1. Patrick James Morrisey was born on December 21,1967 and is an American politician and attorney serving as the 37th governor of West Virginia since 2025.
54 Facts About Patrick Morrisey
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Patrick Morrisey served as the 34th attorney general of West Virginia from 2013 to 2025.
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Patrick Morrisey was elected governor in 2024, defeating Democratic nominee Steve Williams in a landslide.
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Patrick Morrisey is the first Republican elected to a first term since Arch A Moore Jr.
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Patrick Morrisey's father was an account manager at US Steel, while his mother worked as a registered nurse.
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Patrick Morrisey graduated with honors from Rutgers University with a Bachelor of Arts in history and political science in 1989.
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Patrick Morrisey was active in Republican politics in New Jersey early in life; he worked on George Bush's presidential campaign in 1988 and Cary Edwards' gubernatorial campaign in 1989, and was press secretary of Christine Todd Whitman's US Senate campaign in 1990.
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From 1999 to 2004, Patrick 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.
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Patrick Morrisey opposed abortion with exceptions and faced fierce opposition from anti-abortion leaders and groups in the district.
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Patrick Morrisey was paid $250,000 to lobby on behalf of a pharmaceutical trade group funded by some of the same opioid distributors West Virginia sued for flooding the state with opioids.
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In 2012, Patrick Morrisey ran for Attorney General of West Virginia against Darrell McGraw, a five-term incumbent.
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Patrick Morrisey defeated McGraw and was sworn in on January 14,2013, making him West Virginia's first Republican state attorney general since 1933.
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Patrick Morrisey sued the Drug Enforcement Administration to release its data on opioid sales and the sales quota system it uses to regulate opioid manufacturers, the first such lawsuit in West Virginia history.
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Patrick Morrisey placed a hold on the lawsuit after successfully negotiating with the Trump administration to have the DEA reconsider whether to amend the aggregate quota system.
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Patrick Morrisey's office filed several lawsuits and amicus briefs challenging the United States Environmental Protection Agency.
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In 2014, Patrick Morrisey sued the federal government, challenging regulatory changes described by the Obama administration as an administrative fix to the implementation of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.
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Patrick Morrisey appealed to the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, which in 2016 rejected the suit, finding that West Virginia has suffered no injury-in-fact and thus lacked standing.
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On June 9,2015, the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit rejected Patrick Morrisey's challenge to the rule, which he filed on September 3,2014, as premature, because the rule was a draft rule, not a final rule, and had not yet been published in the Federal Register.
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Patrick Morrisey has filed several amicus briefs in lawsuits challenging Second Amendment decisions.
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Patrick Morrisey's coalition argued that the ban infringed on law-abiding gun owners' rights.
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Patrick Morrisey said he wrote the letter out of concern for the court's impact on West Virginia residents, citing a 2016 court decision to stay President Obama's Clean Power Plan, which Patrick Morrisey believed would put people out of work.
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Patrick Morrisey signed an amicus brief led by Paxton seeking to overturn the results of the presidential election by challenging election processes in four states Trump lost.
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Patrick Morrisey said he encouraged Morrisey to join Paxton's effort.
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Patrick Morrisey called the Texas lawsuit a "novel approach" and supported letting the courts decide.
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Patrick Morrisey has said that he will not "allow the elites in the swamp to impose their values on West Virginia citizens".
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Patrick Morrisey opposes abortion and joined 12 states in supporting a brief in favor of North Carolina's 20-week abortion ban.
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Patrick Morrisey investigated Planned Parenthood's activities in West Virginia and was endorsed for the US Senate by West Virginians for Life.
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Patrick Morrisey hardened his position on abortion since his first run for Congress in New Jersey in 2000.
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Patrick Morrisey has pledged to make West Virginia more economically competitive by cutting the state income tax.
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Patrick Morrisey has defended laws creating a school voucher-esque savings account program and pledged to promote civics education and "eliminate the woke virus from the schools".
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Patrick Morrisey said that under him, West Virginia's schools would be for learning, not social experiments, radical agendas, brainwashing, or "confusion about the differences between boys and girls".
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Patrick Morrisey promoted a "Combating Addiction with Grace" partnership, a joint effort between law enforcement and faith leaders to combat opioid abuse.
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Patrick Morrisey focused on attempting to substitute opioids with other non-narcotics as first-treatments for pain management.
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Patrick Morrisey asked West Virginia lawmakers to consider an "anti-retaliation" program to eliminate negative consequences inflicted on prescribers who refuse to issue opioid medications, which passed in 2018.
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Patrick Morrisey supported President Trump's declaration of the opioid crisis as a national emergency.
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Patrick Morrisey led a coalition of state attorneys general in defending the right of states to prohibit sanctuary cities within their borders.
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Patrick Morrisey has A+ ratings from the NRA Political Victory Fund and the West Virginia Citizen's Defense League.
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Patrick Morrisey secured reciprocity agreements with other states, making their concealed carry licenses valid in West Virginia and vice versa.
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Patrick Morrisey advocated a 2021 law prohibiting transgender athletes from competing in West Virginia and repeatedly defended it in court as attorney general.
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Patrick Morrisey has said he will ask the US Supreme Court to review rulings that found the state's refusal to cover certain health care for transgender people discriminatory.
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Patrick Morrisey delayed implementation for six months to allow Congress the time to legislate a solution for young people eligible for DACA.
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In June 2018, Patrick Morrisey was among Republican candidates for the US Senate seeking blame the Trump administration family separation policy on their Democratic opponents.
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In 2016, Patrick Morrisey ended a lawsuit against Miami-Luken, a drug firm that sold excessive and suspicious amounts of opioids to small towns across West Virginia, after the firm paid $2.5 million to settle.
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Patrick Morrisey issued an executive order to allow families to seek religious exemptions from school vaccine requirements.
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Patrick Morrisey has said he supports eliminating all vestiges of DEI policies and continuing to "stomp out woke".
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Patrick Morrisey issued an executive order to terminate all DEI initiatives by state-run institutions.
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On July 10,2017, Patrick Morrisey announced his candidacy for the US Senate seat held by Joe Manchin.
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Amid the criticism of his lobbying career, as well as his wife's lobbying career, the Patrick Morrisey campaign pledged that his wife would stop lobbying if Patrick Morrisey were elected to the Senate.
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On January 13,2025, Patrick Morrisey was sworn in as governor of West Virginia.
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Patrick Morrisey placed a sign on his podium that read "National Corrupt Athletic Association" and called the NCAA's decision "a miscarriage of justice and robbery at the highest levels".
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Patrick Morrisey said he would investigate the NCAA and consider suing it.
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In March 2025, Morrisey appeared with US Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F Kennedy Jr.
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At the event, Kennedy told Patrick Morrisey he looked like he had eaten Governor Patrick Morrisey and suggested a carnivore diet and regularly tracking his weight, all of which provoked controversy.
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Patrick Morrisey's wife, Denise Henry Morrisey, is a founding partner at a lobbying firm, Capitol Counsel.