about whether we can drink water from our faucet. We have to take responsibility in infrastructure, and we have to, especially rural infrastructure. Two-thirds of West Virginians live in places like me, where there are more potholes than paychecks and we’re afraid to drink the water.”
The One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which Trump signed and was supported by West Virginia’s congressional delegation, is expected to cause West Virginia hospitals to lose $1 billion annually in Medicaid funding. Tomana said reinvesting health dollars is another priority for her.
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