Representative from West Virginia; born in Beckley, Raleigh County, W.Va., May 20, 1949; graduated from Woodrow Wilson High School, Beckley, W.Va.; A.B., Duke University, Durham, N.C., 1971; attended graduate school, George Washington University, Washington, D.C., 1972; staff, Office of the Majority Whip, United States Senate, 1971-1974; business owner; delegate, Democratic National Conventions, 1972 and 1976; elected as a Democrat to the Ninety-fifth and to the eighteen succeeding Congresses (January 3, 1977-January 3, 2015); unsuccessful candidate for reelection to the One Hundred Fourteenth Congress in 2014; chair, Committee on Natural Resources (One Hundred Tenth and One Hundred Eleventh Congresses).
Rahall is married to the former Melinda Ross of Ashland, Ky. He has three children, Rebecca and her husband Michael Parker of Castle Hayne, NC, Nick Joe III, and Suzanne Nicole and three grandchildren. Before Congress, Rahall served with his late father in the business world in Rahall Communications Corp., and as a top aide to his lifelong mentor the late U.S. Senator Robert C. Byrd.