Paula Jean Swearengin

Paula Jean Swearengin (born 1973/74) is an American social and environmental activist and politician from West Virginia. A member of the Democratic Party, she is associated with the progressive organizations Justice Democrats and Brand New Congress. She ran against incumbent U.S. Senator Joe Manchin in the 2018 Democratic primary but was defeated, winning 30.21% of the vote. She is running for a Senate seat again against Republican Shelley Moore Capito in 2020.

Early life 
Swearengin was born in Mullens, West Virginia, to a family of coal miners, and raised in Yadkin County, North Carolina.

Political career 
She is a former board member and representative of the Keepers of the Mountain Foundation, a West Virginia organization that opposed mountaintop removal mining. Swearengin has also spoken on behalf of the Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition and the Sierra Club at public fora and events, including EPA hearings on the Clean Power Plan. She supported Bernie Sanders's 2016 presidential campaign.

In May 2017, Swearengin announced her candidacy against Manchin in the 2018 United States Senate election in West Virginia. She was one of the first candidates Brand New Congress supported. In May 2017, the Charleston Gazette-Mail noted that several other candidates had received financial contributions but that Swearengin had no immediately apparent ties to the coal industry.

Swearengin supports a Medicare for All healthcare plan. She favors legalization of both medical and recreational cannabis. She supports raising the minimum wage to $15 and implementing free public college tuition.

In January 2019, the documentary Knock Down the House premiered at the 2019 Sundance Film Festival. The film focuses on the primary campaigns of Swearengin, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Amy Vilela, and Cori Bush, four progressive Democrats who ran for Congress in the 2018 midterm elections. The film was released by Netflix on May 1, 2019.

Electoral history

Personal life 
She is a single mother of four from Coal City, West Virginia. She lost one of her grandparents and several uncles to black lung disease.

References

External links 
 

Category:1970s births
Category:21st-century American politicians
Category:21st-century American women politicians
Category:Activists from North Carolina
Category:Activists from West Virginia
Category:American environmentalists
Category:American women activists
Category:American women environmentalists
Category:Candidates in the 2018 United States elections
Category:Living people
Category:People from Raleigh County, West Virginia
Category:People from Mullens, West Virginia
Category:People from Yadkin County, North Carolina
Category:West Virginia politicians
Category:West Virginia Democrats