House Speaker Roger Hanshaw (center), R-Clay, announces 2026 legislative priorities for Republican members of the West Virginia House of Delegates on Tuesday, Dec. 9, 2025, in Charleston, West Virginia. Hanshaw says her policies will focus on economic development and job creation. (Photo by Perry Bennett/West Virginia Legislative Photography)
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 Tuesday afternoon during a news conference with lawmakers in the House chamber. He said members of his caucus will focus their legislative efforts on a three-pronged approach to augment jobs in the state and stimulate the economy through investments in multiple industries.
Those three pillars, Hanshaw said, will be: job training, workforce development and retention; a focus on “job-creating businesses” and finally on pursuing “responsible economic growth.”
As part of workforce development, Hanshaw said lawmakers will consider another pay raise for the state’s teachers and school support staff.
West Virginia has one of the lowest Teacher salaries in the country. Ahead of the 2025 legislative session, Gov. Patrick Morrisey called for salary increases for teachers during his State of the State address. However, during the session, lawmakers rejected a bill that would have been equal Teachers pay towards home values in the counties in which they live.
In November, state Treasurer Larry Pack — who has no legislative authority — said he would do so support Legislation to ensure that all West Virginia teachers earn at least $50,000 per year. Those who have already met that threshold should get a $2,000 augment, he said.
Hanshaw did not provide any details Tuesday about the possible pay augment for teachers in 2026. He said House Republicans “want to be sure about that.” [they] “We continue to seek to respond to market demands regarding teacher and school staff pay to ensure educators can 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 are increasing their workforce. He said he would also like to see the state government expand support for training and apprenticeship programs for high school and college-aged students to enter the workforce.
A substantial focus for House Republicans at gigantic — in Hanshaw’s first pillar and beyond — will be “doubling down” on support for the state’s aviation industry, including expanding manufacturing and training efforts and exploring opportunities at the state’s numerous regional airports. He said Republicans would introduce a bill to create an aviation “technician, maintenance, repair and operations program.”
“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 our manufacturing economy,” Hanshaw said. “That’s important to us. We’ve already doubled down on it…It’s a priority for this caucus. We want it to be a priority for this legislative session. We want it to be a priority for this administration, and this is one way we’re going to do it.”
The second pillar of House Republicans’ strategy includes potential tax cuts for corporations and further cutting of regulations and “bureaucracy” that Hanshaw said have hindered business growth in the state.
Other initiatives in the second pillar include updating statutes regarding advanced manufacturing in the state by incentivizing companies to offer certain employee benefit packages and working with electric utilities to identify “opportunities that may be missing in West Virginia” that could stabilize electricity costs for consumers.
The first bill introduced by the House this session will be the TEAM-WV Act, an acronym for Technology, Energy, Aviation and Manufacturing, according to Hanshaw. The law, Hanshaw said, is guided by the same guiding principles as the others JobsOhio. In West Virginia, the potential bill would propose creating a “competitive, statewide” nonprofit organization to develop a more “coherent” approach to developing sites for industry and expanding partnerships across sectors.
When it comes to “responsible economic growth,” Hanshaw said House Republicans want the state to invest in “durable infrastructure” that meets the needs of people who currently live in the state as well as those who might move here in the future.
The speaker said one of the most pressing problems will be confront the ongoing housing crisis in the state where it existed little development affordable housing, while overall wages stagnated. Hanshaw said the focus will be on making housing more affordable for developers, but did not address how those cost savings would be passed on to residents.
Overall, the priorities shared by Hanshaw on Tuesday were largely vague. He said more details will be provided when the legislation is drafted and submitted as proposed legislation in January.
Del. Kayla Young, D-Kanawha, sat in the House chamber as Hanshaw — surrounded by dozens of members of the House Republican caucus — announced her session plans.
She said that while details were few, she was “excited” to see how the panel’s Republican members tackle issues that she said House Democrats have been trying to resolve for years. However, the dynamics of these initiatives have been inconsistent in the body, where Republicans hold a supermajority.
“We’ve just never seen these bills postponed for one reason or another,” Young said. “Personally, I’m excited to see it [Republican] The majority are focused on something other than social issues for the first time in a long time.”
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