Wheeling Mayoral Election: Meet Carl Carpenter

Wheeling, W.Va. (WTRF) – 7NEWS is your Local Election Headquarters, and the city of Wheeling is facing a crowded field of candidates vying for the job of Mayor.

There are 6 candidates running, and we’re going to profile each one for you.

We’re going alphabetically, starting with Carl Carpenter.

Mr. Carpenter has been a Wheeling resident since 1991, and describes himself as the “unknown, unconnected, unfunded” candidate.

His main campaign slogan is “Make Wheeling Paved Again.”

He also believes that Wheeling is not a big city, but rather a small town, and therefore should be governed accordingly.

As mayor, he says he will focus on making practical, realistic decisions.

“Even though I have never paid it, I strongly resent the two dollar privilege tax that people have to pay to have a job in this town to finance a ‘big city police station’ whenever the police station we had, that we recently vacated, was good enough for 53 or 55 thousand people that lived here at the time.”

Carl Carpenter, Wheeling Mayoral Candidate

For reference, Wheeling’s population as of the 2020 census was just over 27,000 people.

All of the candidate interviews were conducted prior to the Mayoral Forum on April 18th. We encourage you to watch the 2 hour forum in its entirety, which can be found on our 7NEWS Facebook page.

The election for mayor will be held on Tuesday, May 14th.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WTRF.