2026年11月6日 美国东部时间上午10:04 | 美联社
曾担任西弗吉尼亚州州长、美国参议员，且是其家族政治王朝最后一位成员的杰伊·洛克菲勒去世，享年89岁。
公共广播机构WETA负责对外事务的副总裁玛丽·斯图尔特透露，洛克菲勒的妻子莎朗担任该台总裁兼首席执行官，他于周四晚间在华盛顿的家中离世。
洛克菲勒作为民主党人，同时是美国最富有家族之一的后裔，在西弗吉尼亚州——美国最贫困的州之一——从事了长达半个世纪的公共服务工作。1964年，他以反贫困项目工作人员的身份来到这里，12年后当选为州长，出任两任州长后，又担任了30年的联邦参议员。
“我无法想象有比这更有价值的职业了，”洛克菲勒在2015年退休时曾这样表示。
他出生于纽约市，本名约翰·D·洛克菲勒四世。他的曾祖父是标准石油公司创始人约翰·洛克菲勒，在他出生前一个月去世。他的父亲约翰·D·洛克菲勒三世是知名慈善家；叔叔温思罗普（曾任阿肯色州州长）和纳尔逊（曾任纽约州州长）均为共和党籍州长；另一位叔叔戴维·洛克菲勒则执掌大通曼哈顿银行。
杰伊·洛克菲勒选择了一条不同的道路。
大学毕业数年后，27岁的洛克菲勒移居西弗吉尼亚州的采矿社区埃蒙斯，加入了“美国志愿服务队”项目。他表示，这段经历具有变革性意义。
“这解释了我推行的每一项政策，以及我投出的每一张选票。正是在那里，我的信念扎根，我的热情与原则在此交汇，”2014年12月4日，他在参议院会议厅一场动情的告别演说中说道。
尽管原本打算在该州停留时间短暂，洛克菲勒却打破了家族的共和党传统，于1966年以民主党人的身份当选州众议院议员。通过将资金投入这个传统上倾向民主党的州并刻苦工作，洛克菲勒克服了政治投机主义的质疑，从州议员一步步升迁至州务卿，最终成为州长。
转折点出现在洛克菲勒唯一一次政治失利后——1972年，他在州长选举中输给了共和党人阿奇·A·穆尔 Jr.。2014年，洛克菲勒退休后，穆尔的女儿、共和党人谢莉·穆尔·卡皮托当选，继承了洛克菲勒的参议院席位。
失利后，洛克菲勒留在了西弗吉尼亚州，他称这是自己职业生涯中最重要的决定。1973年，他成为第一位没有神学学位却出任西弗吉尼亚卫斯理大学校长的人士。他在该校的高人气，以及转向支持露天采矿的立场，帮助他在1976年的州长选举中以压倒性优势击败共和党人塞西尔·安德伍德。
担任州长期间，洛克菲勒强调发展该州的基础设施，比如公路、下水道和桥梁。他表示，这些问题“或许不算亮眼，但对西弗吉尼亚而言极其必要”。
1980年，洛克菲勒在与阿奇·穆尔的 rematch（重赛）中胜出后，于1984年赢得联邦参议院席位——当时长期担任参议员的民主党人詹宁斯·伦道夫退休。值得注意的是，尽管当年共和党总统罗纳德·里根以压倒性优势获胜，洛克菲勒仍成功当选。
洛克菲勒与妻子莎朗（伊利诺伊州前共和党参议员查尔斯·珀西的女儿）轻松融入了华盛顿的社交圈，为家庭购置了价值数百万美元的豪宅。他毫不避讳或为动用继承的1.5亿美元财富来竞选而道歉，花费了数百万美元自有资金。在他的五个任期内，每次都以悬殊优势获胜。
他的巨额财富一直是人们谈论的话题，也成为其政治竞选中的暗流。他在政治活动中至少花费了2100万美元自有资金，其中包括900万美元，以在1984年参议院竞选中险胜共和党新人、同为 multimillionaire（千万富翁）的约翰·雷斯。在1980年洛克菲勒与共和党人阿奇·穆尔的州长竞选期间，曾出现“让他花光所有钱，阿奇”的 bumper stickers（保险杠贴纸）。
作为该州的初级参议员长达25年，洛克菲勒在资深参议员罗伯特·C·伯德的巨大影响力下走出了自己的道路。伯德于2010年去世，是美国历史上任职时间最长的参议员，因数十年来向其贫困的州输送数十亿美元资金而享有盛誉。
洛克菲勒的影响力则相对低调。作为参议院商务、科学和运输委员会主席，他倡导消费者权益，推动宽带基础设施升级，并发起一项法案，阻止企业追踪客户的在线活动。1997年，他牵头制定立法，创建了儿童健康保险计划，该计划帮助收入过高、不符合医疗补助资格的贫困家庭。
他还曾担任退伍军人事务委员会和情报委员会主席，经常与乔治·W·布什总统就外交政策发生争执。洛克菲勒表示，他对2002年投票授权对伊拉克发动战争一事感到后悔。
不过，洛克菲勒也与巴拉克·奥巴马总统的民主党政府在采矿相关法规上存在分歧。由于其所在州是美国第二大煤炭生产州，洛克菲勒是反对奥巴马时代环境保护局对山顶移除地表采矿进行监管的西弗吉尼亚州官员之一。
在东京的大学学习为洛克菲勒将日本企业引入西弗吉尼亚州奠定了基础。自20世纪60年代起他就认识丰田家族，1996年在这家日本汽车制造商选址西弗吉尼亚州布法罗的一片玉米地建立发动机零部件工厂一事上发挥了关键作用。这家耗资20亿美元的工厂目前雇佣约2200名工人。
Jay Rockefeller, former West Virginia governor and U.S. senator, dies at 89
November 6, 2026 / 10:04 AM EST / AP
Jay Rockefeller, who served as West Virginia’s governor and U.S. senator and was the last member of his family’s political dynasty, has died at the age of 89.
