Newspaper executive and former West Virginia lawmaker Doug Skaff Jr. dies in highway accident at 48

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CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) — Doug Skaff Jr., a West Virginia newspaper executive and former Democratic legislative leader, died Tuesday following an accident on Interstate 79. He was 48.

Skaff was president of HD Media, which publishes the Charleston Gazette-Mail, the Herald-Dispatch of Huntington and several other state newspapers. The Gazette-Mail announced Skaff’s death on its website Tuesday night.

Details of the accident, which the newspaper said occurred in Lewis County in north-central West Virginia, weren’t immediately released. An operator who answered the telephone for the Lewis County state police office said she had no further information.

Skaff served in the supermajority-Republican state House of Delegates for nearly 11 nonconsecutive years representing Kanawha County. He resigned his seat in 2023 and switched to the GOP before a failed campaign for secretary of state in 2024.

Skaff also was interim executive director of the West Virginia Press Association and recently was part of an ownership group that purchased a popular restaurant in Charleston. Skaff planned to run for state Senate next year, according to the secretary of state's website.

“I am heartbroken to hear about the passing of our friend Doug Skaff,” Gov. Patrick Morrisey said on the social platform X. “Doug was a longtime state legislator, the Minority Leader of the West Virginia House of Delegates, and omnipresent in the Charleston community. He will be greatly missed by many.”

Skaff is survived by his wife and three sons.

“Doug Skaff was more than just a colleague; he was a friend to many of us, even after he left the legislature," West Virginia Democratic Party Chair Mike Pushkin said in a statement. “His humor was infectious, and his dedication to his family, particularly his love for his children, was evident in everything he did.”