Former US senator Jay Rockefeller dies at 89
Jay Rockefeller, a Democrat who spent decades fighting poverty and expanding healthcare, has died at 89. He served 30 years in the US Senate representing West Virginia.
Jay Rockefeller, a member of the wealthy Rockefeller family, died at the age of 89, according to US media reports. He was a great-grandson of the oil magnate John D. Rockefeller and a rare Democrat in a family traditionally aligned with the Republican Party.
Rockefeller first went to West Virginia in 1964 as an anti-poverty volunteer and later built a political career focused on coal miners, veterans and children. After two terms as governor, he served 30 years in the Senate. In 1997 he helped create a children's health insurance program that extended coverage to millions of children from low-income families.
He chaired the Senate Intelligence Committee and initially backed the US invasion of Iraq before becoming a strong critic of the Bush administration's handling of the war. In 2014 he announced he would not seek a sixth Senate term, ending nearly half a century in public office. West Virginia Governor Patrick Morrisey paid tribute to his decades of service.