John D. “Jay” Rockefeller IV, a former US senator and descendant of one of America’s wealthiest and most influential families, has died at the age of 89.
Rockefeller died on Friday at his home in Washington, DC, the Washington Post reported. His family did not disclose the cause of death, according to the newspaper.
A Democrat, Rockefeller represented West Virginia in the US Senate for three decades, from 1985 to 2015, after serving two terms as governor.
He was the great-grandson of John D. Rockefeller, the founder of Standard Oil and one of America’s richest industrialists. The family also produced several prominent figures, including his uncle Nelson Rockefeller, who served as US vice president and governor of New York, and another uncle, David Rockefeller, who headed Chase Manhattan Bank.
Despite his privileged background, Rockefeller began his political career in the impoverished coal-mining state of West Virginia, where he moved in 1964 to work as a volunteer in an anti-poverty program. He later entered state politics, eventually becoming governor in 1977.
Despite representing one of America’s poorest states, Rockefeller remained among the richest members of Congress. He spent millions of dollars of his personal fortune to finance his successful Senate campaign in 1984.
Rockefeller also faced criticism from West Virginia’s coal industry. In 2012, he voted against an attempt to block federal restrictions on emissions from coal-fired power plants, prompting the state’s coal association to accuse him of supporting policies that threatened jobs and the industry’s future.
Rockefeller voted in 2002 to authorize the US-led invasion of Iraq, a decision he described nearly a decade later as “one of the worst votes in my life.”
He also helped advance a controversial 2008 surveillance law that protected telecommunications companies from lawsuits over their involvement in the Bush administration’s warrantless wiretapping program. Civil liberties groups criticized the measure, arguing that it shielded the companies from accountability.
Rockefeller announced in 2013 that he would not seek a sixth Senate term. His decision came after a decline in his popularity in West Virginia over his support for then-President Barack Obama and disputes with the state’s coal industry.
He retired in 2015, ending three decades in the Senate and marking the end of the Rockefeller family’s presence in elected office at the time.
He is survived by his wife, Sharon Percy Rockefeller, their four children, and nine grandchildren.