Pamela Van Horn

Pamela Van Horn is the founding executive director of the West Virginia Democratic Legislative Council. Founded in 1996, the DLC is the campaign committee for the Democrats in the state legislature. The Council works to protect incumbent Democrats and to recruit and train Democratic nominees for the legislature.

As executive director, Pam helps DLC members execute all aspects of their campaigns, from writing their plan to getting out their vote.

Before starting the DLC in 1996, Pam worked as the state director of Governor Gaston Caperton’s West Virginia Make It Shine Program. As director, she coordinated environmental education programs, organized river and dump clean ups, revitalized Earth Day activities in the state and started the annual West Virginia Make It Shine Community Award Program.

Pam has worked as a volunteer on many campaigns for local and state offices and ballot issues in West Virginia. Her first professional campaign experience was on the Caperton For Governor campaign in 1988 where she answered telephones, doled out campaign trinkets and often picked up lunch for the office staff without mixing up the orders.

She directed successful coordinated campaigns in 1999 and 2003 for city elections for the City of Charleston Democratic Committee, which led to Party gains in both years. She managed the campaign of Bob Newell for Mayor of Parkersburg, West Virginia in 2005 and his successful re-election effort in 2008.

Pam organized a series of campaign training workshops for women in 1998 for the West Virginia State Democratic Executive Committee. From 1999 – 2008, in state and local elections, she has coordinated efforts to help identify and turn out Democratic women voters.

Pam was President of the West Virginia Young Democrats from 1995 until 1997. She was elected by the Young Democrats of America as their female representative on the Democratic National Committee from 1997 until 1999.  In 1999, she was elected chair of the YDA Women’s Caucus, the largest caucus in the Young Democrats of America organization, where she continued to serve until she officially became an old Democrat at the age of 36. 

She is a member of the Kanawha County Federation of Democratic Women and has served on the board of the West Virginia Federation of Democratic Women.  She was a founding board member of the DREMA Dems Coalition, a state-wide coalition of progressive women. She is a 1995 graduate of Leadership West Virginia, the West Virginia Chamber of Commerce’s year-long leadership academy. She has served in various leadership roles in the General Federation of Women’s Clubs – West Virginia, from local club president to state board member. She is a member of the Ohio-WV YMCA West Virginia Youth in Government Committee.

She has served as a campaign trainer for the DNC in several states and traveled to Bosnia-Herzegovina to conduct political party training for the National Democratic Institute.

She is a graduate of Marshall University and the Women’s Campaign School at Yale University School of Law.  Born and raised in Lewisburg, she now lives in Charleston, plays a decent hand of bridge and usually manages not to fall over when she does yoga.