Walt Helmick, former agriculture secretary and state senator, has died

Walt Helmick, a former state senator and agriculture secretary, has died.

Helmick, 81, had been fighting cancer.

The state Democratic Party called him “a steady hand in Charleston and a tireless advocate for rural communities across the state.”

Helmick, a Democrat, was agriculture secretary from 2013 to 2017. He was defeated by the current agriculture secretary, Kent Leonhardt, in 2016.

During the 2012 race for agriculture secretary, former agency official Joe Starcher filed a suit against Helmick claiming that he failed to meet the requirement that a candidate for agriculture commissioner must have an agriculture business for at least 10 years as his chief business.

Chapter 19, Article 1 of West Virginia Code stipulates the commissioner of agriculture “shall be a practical farmer, le