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Wheeling attorney joins race to be West Virginia Attorney General

Teresa Toriseva

WHEELING — Wheeling attorney Teresa Toriseva has her eye on statewide office and filed Thursday to run for West Virginia attorney general in 2024.

Toriseva presently serves as first vice chair of the West Virginia Democratic Party, where it is her role to recruit and encourage candidates to run for office.

“You can’t win if you don’t fight,” she said. “West Virginians are remarkably independent.

“Like Governor (Andy) Beshear in Kentucky, Democrats can win in rural conservative states when they show people what they stand for. I encourage everyone to examine my record as a courtroom lawyer to see where I stand.”

She is the first Democrat to announce their candidacy in the state attorney general race. State Sen. Mike Stuart, R-Kanawha, and state Auditor J.B. McCuskey both officially filed to run in the Republican primary for that office.

Toriseva plans to bring “extensive courtroom experience fighting for people” to the office of attorney general. She is often the attorney consulted by first responders when they have a legal issue.

Last year, she successfully represented Ohio County’s deputies in a lawsuit against the county commission that landed deputies a 23% raise. She also took on the case brought by female West Virginia State Police recruits after a camera was found placed in their locker room at the West Virginia State Police Training Academy in Nitro.

In 2022, Toriseva was the Democratic nominee for the 4th District House of Delegates seat representing Ohio County, but she opted not to run for that seat this year.

“It (the attorney general’s office) is an open seat, and my skill set developed through 30 years of courtroom experience matches the role of West Virginia attorney general,” she explained. “I also want to see more women elected and more people from the Northern Panhandle elected to statewide offices.”

She acknowledged it takes a lot of courage for a candidate to put their name on the ballot, especially if they are a woman.

“The West Virginia Attorney General’s Office happens to never have been held by a woman, so we know something has been blocking women from this path,” Toriseva said.

“What it takes is to continue to rise up, be heard, and continue to fight,” she said.

Toriseva is a native of Cameron, and she graduated from both Wheeling Jesuit University and the West Virginia University College of Law with honors.

She attended college on an academic scholarship, and worked multiple jobs while attending college.

She noted this taught her the resiliency that served her so well at the WVU College of Law, where she was inducted into the Order of the Coif and Order of the Barristers honor societies – a combination rarely achieved.

After law school, she spent 10 years practicing law in Charleston courtrooms before moving back to Wheeling where she raised her family and started her own law firm, Toriseva Law. The firm handles cases from all over the state and the country.

Toriseva said she fights to protect the rights of people who work for a living – including firefighters, police officers, deputy sheriffs, and other first responders across the state, as well as working people and their families.

She has been appointed special assistant attorney general multiple times, and she said this resulted in her recovering millions of dollars for West Virginia taxpayers.

“I love being a courtroom lawyer for people,” Toriseva said. “I bring real courtroom experience battling big banks and giant corporations for working people. I have also fought for over 10 years to protect public safety by protecting the wages of firefighters, police officers, and other first responders from Weirton to Beckley and Huntington to Martinsburg.

“My favorite part about being an attorney is being in the courtroom fighting for people. I stand ready to fight for equal rights for all West Virginians,” she added.

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