2018 Primary Story Archives - West Virginia Public Broadcasting

West Virginia Voters Remember Teacher Strike at the Polls

From Morgantown to Matewan, educators and their supporters pledged to “remember in November” the Republican state lawmakers who held out on the raise they demanded this winter during the teacher strike. On Tuesday, they went to the polls to, as some put it, “make them pay in May.”

Carmen Soltesz, a Williamson middle-school social studies teacher, was among those thinking hard about the historic teacher walkout shortly before she cast her vote. A registered independent, she leans conservative, but was planning to pick up the Democratic ballot to support Sen. Joe Manchin. But Soltesz, 37, also recalled the united front of her fellow educators and school service personnel in the halls of the Capitol as they demanded a 5 percent pay raise and a plan to fix their health insurance program.

“I hope that that energy carries into the elections and the people that were those holdouts feel the backlash,” she said.

Their message may have been clear in at least one race: State Sen. Richard Karnes was defeated by Rep. Bill Hamilton, both of Upshur County, in the 11th District GOP primary, according to election results.

A longtime critic of organized labor, Karnes in 2016 called union members opposing what became the state’s right-to-work law “free riders.” During the teacher strike, and even on Tuesday, he trolled those on Twitter calling for his ouster.

Attempts by state Senate Republican lawmakers to block the proposed teacher pay raise helped extend the strike, which stretched to nine days in March. Some of West Virginia’s youngest voters also considered the holdouts — and the politicians who were the teachers’ biggest advocates. One outspoken backer, state Sen. Richard Ojeda, of Logan, appears to have benefited from his support: He earned more than half the votes in the Democratic primary for a U.S. House of Representatives seat in District 3, according to election results.

Ojeda was among those who drew first-time voter, Jillian Music, 18, of Delbarton, to the polls. The Mingo Central High School senior is a registered independent, and she had a personal connection: Her mother is an educator.

“She’s a teacher, and I’m going to be a teacher, so a lot of this stuff was based around everything that happened with the strike and stuff,” she said. “A lot of it was based on how [lawmakers] treated the teachers.”

In Morgantown, Democrat Dave Mebane said his wife, a teacher, sent him to the polls with a list of candidates to vote for.

“I’m really hoping that month-long political fight makes a difference in the fall and that we see some changes in the statehouse in particular,” he said.

Teachers across West Virginia posted pictures of themselves in “55 Strong” T-shirts Tuesday on a Facebook page many used to follow events of the strike. One post noted that the primary fell on Teacher Appreciation Day.

West Virginia's Voter ID Law: Some Say It's A Balance, Others Say It's Not Needed At All

Having gone into effect at the beginning of this year, West Virginia’s new voter identification law sees its first statewide election during the May 8 primaries. While state legislators responsible for passing the law say it strikes a balance, experts opposed to such measures — here and elsewhere in the country — say it is a “solution in search of a problem.” Some organizations, though, are teaming with the Secretary of State’s office for public outreach programs to help educate voters about the law and what they need to bring with them to the polls.

The West Virginia Legislature passed the law during the 2016 regular session. Under the provisions of the new law, voters are required to show an acceptable form of ID to legally make their way to the polls. The aim, according to Republican leaders, was to prevent voter fraud while not burdening those who legitimately want to exercise their constitutional rights.

“It’s obviously always a balancing test — and what we did not want to do is, in enacting legislation to prevent fraud, to go so far that it was going to make it difficult for people who are legitimate voters to be able to cast their ballots,” said state Senate Judiciary chairman Charles Trump.

“We worked pretty hard on this legislation to try to strike what we felt was the appropriate balance in a way that would not unduly burden any legitimate registered voter in the exercise of his or her constitutional franchise,” Trump added.

Max Feldman of the Brennan Center for Justice at the New York University School of Law said strict photo ID laws in other states like Wisonsin, Georgia and Virginia are too tough. Studies by the Brennan Center show that as many as 11 percent of eligible voters in America do not have a photo issued government ID.

West Virginia’s law is much less restrictive, allowing for voters to present photo, as well as non-photo IDs to be eligible at the polls. There are also exceptions to the law, such as a poll worker knowing a voter or a person with proper ID verifying the identity of a voter they’ve known personally for more than 6 months.

Still, Feldman said the mere presumption of voter fraud is a scare tactic and is detrimental to the democratic process. He said a person is more likely to be struck by lightning than commit voter fraud.

“To the extent this law was put in place in order to combat that type of problem and the rhetoric that’s used to justify the law is that in person voter fraud is a major problem in West Virginia — the reality is that’s not the case,” Feldman said.

With the law taking effect earlier this year, the Secretary of State’s office has been involved with other organizations for public education on the issue. The American Civil Liberties Union of West Virginia is among the groups involved in these efforts.

“There are a large number of types of identification that people can use. However — and this is one of our concerns — the mere presence of a voter ID law on the books can suppress votes,” said Joseph Cohen, executive director of the ACLU of West Virginia.

“Many voters don’t even try to go to the polls because they presume that only a driver’s license or some other photo I.D. that they don’t have is what’s required to vote,” Cohen added.

For more information on the Voter ID law, visit the Secretary of State’s website. Polls open for the 2018 primary Tuesday, May 8, at 6:30 a.m. and close at 7:30 p.m.

Acceptable Forms of Non-Photo Identification in West Virginia:

Voter registration card
Medicare card or Social Security card
Birth certificate
WV hunting or fishing license
WV SNAP ID card
WV TANF program ID card
WV Medicaid ID card
Bank or debit card Utility bill or bank statement issued within six months of the date of the election
Health insurance card issued to the voter

Acceptable Forms of Photo Identification in West Virginia:

WV driver’s license or other WV ID card issued by the DMV
Driver’s license issued by another state
U.S. passport or passport card
Military ID card issued by the U.S.
U.S. or WV Government employee ID card
Student ID card
A concealed carry (pistol/revolver) permit

Three exceptions to the law are applicable under state law. Additional details can be found here on the Secretary of State’s website.

U.S. Senate, House Races on Tap in West Virginia Primary

West Virginians will be heading to the polls in a midterm primary election with nominations up for grabs in the U.S. Senate, U.S. House and the Legislature.

After 10 days of early voting, Election Day polls open Tuesday at 6:30 a.m. and close at 7:30 p.m. Independent voters can choose to vote in either the Democratic or Republican primary.

Here’s a look at some voting numbers and key races on Tuesday’s ballot.

EARLY VOTING

According to the secretary of state’s office, more than 68,000 voters cast their ballots early leading up to Tuesday’s primary election. Kanawha, Monongalia, Wood and Cabell counties had the most early ballots submitted.

That’s an increase from about 45,000 early votes in the last midterm election in 2014. In 2016, more than 100,000 voters cast early primary ballots, more than any other year since early voting was first allowed in 2002.

There are about 1.22 million registered voters in the state, down about 50,000 from the 2016 general election.

Registered Democrats comprise nearly 43 percent of the electorate. Registered Republicans make up about 32 percent of all voters and nearly 22 percent had no party affiliation.

U.S. SENATE

The closest-watched race could be the Republican U.S. Senate primary, which has six candidates, including 3rd District Congressman Evan Jenkins, state Attorney General Patrick Morrisey and former Massey Energy CEO Don Blankenship.

Jenkins is a former Democrat and second-term congressman. Morrisey was elected in 2016 to a second four-year term.

Blankenship was released from federal prison in May 2017 after serving a year for a misdemeanor conviction for conspiring to willfully violate safety standards at Massey’s Upper Big Branch mine, where 29 men were killed in a 2010 explosion.

Other GOP candidates are Bo Copley of Lenore, a miner who confronted Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton in 2016 over her remarks about cutting coal mining jobs; truck driver Jack Newbrough of Weirton and West Virginia National Guard Maj. Tom Willis of Martinsburg.

Manchin, a former governor, is seeking a second full six-year term in the Senate. In Tuesday’s primary he faces Paula Jean Swearengin, a Bernie Sanders Democrat from a coal-mining family.

U.S. HOUSE

Four Democrats and seven Republicans are running for the 3rd District seat being vacated by Jenkins.

Among the Democrats is Richard Ojeda, a state senator who gained notoriety for vocally backing a teacher pay raise a month before their nine-day statewide strike began. The other Democrats are state Delegate Shirley Love, Huntington bus service CEO Paul Davis and nurse Janice Hagerman of Mount Hope.

