Richard Ojeda

Ojeda was born September 25, 1970 in Rochester, Minnesota, was raised in Logan County, West Virginia, and graduated from Logan High School in 1988.[1] He enlisted in the U.S. Army in 1989 and served 24 years, including multiple tours in Iraq and Afghanistan and 15 years stationed at Fort Bragg in North Carolina's 9th District, retiring as a Major in 2013.[1][2] He earned a bachelor's degree from West Virginia State College in 1997.[1] After retiring from the military, he moved to West Virginia, where he says he served as a JROTC instructor at the high school level.[2]

Ojeda was elected to the West Virginia State Senate, District 7, in 2016 and served until January 2019.[1] He says he helped teachers win raises after a historic strike, passed medical cannabis legislation, and secured higher wages for correctional officers, and WVVA also reports he sponsored a bill to legalize medical marijuana.[2][5] He lost the 2018 general election for West Virginia's 3rd Congressional District to Republican Carol Miller, 56.4 percent to 43.6 percent.[1]

Ojeda filed to run for president in November 2018 and withdrew in January 2019; in 2020 he finished second in the Democratic primary for U.S. Senate in West Virginia, with 32.9 percent to Paula Jean Swearengin's 38.3 percent.[1] He won the March 3, 2026 Democratic primary for the 9th District with 41.8 percent of the vote.[1][5] During the campaign, he said he was running to protect democracy and the freedoms he served to defend.[2][5] According to his survey responses, he is married with three children, and he and his wife returned to Aberdeen after living in West Virginia.[2] He won the November 3, 2026 general election with 51.1% of the vote to Richard Hudson's 48.9%, according to unofficial results reported by NBC News.[3]