Areas of focus since taking office have included:
1) Fighting fraud, waste, abuse, and corruption in the state.
2) Aggressively addressing the state’s substance abuse epidemic, including a 6-year-long investigation into the federal Drug Enforcement Agency’s role in allowing the opioid crisis to explode in West Virginia, and law suits against major pharmacies.
3) Lawsuits challenging Supreme Court and Court of Appeals decisions restricting the carrying of firearms, and other actions in defense of citizens’ 2nd Amendment rights.
4) Multiple lawsuits and amicus briefs challenging the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), including challenges to the regulation of coal-fired power plants under Obama, and perceived overreach under the Clean Water Act and emissions regulations.
Professional Background:
Patrick Morrisey was sworn in to office in 2013 as the 34th Attorney General of West Virginia, and the first Republican to serve in the role in 80 years. From 1999 to 2004 AG Morrisey served as deputy staff director and chief health counsel for the United States House Committee on Energy and Commerce, where he worked on the passage of the Public Health Security and Bioterrorism Preparedness Response Act and the Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement, and Modernization Act (establishing Medicare Part D). From 2004 to 2012, AG Morrisey worked as a lobbyist in Washington D.C. primarily in the area of health and drug-related regulations and legislation. He ran unsuccessfully for the United States House of Representatives in New Jersey’s 7th congressional district in 2000, and in 2018 he lost in the general election for U.S. Senate to Senator Joe Manchin. AG Morrisey has announced he is running for governor in 2024.
Education: AG Morrisey graduated with honors from Rutgers College with a Bachelor of Arts in history and political science in 1989. He also attended Rutgers School of Law–Newark, receiving his JD in 1992.
Personal: AG Morrisey was born in Brooklyn, NY and raised in Edison, NJ. He moved to West Virginia in 2006, and lives there with his wife, Denise.