West Virginia: Government, Politics, and Higher Education

West Virginia's first constitution was ratified in 1862. The present constitution dates from 1872. The executive branch is headed by a governor elected for a four-year term. The state's legislature has a senate with 34 members and a house of delegates with 100 members. The state sends two senators and three representatives to the U.S. Congress and has five electoral votes. Democrats have generally dominated West Virginia politics since the Great Depression, but in recent years Republican candidates have been more successful in the state.

The state's leading institution of higher learning is West Virginia Univ., which has its main campus at Morgantown. Other schools include the Univ. of Charleston and West Virginia Wesleyan College, at Buckhannon. West Virginia also has an extensive state college system.

Sections in this article:

• Introduction
• Late-Twentieth-Century Developments
• Industrial Expansion and the Labor Movement
• Postwar Political Changes and the Hatfield-McCoy Feud
• Civil War and the Creation of West Virginia
• Growth and Estrangement from Eastern Virginia
• The American Revolution
• Early Inhabitants and European Settlement
• History
• Government, Politics, and Higher Education
• Economy
• Geography
• Facts and Figures

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