Coop-Gonzalez

ELKINS — Delegate Elias Coop-Gonzalez, R-District 67, said he wants to bring the Ten Commandments back into West Virginia classrooms.

“I’m the youngest member of the Legislature, and I’m a student at Liberty University, studying business administration, data analytics, with a concentration on economics,” Coop-Gonzalez said during the Randolph County Republican Executive Committee’s Lincoln Day Dinner Saturday.

“I want to encourage you all. Please become civically involved, biblically minded, constitutionally minded. One of the things that I’m looking forward to introducing in the next session is a Ten Commandments bill. I would like to see the Ten Commandments put back in every single classroom in the state of West Virginia.”

Coop-Gonzalez listed some of his accomplishments during his first year in office.

“I’ve had the pleasure of doing many things in my first 11 months in the Legislature. I secured $7,500 for the Randolph County Senior Center for the roof project. I did that with Ty (Nestor) and our senators here. It was a huge honor for me to do that,” he said. “I helped organize the creation of our new Freedom Caucus, which I think is going to be very productive in this next session.

“One of the things that I’m most proud of is that I’m on the Energy and Manufacturing Committee. Some of the stuff that runs through there, they’re pretty liberal bills, especially when it comes to energy. We had windmills being proposed in the district.

“You know, windmills are absolutely terrible for the environment, they’re not renewable,” he said. “What I tell people is, the things that you make windmills out of are not recyclable, so by default they are not renewable. So now they’re trying to put them in West Virginia, blow off the tops of our mountains and chop all of our birds to death. Thankfully, we were able to intercept that, me and Bryan Ward from Pendleton County, we stopped that bill from coming through, and we kept our mountains pristine.”

Coop-Gonzalez also spoke about several controversial topics.

“I fought for the Second Amendment and the right to life very vigorously. Those are two things that I’m very, very passionate about,” he said. “I was a cosponsor of HB2007, which was unfortunately watered down in the Senate, but at least we got that initial ban in, so kids can’t be castrated just because they feel a certain way, just because they’re confused. That’s totally evil and indefensible.”

HB2007 included a ban on gender-affirming surgery for minors.

Gov. Jim Justice signed House Bill 2007 into law on March 29.

“If you look at the things that are happening in our country today, common sense has become old-fashioned, unfortuntately,” Coop-Gonzalez said. “I made a recent comment about a guy who dresses up as a woman, who is a city councilman in Wheeling, and he wants to run for mayor. And I accurately pointed out that ‘This guy’s a woman.’ And I had all kinds of people, serious people, come out and lecture me about how there only being two genders is my personal religion, and how I shouldn’t impose that on other people. This is what we’ve come to.”

In September, Wheeling City Councilwoman Rosemary Ketchum officially announced Wednesday her bid to become the city’s next mayor and launched her 2024 mayoral race campaign.

When elected to Wheeling City Council in 2020, Ketchum made history as the first openly transgender elected official in West Virginia. 

Coop-Gonzalez encouraged those attending the Lincoln Day Dinner to run for office themselves.

“We can all make a difference here,” he said. “Not just by coming to these dinners and getting to know each other, we can all run for office as well. I want to encourage all of you to run for office at some point. If you don’t want to do delegate or senate, start at city council or county commission, school board. Because we need to take back our education system. We need to put America back on the right track.

“I think one of the most important things is learning about the Constitution,” he said. “And how many times do legislators talk about adhering to the Constitution? Many times they don’t even mention it, but that’s the sole document that we live by.

“Ask yourself this question — how much do you know about the Constitution? How many amendments are there? How many articles? What was the original intent? If you can’t answer most of these questions, then I think the problem is with us,” he said.

“We’re supposed to take that document and understand it through and through. That way we can hold politicians accountable. The change starts with us.”