The GOP ballot includes former state Republican Party Chairman Conrad Lucas; state delegates Marty Gearheart, Rupie Phillips and Carol Miller; former delegate Rick Snuffer, Dr. Ayne Amjad of Beckley and Philip Payton of Milton.

Congressmen David McKinley from the 1st District and Alex Mooney from the 2nd District are unopposed in the GOP primary.

The 1st District Democratic primary pits Keyser attorney Tom Payne, retired law firm CEO Ralph Baxter of Wheeling and West Virginia University law professor Kendra Fershee.

In November, Mooney will face either U.S. Army veteran Aaron Scheinberg or former Hillary Clinton state presidential campaign director Talley Sergent.

LEGISLATURE

Seventeen of the 34 state Senate seats are up for grabs this fall. Every incumbent is seeking re-election, and six Democratic races and six on the GOP side are contested Tuesday.

All 100 House of Delegates seats are on the ballot. Eighteen delegates didn’t file for re-election, including Republican House Speaker Tim Armstead.

Republicans hold a 22-12 majority in the Senate and a 64-36 lead in the House.

Former Coal Company CEO Don Blankenship Polarizes GOP Primary Electorate in Southern W.Va.

Polls show former Massey Energy CEO Don Blankenship hovering in third place in the six-way Republican U.S Senate primary primary race. In his native Mingo County, Blankenship’s donations to the community, and a belief that he will help bring back jobs, have led some to support him.

On one end of the main street in Matewan, West Virginia, a replica train station houses memorabilia from the Hatfield-McCoy feud and the historic Mine Wars. Don Blankenship grew up near here in this Mingo County town along the border with Kentucky. Massey paid for this million-dollar museum and welcome center, and a plaque on the wall bears Blankenship’s name.

On the other end is the local chapter of United Mine Workers of America — the union Blankenship tried to break at his own mines. Among the signs planted firmly out front is one thanking Sen. Joe Manchin, the Democrat Blankenship hopes to challenge in November.

Joe Vagott is the of head of the Matewan Visitors and Convention Bureau. He said he’s still undecided but is leaning toward Blankenship. The 60-year-old former Massey security officer recognizes that this man, whose kids grew up playing with his own, is a polarizing figure.

“He’s done a lot of great things for this community,” Vagott said. “It depends on which side of the fence you’re looking from.”

A jury found that Blankenship conspired to violate mine safety and health standards at Upper Big Branch in Raleigh County. Twenty-nine miners died there in 2010. It was the worst U.S. mine explosion in 40 years, and he spent a year in federal prison.

Independent investigators found that sparks in the mine ignited a pocket of methane, setting off a chain of explosions, which could have been prevented. Blankenship maintains that the Mine Safety and Health Administration cut the mine’s airflow, leading to an explosion and a widespread cover-up. But no other independent source who has studied what happened has ever reached that conclusion. Even before Upper Big Branch, MSHA found that Blankenship ran dangerous mines for years.

It’s Complicated

Terry Steele, 65, is a retired coal miner and rank-and-file UMWA member in Nicholas County. He said he doesn’t know anyone who supports Blankenship where he lives. He also has a home in Matewan, and things are more complex there.

“There’s still division all over the area for who are for him, and those who not only against, we’re dead-set against him,” Steele said. “He brags about busting the union. If he gets it beat, it’ll be because the union beat him. And it will be enjoyable.”

Blankenship is running a self-funded campaign. None of his rivals have raised the mine disaster as a campaign issue, but national Republicans are working to oppose him.

Those who do support him describe a man whose presence brings jobs — and one who put money back in the community when few others did. Bo Copley is a 41-year-old former coal miner from Williamson, and he’s not the Copley running against Blankenship in the GOP primary. He touches on that nostalgia.

“When he had Massey, when it was Massey, he kept everybody working [and] kept money in their pockets,” Copley said. “He’ll fight for us. I don’t know that that’s what he’s running on, but he’ll fight for us back here. Manchin has fought for us before. I don’t know these other guys. I know Don.”

David Cook Jr., 51, is a longtime coal truck driver and a former assistant coach for the powerhouse Matewan high school football team, the Tigers. Cook is a Democrat, but said he’d choose Blankenship over Manchin because Blankenship has helped Matewan where it counted. Cook says Blankenship helped to raise money for the team before the school was consolidated. Then after major flooding destroyed the field and equipment in 2002, he wrote a big check.

“There’s been a lot of people in this area that made millions of millions of dollars that I can’t remember ever helping us do anything,” Cook said. “He never said no. He helped us anytime we ever needed him…[Blankenship as] Senator would be the greatest thing to ever happen to southern West Virginia.”

The flood response factors in heavily for Denise Sipple, a 42-year-old from North Matewan. She works at a grocery store just over the border in Kentucky. She said, her husband had a successful career at Massey. And as Independents, they can vote in Republican primary in West Virginia.

“He actually sent his own trucks and his own equipment and dug people out and helped clean the roads off and make everything made things passable himself,” Sipple said. “Because it took forever for FEMA or anybody to get down here.”

A View from the Past

Gestures like that go a long way. Chuck Keeney, an Appalachian history professor at Southern WV Technical and Community College, said they hearken back to the days when corporate titans acted as benefactors even while ruling with an iron fist.

“It’s 21st Century welfare capitalism. It was started in the 1920s, adopted by big industries, largely as an anti-union movement, but it also about providing recreational facilities, PR, ball fields, things like that for local communities to deflect criticism of companies and build up public support,” Keeney said. “Blankenship has played into that quite effectively in the southern coalfields, and for some individuals that means a lot.”

Keeney senses a lot of gusto for Blankenship that’s not reflected in other candidates.

“You have people that support Blankenship tend to be very enthusiastic in their support.” he said. “Now there are people who are very enthusiastic in their dislike of Blankenship obviously. And I think enthusiasm was one of the things that helped Trump win in 2016.”

UBB Anger Persists

About 100 miles away in Raleigh County, Gary Quarles walks around his woodsy living room, surrounded by mine memoriabilia and dozens of family photos. He and his wife, Patty, lost their only son, Gary Wayne, in the Upper Big Branch mine explosion. He was 33 and left behind an 8-year-old daughter and 10-year-old son. An autopsy revealed he also had black lung disease.

The Blankenship signs that dot the road between Williamson and Matewan are nowhere to be found in these parts, just minutes away from where the mine exploded. If a Blankenship ad comes on TV, Gary turns it off, but then they show up when he’s listening to country music on YouTube.

Quarles is angry about Blankenship’s run. He’s accepted that some people refuse to believe the facts about the mine disaster, but he wonders how anyone could vote for him.

“He cares nothing about nobody, and people need to know that,” Quarles said. “If you ain’t made up your mind, and it’s laying on your mind about should I or shouldn’t I, Don don’t care about you. That should be enough not to vote for Don Blankenship.”

And though he never wants to see him again, he has a message for Blankenship himself.

“You’ve got the money, you can go anywhere you want to go, so go and leave us alone,” Quarles said. “You’ve not cared a thing about the people that got killed at UBB, and you’ve never apologized to nobody.”

That unrepenting attitude has shades of another larger-than-life coalfields personality — Logan County Sheriff Don Chafin. He led the armed movement to break up the unions in a violent chapter of the mine wars. Chuck Keeney says the area has a history of defying figures like Chafin and celebrating them at the same time.

“He went to jail, came back, and the town threw a parade for him when he came back from prison,” Keeney said. “This tough, no comprising type of individual, who never apologizes, who never admits he was wrong. I think for whatever reason people in this region tend to be drawn to because they believe that that’s the type of individual that can get things done.”

The 2018 GOP primary is May 8.

Outmatched in Experience and Funds, Swearengin Remains Undeterred in Primary Against Manchin

Updated: Friday, May 4, 2018 at 12:00 p.m.

President Donald Trump won West Virginia by 42 percentage points in 2016. He’s holding on to high approval ratings in the state and conservatives paint Democrat incumbent U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin as vulnerable. Long known as a moderate Democrat, Manchin has been in West Virginia politics for three decades. With the seat up for grabs this year, the national spotlight has been on the GOP primary — in which hopefuls are trying to align themselves with Trump.

But this year, the Democratic stalwart in West Virginia politics faces his own primary challenger in progressive Paula Jean Swearengin — an activist-turned-candidate who says Manchin hasn’t done enough to retain the party nomination.

When the president visited White Sulphur Springs in early April, the stop was billed as a roundtable discussion highlighting the effects of recently passed tax-reform legislation. With GOP Senate hopefuls Evan Jenkins and Patrick Morrisey flanking Trump, the event veered toward attacks on Manchin and his no vote on the tax bill.

“The Democrats have a problem. I mean, look at your senator. He voted against. Joe — he voted against. It was bad. I thought he would be helpful,” Trump said at the event.

Overall, though, Manchin has voted with the Trump administration more than 61 percent of the time — including legislation and nominations, according to Senate records. He says he votes based on the issues themselves and what’s best for West Virginia.

“I say to the people of West Virginia you’ve hired me. I work for you. I do not work for the president but I want to work with him and I try every day and I will try,” Manchin said in a recent meeting with the media.

That record puts him at odds with the national Democratic Party. Manchin has voted against a majority of Senate Democrats 29.3 percent of the time in the 115th Congress, according to Propublica’s Represent, a web app that tallies congressional voting records. He ranks first among all senators in voting against his party — with the average Senate Democrat breaking against the majority of the party’s vote 10.1 percent of the time.

He landed in Washington after winning a special election following the death of Robert C. Byrd in 2010. Since then, Manchin has touted himself as willing to work across party lines to compromise.

“I don’t look at Republicans as my enemy, I look at them as my friends and my colleagues — and we’re all in this together. You’ve got to be able to find a pathway for it,” Manchin said. “For people to take a hard line on one side or the other — whether it’s the hard right or the hard left — you cannot get anything accomplished.”

But it’s those attempts to reach across the aisle and frequent voting with the Republican majority that is in large part what drew Manchin’s primary challenger into the race.

“He calls himself a West Virginia Democrat, but I’m not sure if he knows what that means,” said Paula Jean Swearengin, a native of Mullens, West Virginia who identifies as a coal miner’s daughter and coal miner’s granddaughter.

“The reason to take him on is because he’s not adhering to the platform of the Democratic Party and he’s not serving the working class,” she said.

After asking Manchin in person for help with the economy in southern West Virginia and to tackle environmental issues like water quality, Swearengin says she felt unheard and overlooked.

She took her pleas to U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders when the Vermont politician made a stop last spring in McDowell County for a taping of a town hall on MSNBC’s ‘All In with Chris Hayes.’

“The reason that I went to go see Bernie Sanders is because I was begging him for hope. I mean, I’ve begged for this state for years and I admired him because he was the only senator to sit down with me and talk to me like I was a human being,” Swearengin said.

Swearengin is backed by Brand New Congress, a political action committee established by former staffers and supporters of Sanders’ campaign for president in 2016. The group is aiming to run progressive, working-class candidates around the country in hopes of combatting a political environment they say is dominated by big money.

“[The intent] of this nation was to have a diverse set of people in any and all walk of governments. It wasn’t designed to have paid-for, polished politicians to represent us. This nation was built by the people for the people and of the people,” she said.

Many say Swearengin faces an uphill battle to beat Manchin for the Democratic nomination. Beyond name recognition, Manchin’s fundraising efforts have outmatched Swearengin’s by more than 30 to 1. She’s raised nearly $200,000 to Manchin’s $6 million.

Swearengin remains undeterred. Despite identifying as a coal miner’s daughter, she’s hoping to take on the industry that she says has wreaked havoc on where she grew up and still lives.

“There’s no reason as a coal miner’s daughter that I should have to beg for something so basic as a clean glass of water. At the same time, we see coal miners that want to just feed their families. And we’ve heard that propaganda tree hugger versus coal miner. It’s even been labeled environmentalist before and that’s not it,” Swearengin explained.

“We we want it all. There’s no reason that we can’t have basic human rights and, like I said, we don’t even have adequate sewage systems,” she added.

After teachers across West Virginia went on a nine-day strike calling for better pay and benefits, many observers of state politics have wondered if the labor movement — one that caught fire in other deeply red states — can translate to a wave of wins for progressives.

