Former US senator and West Virginia governor Jay Rockefeller dies at 89

Jay Rockefeller, who governed West Virginia and then represented it in the U.S. Senate, has died at 89. Fox News, ABC News and CBS News report that he died Thursday night at his home in Washington, according to Mary Stewart, a vice president at WETA, the public broadcaster led by his wife, Sharon. ABC News and CBS News describe him as the last of his family's political dynasty; ABC News adds that he was its only Democrat, according to Fox News · ABC News.

CBS News traces a career that began in 1964 with an anti-poverty job in the state and included two terms as governor. Senator Shelley Moore Capito, who took his seat and whose father beat him in the 1972 governor's race, wrote on X, according to Fox News, that he was a gentleman and a friend beyond politics. In the Senate he wrote the 1997 law creating the Children's Health Insurance Program, regretted his 2002 Iraq war vote, and broke with President Barack Obama over mountaintop removal mining. Retiring in 2015, he said he "could not imagine a more rewarding career."

Summarized by PolitiKool from Fox News · ABC News, ABC News and CBS News’s reporting. Read the full story at Fox News · ABC News → Also at ABC News → Also at CBS News →