A graduate of Duke University and the University of Virginia, she is the daughter of the late Governor of West Virginia Arch Moore. Capito was the only Republican in the West Virginia congressional delegation until 2011, and the first Republican woman elected to Congress from West Virginia. Capito was elected to the Senate in 2014, becoming the first woman elected to the U.S. Senate in the history of West Virginia and the first Republican to win a full term in the Senate from West Virginia since 1942. She won mostly on large majorities in the counties along the Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Virginia borders.