WataugaWatch: Richard Ojeda Delivers What Democrats Want -- A Fighter

Monday, September 14, 2026

Richard Ojeda Delivers What Democrats Want -- A Fighter

Richard Ojeda

The DCCC added the 9th Congressional District to its "Districts to Watch" list all the way back in August, but I didn't wake up to the flip possibility until Thomas Mills highlighted Democrat Richard Ojeda as a comer a couple of weeks ago. I've actually been following Ojeda for years on social media but hadn't paid attention to his candidacy for Congress. Ojeda's a very verbal critic of hypocrisy and malfeasance. He projects an intensity of integrity. That, combined with a born-to-the-plow appreciation for the working class and for rural people, helped him get a West Virginia Senate seat in 2016. He's what my father would have called feisty. And by all (social media) appearances, he's giving this campaign all he's got. Against incumbent Richard Hudson.

Hudson rose in Republican ranks as a party operative. He worked for GOP Chair Robin Hayes for some four years (before the arrest and sentencing) and then became Virginia Foxx's first chief of staff. He went on to work for a couple of Texas Republican congressmen before coming back to NC with a wealth of political know-how, to run for Congress successfully against Democratic incumbent Larry Kissell in 2012. Hudson has been easily reelected six more times (in fluctuating districts, because gerrymandering) and rose this year to head the NRCC -- making him the chief congressional candidate recruiter. In any other year Hudson would seem invulnerable.

This is not any other year.

Richard N. Ojeda II is a retired U.S. Army major, educator, and longtime social-media political commentator. He served 24 years in the Army, including deployments to Korea, Honduras, Jordan, Iraq, Haiti, and Afghanistan, and served as a paratrooper before retiring as a major. He won his WVa Senate seat with almost 60% of the vote, in the heart of the southern coalfields. He's firmly of a place and one of the folks. As a state senator, he became nationally known for his outspoken support of West Virginia teachers during the 2018 teachers' strike, advocating higher teacher pay and improved public-school funding.

In 2018, Ojeda ran for Congress in West Virginia's heavily Republican 3rd District. Although he lost to Republican Carol Miller, the campaign made him a nationally recognized Democratic figure, particularly because of his working-class, pro-labor message and unconventional personal style. He subsequently made a brief run for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination, thought better of it, and stopped.

Since then, Ojeda has maintained a substantial social-media presence, regularly releasing direct-to-camera videos on politics, government, veterans' issues, working-class concerns, and current events. The message in every one: "I'm your fighter. Send me."

This is the video message Ojeda made for DJT after the president threatened to mobilize troops against Minnesota many months ago: