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Sen. Shelley Moore Capito

Senate Republican Conference Vice Chair and Senator for West Virginia

pronounced SHEH-lee // KAP-ih-toh

Capito is the junior senator from West Virginia and is a Republican. She has served since Jan 6, 2015. Capito is next up for reelection in 2026 and serves until Jan 3, 2027. She is 70 years old.

She is also Senate Republican Conference Vice Chair, a party leadership role. Party leaders focus more on setting their party’s legislative priorties than on introducing legislation.

She was previously the representative for West Virginia’s 2nd congressional district as a Republican from 2001 to 2014.

Photo of Sen. Shelley Moore Capito [R-WV]

Analysis

Legislative Metrics

Read our 2022 Report Card for Capito.

Ideology–Leadership Chart

Capito is shown as a purple triangle ▲ in our ideology-leadership chart below. Each dot is a member of the Senate positioned according to our ideology score (left to right) and our leadership score (leaders are toward the top).

The chart is based on the bills Capito has sponsored and cosponsored from Jan 3, 2019 to Jul 11, 2024. See full analysis methodology.

Committee Membership

Shelley Moore Capito sits on the following committees:

Enacted Legislation

Capito was the primary sponsor of 14 bills that were enacted. The most recent include:

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Does 14 not sound like a lot? Very few bills are ever enacted — most legislators sponsor only a handful that are signed into law. But there are other legislative activities that we don’t track that are also important, including offering amendments, committee work and oversight of the other branches, and constituent services.

We consider a bill enacted if one of the following is true: a) it is enacted itself, b) it has a companion bill in the other chamber (as identified by Congress) which was enacted, or c) if at least about half of its provisions were incorporated into bills that were enacted (as determined by an automated text analysis, applicable beginning with bills in the 110th Congress).

Bills Sponsored

Issue Areas

Capito sponsors bills primarily in these issue areas:

Health (34%) Environmental Protection (21%) Science, Technology, Communications (17%) Taxation (6%) Energy (6%) Transportation and Public Works (6%) Government Operations and Politics (6%) Emergency Management (6%)

Recently Introduced Bills

Capito recently introduced the following legislation:

View All » | View Cosponsors »

Most legislation has no activity after being introduced.

As Senate Republican Conference Vice Chair, Capito may be focused on her responsibilities other than introducing legislation, such as setting the chamber’s agenda, uniting her party, and brokering deals.

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Voting Record

Key Votes

Capito voted Yea

Capito voted Yea

Passed 219/206 on Dec 11, 2014.
This bill became the vehicle for passage of the Consolidated and Further Continuing Appropriations Act, 2015 [pdf], which was approved by the House on December …

Capito voted Aye

Capito voted Nay

Capito voted Aye

Capito voted Aye

Passed 304/117 on Jun 23, 2011.
The Leahy–Smith America Invents Act (AIA) is a United States federal statute that was passed by Congress and was signed into law by President Barack …

Capito voted Yea

Passed 240/179 on Jun 3, 2009.

Capito voted Aye

Capito voted Yea

Missed Votes

From Jan 2015 to Jul 2024, Capito missed 108 of 3,323 roll call votes, which is 3.3%. This is on par with the median of 2.9% among the lifetime records of senators currently serving. The chart below reports missed votes over time.

We don’t track why legislators miss votes, but it’s often due to medical absenses, major life events, and running for higher office.

Show the numbers...

Primary Sources

The information on this page is originally sourced from a variety of materials, including: