Background and career
John Davison "Jay" Rockefeller IV (born June 18, 1937) is an American retired politician who served as a United States senator from West Virginia from 1985 to 2015 and governor of West Virginia from 1977 to 1985. He is a member of the Democratic Party. Born into the prominent Rockefeller family in New York City, Rockefeller moved to Emmons, West Virginia in 1964 to serve as a Volunteers in Service to America (VISTA) worker. He was first elected to public office as a member of the West Virginia House of Delegates (1966–1968). Rockefeller was later elected secretary of state of West Virginia (1968–1973) and was president of West Virginia Wesleyan College (1973–1975), and was elected to two terms as governor of West Virginia. He was first elected to the Senate in 1984, while in office as governor. As a senator, Rockefeller served on the powerful Senate Finance Committee, including as chairman of the Subcommittee on Medicare and Long-term Care (later Health Care). He became a leading spokesman for healthcare reform, advocating for improved and modernized Medicare, expanded access to healthcare, and increased health coverage for children. He authored the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP), that has provided health care coverage for millions of poor children. He played a crucial role in the passage of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) of 2010, advocating for a public insurance option. Rockefeller was also a major player regarding veterans' issues, serving on the Veterans' Affairs Committee for his entire Senate career, including multiple terms as its chairman. He focused on expanding research and treatment for service-related illnesses like Gulf War Illness and Agent Orange. He worked to reform the Veterans Affairs healthcare system. Rockefeller became the state's senior U.S. senator when the long-serving Senator Robert Byrd died in June 2010. He did not seek reelection in 2014 and was succeeded by Republican U.S. Representative Shelley Moore Capito. Rockefeller is the only member of his family to have held office as a Democrat, in what has been a traditionally Republican family.
John Davison Rockefeller IV was born at New York Hospital in Lenox Hill, Manhattan to John Davison Rockefeller III (1906–1978) and Blanchette Ferry Hooker (1909–1992), 26 days after the death of his patrilineal great-grandfather, John D. Rockefeller (1839–1937). He is a grandson of John D. Rockefeller Jr. Jay graduated from Phillips Exeter Academy in 1955. After his junior year at Harvard University, he spent three years studying Japanese at the International Christian University in Tokyo. He graduated from Harvard in 1961 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Far Eastern languages and history. He attended Yale University and did graduate work in Oriental studies and studied the Chinese language. After college, Rockefeller worked for the Peace Corps in Washington, D.C., under President John F. Kennedy, where he developed a friendship with Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy and worked as an assistant to Peace Corps Director Sargent Shriver. He served as the operations director for the Corps' largest overseas program, in the Philippines. He worked for a brief time in the Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs. He continued his public service in 1964–1965 in the Volunteers in Service to America (VISTA), under President Lyndon B. Johnson, during which time he moved to Emmons, West Virginia.
Rockefeller was elected to the West Virginia House of Delegates in 1966. In the summer of 1968, after New York Senator Robert F. Kennedy's assassination, Rockefeller's uncle, then-Governor of New York Nelson Rockefeller, offered him the open seat. He refused. He was elected to the office of West Virginia Secretary of State in 1968. He won the Democratic nomination for governor in 1972 but was defeated in the general election by the Republican incumbent, Arch A. Moore Jr. Rockefeller then served as president of West Virginia Wesleyan College from 1973 to 1975. Rockefeller was elected governor of West Virginia in 1976 and re-elected in 1980. He served as governor when manufacturing plants and coal mines were closing as the national recession of the early 1980s hit West Virginia particularly hard. Between 1982 and 1984, West Virginia's unemployment rate hovered between 15 and 20 percent.
In 1984, he was elected to the United States Senate, narrowly defeating businessman John Raese as Ronald Reagan easily carried the state in the presidential election. As in his 1980 gubernatorial campaign against Arch Moore, Rockefeller spent over $12 million to win a Senate seat. He was re-elected in 1990, 1996, 2002 and 2008 by substantial margins. He was chair of the Committee on Veterans' Affairs (1993–1995; January 3 to 20, 2001; and June 6, 2001 – January 3, 2003). Rockefeller was the chair of the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation (2009–2015).
In April 1992, he was the Democratic Party's finance chairman and considered running for the presidency, but pulled out after consulting with friends and advisers. He went on to strongly endorse Bill Clinton as the Democratic nominee. During the general election campaign he accused Clinton's opponent, U.S. President George H.W. Bush, of playing "the politics of fear, division and greed". He chaired the prominent Senate Intelligence Committee (retiring in January 2009), from which he commented frequently on the war in Iraq. In 1993, Rockefeller became the principal Senate supporter, with Ted Kennedy, behind Bill and Hillary Clinton's sweeping health care reform package, liaising closely with the First Lady, opening up his mansion next to Rock Creek Park for its first strategy meeting. The reform was subsequently defeated by an alliance between the Business Roundtable and a small-business coalition. In 2002, Rockefeller made an official visit to several Middle Eastern countries, during which he discussed his personal views regarding United States military intentions with the leaders of those countries. In October of that year, Rockefeller strongly expressed his concern for Saddam Hussein's alleged weapons of mass destruction program while addressing the U.S. Senate:
There has been some debate over how "imminent" a threat Iraq poses. I do believe that Iraq poses an imminent threat, but I also believe that after September 11, that question is increasingly outdated. It is in the nature of these weapons, and the way they are targeted against civilian populations, that documented capability and demonstrated intent may be the only warning we get. To insist on further evidence could put some of our fellow Americans at risk. Can we afford to take that chance? We cannot! In November 2005 during a TV interview, Rockefeller stated,
