Sen. Laura Wakim-Chapman Wants to Be a Voice for West Virginia’s Most Vulnerable

By Juliet Zucker

When the COVID-19 pandemic reached West Virginia, future state senator Laura Wakim-Chapman started calling her elected officials for information, not just about the virus itself, but about its consequences for her school-age children. Through conversations with her elected representatives—some satisfying, others less so—Wakim-Chapman began to notice a pattern.

“I realized that there really aren’t that many women, and especially mothers, who have decided to run and serve,” she told Future Caucus in an interview. “I wanted to make sure that there was a voice for our children, and I felt like I was the person to do that.”

Wakim-Chapman is one of four women in the 34-member West Virginia State Senate, and women make up only 11 of the state’s 99 state delegates–the hundredth seat is currently vacant. She describes it as a tight-knit community of women in a male-dominated workplace and says, “Some of our strongest advocates and fighters have been our female legislators.”

One of those 11 women is Wakim-Chapman’s fellow Future Caucus member Del. Kayla Young, House Minority Leader Pro Tempore and Democratic co-chair of the West Virginia Future Caucus. While Republicans have a supermajority in the West Virginia legislature, bipartisan collaboration on key issues is routine for Wakim-Chapman. Gaining feedback and working with other delegates, no matter their party affiliation, is “super important” to her process.

“The beauty of the legislative process is that none of us have all the answers. By collaborating with all sides of an issue, we reach the sweet spot of where our laws should be,” she said. “I make sure that I reach across the aisle on anything that I’m working on. If there’s bipartisan support, there’s more chance that a bill will pass, even though we are in the supermajority.”

In addition to her work on family-oriented issues such as child care, foster care, and affordable and accessible health care—she was recently appointed to serve as the chair of the Senate Health Committee—Wakim-Chapman is one of the state’s most strident voices working to counter the plight of human trafficking, an underreported crime affecting individuals and families across the United States.

Her passion for the issue developed in the wake of visiting a home for survivors of human trafficking, whose harrowing stories moved her to take action on what she describes as a “silent epidemic.” In early 2024, she and her colleague Sen. Mike Caputo, a since-retired Democrat representing the state’s 13th district, introduced SB 472, which would require hotels and other public lodging establishments to train their employees to recognize and safely report suspected human trafficking, as well as display human trafficking awareness materials.

As of writing, Wakim-Chapman laments that some of her colleagues in the legislature are withholding support for the bill over concerns about “undue burdens of compliance placed on businesses,” which she insists would not be the case. The multinational hospitality company Hilton Worldwide provides the training for free, meaning the only so-called “cost” to businesses is the time it takes for an employee to watch the videos.

Wakim-Chapman continues to push for the bill, refusing to give up on what she considers a common-sense piece of  legislation. “Finding co-sponsors helps the process, but even that, sadly, sometimes is not enough to get a bill onto an agenda,” she said, adding, “I do believe that this bill would have had bipartisan support if it was set for a full and fair hearing.”

Like many young legislators in the Future Caucus network, Wakim-Chapman sometimes struggles to balance the demands of raising a family with those of elected leadership. However, being surrounded by other delegates who face the same challenges, she feels empowered and inspired.

“We have the passion and the energy to get things done,” she said. “To see other people starting out their careers and deciding to run for public office is inspiring for me. I wish people would realize that young legislators are sacrificing a lot to represent our constituents. I gladly do so.”