He died Thursday night at his home in Washington, said Mary Stewart, vice president for external affairs at WETA, the public broadcasting station where Rockefeller’s wife, Sharon, is president and CEO.
Rockefeller, a Democrat and the scion of one of the nation’s richest families, spent a half century in public service in one of the poorest states. He arrived in 1964 as a worker in an anti-poverty program, was elected governor a dozen years later. He served two terms and then spent 30 years as a U.S. senator.
“I could not imagine a more rewarding career,” Rockefeller said upon his retirement in 2015.
He was born John D. Rockefeller IV in New York City. His great-grandfather, Standard Oil Co. founder John Rockefeller, died a month before Rockefeller’s birth. His father, John D. Rockefeller III, was a well-known philanthropist. Uncles Winthrop (Arkansas) and Nelson (New York) were Republican governors. Another uncle, David Rockefeller, ran Chase Manhattan Bank.
Jay Rockefeller went in a different direction.
A few years out of college at age 27, Rockefeller moved to the West Virginia mining community of Emmons to participate in the Volunteers in Service to America program, a time that Rockefeller said proved transformative.
“It explains every policy I pursued and every vote I have cast. It was where my beliefs were bolted down, and where my passions met my principles,” he said in an emotional farewell speech from the Senate floor on Dec. 4, 2014.
While he intended for his stay in the state to be brief, Rockefeller broke from his family’s Republican tradition and was elected to the state House of Delegates as a Democrat in 1966. By combining money with hard work in a traditionally Democratic state, Rockefeller overcame suspicions of political opportunism and rose from state legislator to secretary of state to governor.
A turning point came after Rockefeller’s only political defeat in the 1972 governor’s race to Republican Arch A. Moore Jr., whose daughter, Republican Shelley Moore Capito, was elected in 2014 to Rockefeller’s Senate seat upon his retirement.
After the defeat, Rockefeller remained in West Virginia, a decision he called the most important of his career. He became the first without a theological degree to become president of West Virginia Wesleyan College in 1973. His popularity there — and a change in his stance to embrace strip mining — translated to a landslide win over Republican Cecil Underwood in the 1976 governor’s race.
As governor, Rockefeller emphasized development of the state’s infrastructure, such as roads, sewers and bridges. Those issues, he said, are “not very sexy things, I grant you but very, very necessary in West Virginia.”
After Rockefeller defeated Arch Moore in a rematch in 1980, he won a U.S. Senate seat in 1984 after the retirement of longtime Democrat Jennings Randolph. It came despite a landslide victory that year for Republican President Ronald Reagan.
Rockefeller and his wife, Sharon, daughter of former Republican Sen. Charles Percy of Illinois, fit easily into the capital’s social scene, purchasing a multimillion-dollar estate for their family. Never shy or apologetic about using his inherited $150 million fortune to win his races, he spent millions from his own pocket. He won by comfortable margins in each of his five terms.
His vast wealth was always a source of conversation and an undercurrent in his political races. He spent at least $21 million of his own money in his political campaigns, including $9 million to win a close 1984 Senate race against Republican novice and fellow multimillionaire John Raese. In Rockefeller’s 1980 gubernatorial race against Republican Arch Moore Jr., bumper stickers appeared saying: “Make Him Spend It All, Arch.”
The state’s junior senator for 25 years, Rockefeller carved his own path of influence in Sen. Robert C. Byrd’s immense shadow. Byrd died in 2010 as the longest-serving senator in U.S. history, winning an enduring reputation for steering billions of dollars over many decades to boost his impoverished state.
Rockefeller’s influence was less showy. As chairman of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, he championed consumers’ rights, upgrading broadband infrastructure and sponsoring a bill to block companies from tracking online activity of their customers. He authored legislation in 1997 that created the Children’s Health Insurance Program, which assists poor families whose incomes are too high to qualify for Medicaid.
He also was head of committees on Veterans Affairs and Intelligence, frequently sparring with President George W. Bush over foreign policy. Rockefeller said he regretted his 2002 vote to authorize the war against Iraq.
But Rockefeller also differed with the Democratic administration of President Barack Obama over mining-related regulations. With his state the nation’s second-biggest coal producer, Rockefeller was among several West Virginia officials who opposed the Obama-era Environmental Protection Agency’s oversight of the mountaintop removal method of surface mining.
College studies in Tokyo laid the groundwork for Rockefeller’s efforts to bring business from Japan to West Virginia. He had known Toyota’s founding family since the 1960s and was instrumental in helping the Japanese automaker pick a Buffalo, West Virginia, cornfield for an engine parts plant in 1996. The $2 billion plant now employs about 2,200 workers.
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