John Ronald Unger II is a former American politician and magistrate. Prior to his appointment as a Berkeley County magistrate, Unger represented the 16th district in the

West Virginia Senate The West Virginia Senate is the upper house of the West Virginia Legislature. There are seventeen senatorial districts. Each district has two senators who serve staggered four-year terms. Although the Democratic Party held a supermajority in the ...

from 1999 to 2021. The 16th District includes all of Jefferson County and a portion of Berkeley County. At the time of his retirement from the West Virginia Senate, Unger was the third active longest-serving senator and longest serving senator from the

Eastern Panhandle The Eastern Panhandle is the eastern of the two panhandles in the U.S. state of West Virginia; the other is the Northern Panhandle. It is a small stretch of territory in the northeast of the state, bordering Maryland and Virginia. Some sources a ...

Legislature

During his time in the Legislature, Unger served as Majority Leader of the West Virginia Senate from January 2011 until November 2014 when Democrats lost control of the Senate as a result of Republican gains in the 2014 West Virginia Senate election. Unger then served as Minority Whip until 2017 when Marion County state Sen.

Roman Prezioso Roman W. Prezioso, Jr. (born June 29, 1949) is an American politician and former West Virginia state senator representing the 13th district which comprises parts of Marion and Monongalia counties. He is a member of the Democratic Party. Backgr ...

became the new Minority Leader and appointed former Kanawha County state Sen.

Corey Palumbo Corey Lee Palumbo (born August 16, 1972) is an American attorney and politician who represented the 17th district of the West Virginia Senate from January 14, 2009 until December 1, 2020. He previously served as a member of the West Virginia Hou ...

as Minority Whip.

Personal

While a student at

West Virginia University West Virginia University (WVU) is a public land-grant research university with its main campus in Morgantown, West Virginia. Its other campuses are those of the West Virginia University Institute of Technology in Beckley, Potomac State College ...

, Unger was named a member of the 1992 USA TODAY All-USA Academic Team and a

Truman Scholar The Harry S. Truman Scholarship is the premier graduate fellowship in the United States for public service leadership. It is a federally funded scholarship granted to U.S. undergraduate students for demonstrated leadership potential, academic ...

. He also went as a

Rhodes Scholar The Rhodes Scholarship is an international postgraduate award for students to study at the University of Oxford, in the United Kingdom. Established in 1902, it is the oldest graduate scholarship in the world. It is considered among the world' ...

Oxford University Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...

and has a master’s degree in divinity from the

Wesley Theological Seminary Wesley Theological Seminary is a United Methodist Church seminary in Washington, D.C. It was founded in 1882. History Wesley Theological Seminary can trace its roots back to the 1881 meeting of the Methodist Protestant Church's Maryland Annua ...

Washington, D.C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...

Unger is ordained as an ELCA Lutheran pastor, and serves the congregations of St. John Lutheran Church, St. John's Episcopal Church, and Bolivar United Methodist Church in

Harpers Ferry, West Virginia Harpers Ferry is a historic town in Jefferson County, West Virginia. It is located in the lower Shenandoah Valley. The population was 285 at the 2020 census. Situated at the confluence of the Potomac and Shenandoah rivers, where the U.S. stat ...

. In addition, he is a chaplain for the Berkeley County Sheriff's Office.

Election results

References

External links

John Unger - WV State Senator
- personal state senate web site
West Virginia Senate Members Directory
- West Virginia member directory 1969 births Living people Democratic Party West Virginia state senators West Virginia University alumni American Rhodes Scholars 21st-century American politicians {{WestVirginia-politician-stub