page_title: Nick Rahall
section_title: Elections
hierarchical_section_title: Nick Rahall / U.S. House of Representatives / Elections
caption_attribution_description: English: Nick Rahall, U.S. Representative from West Virginia
context_page_description: Nick Joe Rahall II is an American former politician and member of the Democratic Party who served as a U.S. Representative from West Virginia from 1977 to 2015. He is the longest-serving member ever of the United States House of Representatives from the state of West Virginia.
  From 1977 to 1993, he served the now-defunct 4th congressional district. From 1993 to 2015, he served the 3rd congressional district. His district included the southern, coal-dominated portion of the state, including Huntington, Bluefield, and Beckley. Rahall was the Ranking Member of the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure.
  Rahall lost a bid for re-election to Congress in 2014, losing to West Virginia State Senator Evan Jenkins.
context_section_description: 1970s–90s
  Rahall was elected to Congress in 1976 in the 4th district, succeeding Ken Hechler who ran for governor. Rahall won the district primary with a plurality of 38%. Hechler lost the primary for governor, and attempted a write-in campaign for the congressional seat. Rahall won the general election with 46% of the vote, while Hechler got 37%.
  In 1978, Hechler challenged Rahall in the Democratic primary, and Rahall won with 56% of the vote. He was re-elected 17 times. Hechler later became the West Virginia Secretary of State, and ran against Rahall in the primary in 1990. Rahall defeated him, receiving 57% of the vote.
  In 1990, he defeated Republican insurance agent Marianne Brewster with just 52% of the vote, the second-lowest winning percentage of his career. The district was redrawn after the 1990 census, becoming the 3rd district, due to changes to the state's population.
  2010
  In 2010, he defeated Republican former State Supreme Court Justice Spike Maynard with 56% of the vote, his lowest percentage since 1990.
  2012
  In the 2012 election, Rahall defeated Republican Rick Snuffer with 53.5% of the vote.  His eight-point margin of victory was his narrowest since 1990.
  2014
  In 2014, Rahall faced a primary challenge from fellow Democrat and retired Army officer Richard Ojeda. Rahall won the primary with 66.4% of the vote.
  He faced Republican State Senator Evan Jenkins in the November general election. Jenkins had served in the state legislature for 20 years as a Democrat, but had switched parties. Jenkins and Rahall had contributed to each other's campaigns in the decade's previous election cycles.
  Rahall was considered one of the most "endangered" House Democrats by the House Democratic campaign committee. He received an endorsement from the NRA. Rahall was the sole remaining Democrat in West Virginia's three-member delegation to the House of Representatives.
  As of September 18, 2014, the race was rated a "toss up" by both University of Virginia political professor Larry Sabato, of Sabato's Crystal Ball, and Stu Rothenberg of the Rothenberg Political Report.  As of October 2, managing editor Kyle Kondik of Sabato's Crystal Ball said the race was still a toss-up, calling it "Super close, super expensive and super nasty."  The Rahall campaign outspent the Jenkins campaign in the election by a two-to-one ratio.
  Ultimately, Rahall was defeated, with 44.7% of the vote to Jenkins' 55.3% of the vote.  In the process, he lost a number of areas that had reliably supported him for years.
  Having served 19 terms in the House, the 65-year-old Rahall qualified for a Congressional pension of about $139,000 a year.
caption: Rahall during his first term in Congress
exif: {"Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "150", "Image YResolution": "150", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image ExifOffset": "90", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "439", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "511"}