Zach Shrewsbury

Zach Shrewsbury (born February 10, 1991) is a native West Virginian, a United States Marine Corps veteran, a community organizer and political activist. He was a candidate for the Democratic nomination for the 2024 United States Senate election in West Virginia.

Early life and family
Shrewsbury was born February 10, 1991. He is native of West Virginia and comes from a working-class family. His grandfather was a coal miner, his father worked in sales, and his mother was a homemaker. He grew up on a farm in Ripley and graduated from James Monroe High School in Monroe County. He has said "College was unaffordable, and the choice was between the mines and a minimum-wage job, and I chose the military." He has lived in Fayetteville; he lives in Princeton.

Military career and community organizer
Shrewsbury served five years (2010 to 2015) in the United States Marine Corps during which he guarded the perimeter at Guantanamo Bay Naval Base, and was deployed to Japan, Malaysia and South Korea.

After his discharge, he moved to Seattle, where he began his activism, but chose to return to West Virginia, despite the lack of prosperity he had seen in the U.S. and abroad. He joined Common Defense to rally fellow veterans against what that group calls “Trump’s corrupt agenda of hate” and “the entrenched power of greedy billionaires who have rigged our economy.” Shrewsbury has been an organizer for Citizen Action and the New Jobs Coalition.

2024 U.S. Senate candidacy
On November 10, 2023, Senator Joe Manchin announced he would not seek re-election as Senator from West Virginia in the United States Senate. While he is Democrat, West Virginia is considered a red state.

Shrewsbury launched his candidacy on October 15, 2023, in Charles Town at the Jefferson County Courthouse where state authorities convicted abolitionist John Brown. and on January 17, 2024, he officially filed paperwork with the West Virginia Secretary of State. The primary election took place on May 14, 2024.

Shrewsbury has said there is not “enough working-class representation in our government.” He supports the right to unionize and strong labor protections, universal healthcare, environmental justice, energy independence with an emphasis on renewables manufacturing, racial justice, progressive tax policies, abortion rights, as well as support for veterans and LGBTQ individuals.

Responding to red-baiting, he told The Guardian: “If caring about working-class people, caring about people having bodily autonomy, water rights, workers’ rights, makes you a socialist, then call me whatever you want. Doesn't bother me.”

Shrewsbury has the support of the Progressive Democrats of America.