Rupert W. "Rupie" Phillips, Jr. (born February 17, 1969) is an American politician and a Republican member of the West Virginia Senate since 2020.
After a few months as an independent in 2017, Phillips became a Republican and announced a run for the Third Congressional District seat, being vacated by then-Representative Evan Jenkins in 2018.
[2] After his unsuccessful Congressional run, Phillips ran as the Republican nominee for the West Virginia Senate 7th District in 2020, where he beat then-Democratic Delegate Ralph Rodighiero in the general election.
[2] In January 2016, Phillips garnered national headlines for handing out bottles of sunscreen to other Delegates on the House floor to ridicule global warming.
[8] The frontrunners won the six-way four-position November general election where Phillips placed fourth with 8,672 votes (18.1%) behind incumbent Representatives Ralph Rodighiero, Greg Butcher, and Josh Stowers and ahead of Republican nominees Chad Story and Elias Gregory,[9] who had run for the seat in 2006.