James Hendershot Jr
Independent | West Virginia
Candidate Profile
Conservative
BIOGRAPHY
EDUCATION
West Virginia University at Parkersburg, Parkersburg, B.A.S. in Management and Marketing, 2021-2025
WORK & MILITARY
Candidate did not provide
AFFILIATIONS
Jefferson Baptist Temple, Church Member, 2023-2026
POLITICAL OFFICES HELD
Candidate did not provide
POLITICAL OFFICES SOUGHT
Parkersburg City Council District 3, 2023-2024
OTHER INFORMATION
QUESTIONNAIRE
RIGHT TO LIFE
Abortion providers, including Planned Parenthood, should not receive taxpayer funds from federal, state, or local governments (including Title X grants).
Agree
Under what circumstances should an elective abortion be allowed?
When the Mother or child's life is at risk, and in the events of incest or rape.
Human life deserves legal protection from conception until natural death.
Strongly Agree
The lives of human embryos created through artificial methods ought to be protected from purposeful destruction.
Agree
The Comstock Act, which bans interstate transportation of abortion-inducing drugs, should be enforced.
Agree
ECONOMY
What is your position on the minimum wage?
Each state should maintain a minimum wage that aligns with their own cost of living. I believe ours should be raised to $10 an hour from $8.75. Than the legislature should study and try to pin down the number that we should gradually increase it too.
Free enterprise and the right to private property are essential elements of a productive economic system.
Strongly Agree
List your top 3-5 priorities to eliminate government waste.
Reduce the money that West Virginia sends elsewhere, eliminate the tax breaks green energy projects from corporations get in our state, and reduce unnecessary spending to maintain our current surplus.
RELIGIOUS LIBERTY
What does "separation of church and state" mean to you?
That the government cannot mandate one religion over any other. We are a free country and everyone is free to believe as they wish.
Individuals and businesses should be required to provide services even if it would violate their moral and/or religious beliefs.
Disagree
In my opinion. If a business does not wish to provide services for moral or religious reasons, they can. But they must also accept the lost of business that may come with that choice and the competitors that gain from that decision. That is how the free market should work.
HEALTHCARE
What most closely matches your view on healthcare: A) Healthcare for all should be guaranteed and funded by the government with no private healthcare option. (includes "universal healthcare," "medicare for all," etc.) B) Healthcare insurance funded by the government should be available for all who want it, along with private healthcare options. C) Medicaid and Medicare should remain available, but no other taxpayer-funded programs are necessary. D) Taxpayer funded health care should be abolished in all forms, and Medicaid and Medicare should be defunded.
C
The government should keep a database of people with various ongoing medical illnesses to assess the economic burden of treatment.
Strongly Disagree
NATIONAL SECURITY
The Chinese Communist Party poses serious military, cyber security, intellectual property, and global economic threats to the United States.
Agree
Is the United States' relationship with Israel important, and if so why?
To a degree, yes. Unfortunately I along with many younger Americans believe it has become a one-way relationship where the United States is being taken advantage of. Whether it is entirely true or not. We seem to be prioritizing Israel and other foreign nations over our own people while our cities crumble and drugs and homelessness run rampant through West Virginia and many other states. We should reevaluate our relationship with them, and make sure it is still mutually beneficial.
IMMIGRATION
I support the existence of sanctuary cities to protect undocumented persons.
Disagree
EDUCATION
I support eliminating the U.S. Department of Education and giving control back to states and communities.
Agree
Test scores and quality of education has decreased year over year since the Department of Education was created under the Carter administration. Something needs to change, and I believe this could be a good, first step. A less centralized education system would help each address their specific needs and issues in their schools. I am not opposed to changing my mind if the data starts to show otherwise, but this is where I stand right now.
Foreign governments should be prohibited from funding American education.
Strongly Agree
VALUES
Government should recognize and support the fundamental right and essential duty of parents to direct their child's health and educational well-being.
Strongly Agree
Attempts to physically or socially transition a child to the opposite sex constitute child abuse.
Agree
Marriage is a God-ordained, sacred and legal union of one man and one woman. No government has the authority to alter this definition.
Agree
I support the expansion of gambling in my state.
Disagree
Briefly describe your spiritual beliefs and values.
I am a Christian. Saved and Baptized at 20. I believe in the word of God. That marriage is sacred, and that the traditional family served the people far better than the broken bonds that are unfortunately all to common in families today. That America in many ways is founded on Christian morality without being exclusively a Christian nation. That we have turned away from that and suffered because of it.
ELECTIONS AND VOTING
People should be able to vote without photo identification.
Strongly Disagree
If we require a photo ID for nearly every other facet of adult life. Voting should require one as well.
EQUALITY
Reparations should be given to people on the basis of race.
Strongly Disagree
Biological males should not be allowed to participate in women's sports or occupy biological women's spaces whether it be bathrooms, locker rooms, sorority houses, women's shelters, or prison.
Strongly Agree
ENERGY & ENVIRONMENT
Man-made climate change is a global threat and requires urgent political action.
Neutral
Yes, and no. The dramatized version of climate change I do not, but I do believe we could do more as people to decrease pollution, and reduce the waste we pour into nature. I am also not opposed to green energies, but forcing them onto the people or giving them special tax breaks are not things I agree with. They should compete in the market as should all forms of energy.
What do you believe is the most reliable energy source that will supply the growing demand for electricity?
Coal is still the backbone of West Virginia, but I personally believe nuclear energy is the energy of the future. These two beliefs are not mutually exclusive. I believe we should invest in both as a state. I am not opposed to other forms of energy.
ABOUT YOU
When you consider your views on a wide range of issues from economic and social matters to foreign policy and religious liberty, which of the following best describes you overall?
Conservative
I am a Conservative though I have begun to also adopt the term, Restorationist because conserving what we have is not enough anymore. We must restore the American dream and way of life. That includes our cities, our infrastructure, our individual liberties, and our more traditional society. Where I differ from some with my way of thinking is forcing it or excluding certain groups of Americans will only make people resist restoring America to the amazing country it was and can still be.
Have you ever been penalized for sexual misconduct in either civil or criminal court? If so, please explain.
No. I have never been charged for any crime.
Have you ever been convicted of a felony? If so, please explain.
No. I have never been charged for any crime.
CRIMINAL JUSTICE & PUBLIC SAFETY
What should be the goal of the criminal justice system?
To rehabilitate where possible, but when it isn't possible, to punish those who commit the more heinous crimes. I do not believe something like the death penalty should be used except in the most extreme cases. Even then I am skeptical with the many cases where someone turned out to be innocent. It is a admittedly tough position I struggle with as a candidate and human being.
Government has a responsibility to protect children from sexual exploitation during online activities.
Strongly Disagree
The majority of this responsibility falls on the parents. The rise in government censorship and age verification is not to protect the children as they claim. It is to police everyone one the internet. Those are very different things. I do believe a Digital Bill of Rights should be passed to enshrine similar liberties that we have outside of the internet.
Sharia law should not be accepted or incorporated in any form within the legal framework of the United States.
Strongly Agree
As I said earlier. No religion should be forced into any legal framework. That is what separation of church and state or in this case separation of mosque and state means. Everyone is free to practice Islam if they choose in America, but it cannot be used as legal framework at any government level.
2ND AMENDMENT
What restrictions on gun ownership are needed to protect public safety?
I am a 2nd amendment absolutist. I believe the only citizens who should not possess a firearm are violent felons or those with proven records of mental conditions where they may cause harm to others or themselves if possessing one. A armed populace is a much safer populace. I do also support more firearms training being available to the public because I do believe safety and knowing how to use said firearms is equally as important.
