Erika Kolenich

West Virginia Candidate for Governor

Erika is a resident of Upshur County where she lives with her husband, Karl. Their daughter, Iris, is a graduate of West Virginia Wesleyan College and resides in Clarksburg. Erika was raised in West Virginia, the daughter of small business owners. Her parents taught her work ethic and personal responsibility at an early age. Erika graduated from Buckhannon-Upshur High School in 1997. While attending high school, she was a member of the band and frequently participated in extracurricular events such as theatre and Youth in Government.

Upon graduating high school, Erika attended West Virginia Wesleyan College where she double majored in Dramatic Arts and Political Science. She then attended law school at the University of Akron.

After passing both the Ohio and West Virginia bar exams, Erika returned to West Virginia and began practicing law at a litigation firm in Wheeling. Shortly thereafter, she made the jump to open her own practice in Upshur County. Erika is now the managing member of Klie Law Offices, PLLC. The firm that she now runs with her husband has three locations and employees thirty people.

Erika enjoys volunteering for a variety of community and civic organizations from theatre to Head Start and the Chamber of Commerce. In her free time Erika enjoys physical activity and hiking the mountains of West Virginia with her family and their dog. She also enjoys traveling but has always found that nothing feels better than returning home to West Virginia.