A trio of new West Virginia GOP state delegates are pushing a plan for the state to send $10 million of the state's $200 million surplus to the help fund a wall at the U.S.-Mexico border, state Rep. Caleb Hanna, who at 19-years-old is the nation's youngest African-American legislator, said Tuesday.
"I'm working together with delegates Robbie and Patrick Martin, with Robbie taking the lead, and we want to take $10 million of West Virginia's $200 million surplus and give it directly to the southern border to help build the wall," Hanna, a student at West Virginia University, told Fox News' "Fox and Friends."
Hanna and the Martins, who are brothers, won their seats in this past November's election.
Hanna told Fox News that he believes voters in the red state will support the move, as "West Virginia has a terrible drug problem."
"I believe that a lot of those drugs and opioids are coming directly from the southern border," said Hanna.
"I have spoken to local and state law enforcement and they say these drugs are so pure they can't be coming from anywhere other than Mexico. So I believe that the wall is a crucial part in addressing West Virginia's drug problem."
Also on the program, Hanna explained his decision to enter politics, saying he was initially inspired by former President Barack Obama, mainly because he was African-American but "nothing to do with his policies."
But as the son of a coal miner who lost his job "directly because of Obama's policies," Hanna said he became interested in state politics and became a Republican because there are "three things the Republicans stood for that the Democrats didn't and that was God, guns, and babies."
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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