But as May 8 nears, Manchin’s campaign is focused more so on November and his potential challenger in the midterm election.

“My approach is this: I don’t pick my opponents. They picked to run and choose to run against me. And whoever that may be, we’ll put our records up hopefully and try to get the facts out — as hard as it is in today’s toxic atmosphere,” Manchin said.

Unlike the race for the GOP nomination for U.S. Senate, state Democrats did not arrange debates between Manchin and Swearengin. West Virginia Democratic Party chairwoman Belinda Biafore said no media outlet ever contacted the organization to organize a statewide debate.

A Guide to the May 8 West Virginia Primary Election

Candidates in West Virginia’s May 8 primary are hoping for the chance to earn their party’s nominations for the U.S. Senate, the U.S. House or the…

Candidates in West Virginia’s May 8 primary are hoping for the chance to earn their party’s nominations for the U.S. Senate, the U.S. House or the Legislature. Early voting in West Virginia runs from April 25 through May 5.

Here is a summary of those races:

U.S. SENATE

Democrat Joe Manchin, a former governor, is seeking a second full six-year term in the Senate. He first took office after a 2010 special election prompted by the death of U.S. Sen. Robert C. Byrd.

Manchin, running in a state won by Republican President Donald Trump by double digits in 2016, faces a primary challenge Coal City’s Paula Jean Swearengin, a Bernie Sanders Democrat from a coal-mining family.

The Republican primary has six candidates, including 3rd District Congressman Evan Jenkins, state Attorney General Patrick Morrisey and former Massey Energy CEO Don Blankenship.

Jenkins and Morrisey have attacked each other’s records, claimed adherence to policies advocated by President Donald Trump’s administration and criticized Manchin.

Jenkins is a second-term congressman, a former state lawmaker and former executive director of the West Virginia State Medical Association. Morrisey was elected in 2016 to a second four-year term.

Blankenship was released from federal prison in May 2017 after serving a year on charges stemming from the 2010 explosion at the Upper Big Branch mine that killed 29 men in southern West Virginia. It was the deadliest U.S. mine disaster in four decades.

Blankenship says he was innocent. His campaign ads tout his safety history and attack Manchin and Jenkins as career politicians.

Other GOP candidates are Bo Copley of Lenore, a miner who confronted Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton in 2016 over her remarks about cutting coal mining jobs; U.S. Navy veteran Jack Newbrough of Weirton and West Virginia National Guard Maj. Tom Willis.

U.S. HOUSE

Four Democrats and seven Republicans are running for the 3rd District seat being vacated by Jenkins.

Among the Democrats is Richard Ojeda, a state senator who gained notoriety for vocally backing a teacher pay raise a month before their nine-day statewide strike began. The other Democrats in the field are state Delegate Shirley Love, Tri-State Transit Authority CEO Paul Davis; and Janice Hagerman of Mount Hope.

The GOP candidates include former state Republican Party Chairman Conrad Lucas; state delegates Marty Gearheart, Rupie Phillips and Carol Miller; former delegate Rick Snuffer, Dr. Ayne Amjad of Beckley and Philip Payton of Milton.

Congressmen David McKinley from the 1st District and Alex Mooney from the 2nd District are unopposed in the GOP primary.

The 1st District Democratic primary pits Keyser attorney Tom Payne, retired CEO Ralph Baxter of Wheeling and West Virginia University law professor Kendra Fershee.

In November, Mooney will face either U.S. Army veteran Aaron Scheinberg or former Hillary Clinton state presidential campaign director Talley Sergent.

STATE SENATE

Half of the 34 state Senate seats are up for grabs this fall and all 17 incumbents are seeking re-election, including Senate Majority Leader Ryan Ferns, who will face former U.S. Attorney William Ihlenfeld, a Democrat, in November.

Of the 17 races in May, six Democratic races and six on the GOP side are contested.

Republicans hold a 22-12 majority in the Senate.

STATE HOUSE OF DELEGATES

In the House, Republicans hold a 64-36 majority and all 100 seats are on the ballot. Eighteen delegates didn’t file for re-election, including Republican House Speaker Tim Armstead. That group includes 14 Republicans and four Democrats.