The Ohio Valley Digest — Monday, May 11, 2026

Your daily news brief for the Valley.

The day in one paragraph. West Virginia votes Tuesday — and the most-watched race isn’t a Senate race, it’s the fight between Gov. Patrick Morrisey and Sen. Shelley Moore Capito over who controls the state’s own Republican legislature. On the eve of the primary, a former WV Republican Party chair published an op-ed walking through the money flow: leftover inauguration funds routed through a non-disclosing nonprofit to PACs that are now spending against the governor’s fellow Republicans. Capito’s side is funding a counter-PAC. Meanwhile, AEP told investors last week it expects to nearly double its power generation by 2030 — 90% of that to feed data centers — at the same time the Ohio Consumers' Counsel is warning a new transmission project will cost Ohio customers $660 million. Jefferson County, Ohio recorded eight overdose deaths so far this year, four of them in April alone. And in Marietta, the Historic Harmar Bridge just received a $300,000 gift from a local donor.

Tuesday is West Virginia’s primary. It’s the first WV election to require a photo ID. It’s also the first held under closed-Republican rules in roughly 40 years. Polls open at 6:30 AM and close at 7:30 PM. If you don’t have a photo ID, you can still vote — either bring someone to vouch for you, or cast a provisional ballot the canvassers will rule on after Election Day.

The Marshall County ballot is dense. Mayor in Cameron, plus a $300,000-per-year levy that would run four years (about $14.80 a year on a $100,000 home). Mayor in Glen Dale. Three-way mayor’s race in McMechen. All three McMechen ward council seats contested. Five candidates running for three Board of Education seats — including former state delegate David Evans for District 3. The District 6 House primary pits incumbent Del. Jeff Stephens (a Sherrard Middle School teacher) against Don DeWitt (Moundsville City Council, former 20-year detective sergeant). DeWitt has Gov. Morrisey’s endorsement; Stephens told The Intelligencer: “I’m not going to be bullied by an out-of-state politician or bought and paid for by out-of-state interest groups.”

Jefferson County’s drug-overdose deaths have spiked. Health District Director Andrew Henry said Friday there have been eight overdose deaths so far this year — four of them in April. By comparison there were ten in all of 2025. Fentanyl is the most heavily identified drug. Naloxone is available at Chrysalis Health on Sunset Boulevard, the Jefferson County Justice Center, and Trinity Health System physician clinics. The 988 Lifeline and SAMHSA helpline (1–800–662-HELP) are both worth saving in your phone.

Marietta’s Historic Harmar Bridge received a $300,000 gift from local philanthropist Laurie Hadler — former owner of local McDonald’s restaurants — in memory of her mother Elizabeth “Betty” Hadler. Pairs with the $1 million Ohio DOT grant the bridge company received earlier this year for swing-span engineering. The east approach is next.

Steubenville City Schools was named a Project Lead The Way Distinguished District — the first time. All six schools earned individual recognition. The district’s Natalie Campana, was named the 2025–26 National PLTW Engineering Teacher of the Year. The new $16 million Pugliese STEM Academy is in its second year. The hospitality program over at Buckeye Local in Rayland — the Panther Café — is in the same vein: students running an actual food business with 255 of 300 enrolled buying through the program’s online ordering.

What might cost you more (or less) this week. AEP’s CEO told investors Tuesday the company expects to nearly double its generation across 11 states by 2030, with 90% of that growth coming from data centers. (The Ohio Capital Journal noted Monday that AEP’s CEO Bill Fehrman was paid $37 million last year — about $12,000 an hour — and that Ohio economists overwhelmingly say data-center subsidies are a bad use of public money.) PJM — the grid operator that runs your electric bill — held its most recent capacity auction at the price cap, and data centers were 40% of the $16.4 billion cost. Those costs hit your bill in June 2026 and again June 2027. Cooling a home in Ohio this summer is projected to run about $778 between June and September. Henry Hub natural gas closed Friday around $2.76 per million BTU. WTI crude was in the mid-$90s. Marcellus producers — Ascent in eastern Ohio especially — are raising their drilling budgets 40% to supply the demand.

And one from Hopedale. A letter to the editor in Monday’s Harrison News-Herald pushes back hard on the Harrison County Improvement Corporation’s openness to data centers. Jonathan Bratten cites the bitcoin mine outside Hopedale — audible five miles away — and the water demands that would stress Harrison’s already fracking-stressed aquifers. He frames data centers as the next chapter in a county that’s been “stripped of its resources by people outside the county” since the mid-1800s: coal, oil, strip mines, fracking. A statewide group is gathering 413,000 signatures for a constitutional ban on large new data centers; the November ballot is the target.

Names to know this week.

• WV Supreme Court (Division 1): five candidates — Wheeling’s Martin “Red Hat” Sheehan; Laura V. Faircloth (the only woman and lone independent); Todd Kirby; H.L. “Kirk” Kirkpatrick; Gerald Titus III.
• WV Supreme Court (Division 2): Justice Thomas Ewing (Morrisey appointee) vs. Del. Bill Flanagan (R-Ohio).
• WV US Senate (D primary): Thornton Cooper, Rachel Fetty Anderson, Jeff Kessler, Rio Phillips, Zach Shrewsbury.
• WV US Senate (R primary): Sen. Capito vs. state Sen. Tom Willis and four others.
• Bridgeport, OH: Bulldogs baseball teammates Brode Brown and Xander Wilson — both still being treated at WVU Medicine Golisano Children’s Hospital in Morgantown after an April 29 crash on National Road; the pancake breakfast Saturday drew hundreds, and Shadyside’s baseball team came in uniform.
• Bethany College: CBS News' Bob Orr received an honorary doctorate at Saturday’s 186th Commencement and used his speech to tell graduates the news business is “failing” at its core obligation.

This weekend in the Valley.

• Tuesday May 12, all day, all 55 WV counties — primary election. Polls open 6:30 AM, close 7:30 PM. Bring photo ID.
• Friday May 22, Weirton — first night of Weirton’s Friday-night summer concert series at the Weirton Event Center; gates 7 PM, music 8 PM.
• Saturday June 27, Wintersville — Thunder in the Ville fireworks at the Jefferson County Airpark; village council just approved a $5,000 donation to the festival.
• Through mid-May, Steubenville and Follansbee — public meetings on the new Market Street Bridge (US DOT already awarded WV $87.5 million for the build).

Got a tip, an obituary, or something we should know about? Reply here or send an email to tips@ohiovalleydigest.org — it goes straight to Jeremy.

The Ohio Valley Digest covers Belmont, Jefferson, Harrison, Columbiana, Monroe, Noble, Morgan, Guernsey, and Washington (OH) counties; Marshall, Wetzel, Ohio, Brooke, and Hancock (WV).