House Speaker Roger Hanshaw (R-Clay).
CHARLESTON – West Virginia House Speaker Roger Hanshaw is representing the developer of a Tucker County data center.
Hanshaw, who works for the Charleston law firm of Bowles Rice, is one of three attorneys from the firm representing Fundamental Data in a case before the state Intermediate Court of Appeals.
The filing notifying the ICA of Hanshaw’s representation of the company was filed March 16, just two days after the 2026 legislative session ended.
During the 2025 session, Hanshaw (R-Clay) played a key role in enacting legislation deregulating data centers in the state. During this year’s session, lawmakers also passed legislation specifying how data center laws will be implemented.
Craig Holman, a government ethics expert with the watchdog group Public Citizen, said Hanshaw either should take a legislative step back regarding actions that affect data center projects or from working for such projects as an attorney.
“Speaker Hanshaw is dancing dangerously close to the line separating public interest from his own private interests,” Holman told The West Virginia Record. “As Speaker of the West Virginia House, he is expected to represent the public's interest. But as a key lawyer and representative of private data center projects generally, and the private firm Fundamental Data in specific, it would appear that a larger share of his income and duties come from representing private business interests.
“When the two interests come into conflict — as is the case with government policies and tax dollars used to develop costly data centers — one can legitimately ask: who's interest is Hanshaw now representing?”
Holman said the situation is “an obvious conflict of interest.”
“Hanshaw's conflicting work for private interests while simultaneously shaping public policies that benefit those private interests as well as himself is unethical, though not illegal under West Virginia laws,” Holman said. “While there is a conflict of interest code on the books, legislative rules of the House undermine the intent of the code — specifically, the rule that voids the conflict of interest code if the final impact of official actions effects five or more parties.”
Hanshaw’s legislative office declined to comment on the issue. Through the law firm, Hanshaw said Fundamental Data prefers to handle media requests on its own. A company spokesman has yet to return messages seeking comment.
Previously, Hanshaw has done legal work for clients that could be affected by the legislative process, such as natural gas companies.
Also, three U.S. Senators –Sheldon Whitehouse (D-Rhode Island), Martin Heinrich D-New Mexico) and Chris Van Hollen (D-Maryland) – have asked Fundamental Data for information about pollution concerns related to the Tucker County Ridgeline Project, which would be built on 300 acres between Davis and Thomas. It would have 30 million gallons of backup diesel storage, and critics also have expressed concerns about air pollutants.
Some local and environmental groups have appealed the plan’s air quality permit.
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Also, former West Virginia Department of Human Services Secretary Alex Mayer now is director of a national consulting firm that has done work in West Virginia.
Mayer, who announced his DHS departure March 13, now works for Guidehouse, according to his LinkedIn page. Guidehouse specializes in healthcare, financial services, defense and national security plus energy and infrastructure.
The company has done a variety of work with West Virginia government, including a foster-care listening tour last year. It also has worked with the state Office of Energy and the Department of Administration. The state DHS paid Guidehouse $348,000 to set up the listening tour meetings and to create a report.
Mayer left a similar job in South Dakota to take the West Virginia position shortly after Gov. Patrick Morrisey took office in 2025. He was on the job less than 13 months before leaving for Guidehouse.
“I want to thank Alex Mayer for leading the Department of Human Services during an important period for our state,” Morrisey said in announcing Mayer’s departure. “He has worked tirelessly on behalf of West Virginians, and I wish him the very best as he pursues an opportunity in the private sector.”
