Lawmakers revive major, century-old offer to Virginians as Spanberger, Jones set to take office

By Fox News · Fox News

West Virginia lawmakers at the state and federal levels are looking to welcome disaffected Virginians into Mountaineer country after Democrats swept elections this week with Virginia Gov.-elect Abigail Spanberger and Attorney General-elect Jay Jones winning big. Virginia and West Virginia were a unified state until June 1863 – when the ultimate result of the "Wheeling Convention" saw delegates in western counties vote to split from the east in order to prevent forcibly seceding from the U.S. as that effort percolated in Richmond. That split may be seeing evidence of mending, as a West Virginia lawmaker announced plans Thursday to invite several western Virginia counties and those in Maryland’s Western Panhandle to join West Virginia. VIRGINIA SPECIAL ELECTION IN DEEP-BLUE DC SUBURBS CAN STILL GIVE INSIGHT INTO KEY GOVERNOR’S RACE Much of what is now West Virginia abhorred or did not utilize slavery, and abolitionist John Brown famously led a raid against the federal armory in Jefferson County in what became the easternmost point in the Mountain State – hoping to spur a slave revolt. A century-and-a-half-later, West Virginia state Sen. Chris Rose put forth a bill Thursday that would reunite his state with several conservative counties along the Virginia border and extending toward Tennessee and North Carolina. A map of the areas in Rose’s bill published by Beckley’s NBC affiliate showed a several-hundred-mile swath of Virginia from Big Stone Gap, down through Jonesville and extending north through Tazewell, Bland and Luray would be formally invited to join West Virginia . OBAMA’S ‘WINGMAN’ DUMPS $300K INTO NEW VIRGINIA REDISTRICTING FIGHT AS DEMS CALL LAWMAKERS BACK The map would essentially render West Virginia’s eastern panhandle moot geographically – and reunite Charles Town and Martinsburg with geopolitically similar neighbors in Berryville and Brucetown, Virginia. Charleston would also add newcomers from Garrett, Allegany and Washington counties in high-tax Mar…