2020 Election Profiles Story Archives - West Virginia Public Broadcasting

W.Va.’s Department Of Agriculture Race: Supporting The Small Farm

Two farmers from north central West Virginia are vying for the position that guides and promotes the state’s agriculture industry. The Republican incumbent and the Democratic challenger both say they’re passionate about communication, which experts say is key, given the makeup and conditions of the industry in the Mountain State.

West Virginia’s agriculture community is made of about 22,900 farms — most of them are small and 9.5 of 10 are family owned — the highest rate in the country. Without much flat land, the state produces a lot of hay, apples and peaches, specialty crops, as well as cattle, chicken, turkey and trout. Overall, about $500 million comes into the state from traditional agriculture. For some perspective, neighboring Virginia generates $52 billion. According to the National Association of State Departments of Agriculture, 80 percent of these farms earn less than $10,000 a year.

“Realize that big ag is never gonna work here,” said Fritz Fritz Boettner, the Food Development Director at the Center for Resilient Communities at West Virginia University. “Accept it, and move on. And say, how do we help small scale farmers?”

Boettner also points to the work the department does to regulate safe food sales and management, but he stressed that there’s a lot of potential economic growth to be tapped in supporting small farmers. He says the state’s Department of Agriculture plays critical roles to develop that economy, and also in cultivating health and well-being in the state.

“We drastically undervalue the role of the Department of Agriculture in our food system and feeding people,” Boettner said. “All the food access programs and distribution, all that federal funding that comes into the state goes to the Department of Agriculture, then they divvy it out. They have intense control of how we provide food to people.”

A Department of Agriculture

West Virginia’s Department of Agriculture was established in the early 1900s to promote the state’s agriculture. Over the years it’s grown to ensure that all agricultural products in the state are safely sold.

According to the WV Encyclopedia, the department’s responsibilities include:

prevent, control, and eradicate animal and poultry diseases;
inspect commercial slaughterhouses;
regulate pesticides;
detect and control plant diseases;
distribute agricultural information, including the monthly Market Bulletin, circulation 60,000;
enforce laws to protect the public food supply; and
support rural development initiatives.

The state Department of Agriculture works cooperatively with the U.S. Department of Agriculture on some matters, particularly meat and poultry inspections, and detection and control of plant diseases.

Leonhardt vs. Beach

While both men who want to head the agency have a background in farming, they’re coming to the position in different ways.

Current Commissioner Kent Leonhardt is running on his record.

“I’m not a career politician,” Leonhardt explained. “I’m only in my 6th year in politics.”

He’s originally from Buffalo, New York. He had a military career in the U.S. Marine Corp, retired in 1996, and today owns about 380 acres in Monongalia County, raising sheep, cattle, goats and sometimes selling hay.

Meanwhile state Sen. Bob Beach, the Democratic challenger, comes to the table as native farmer and a longtime politician.

“I’ve been in the legislature for 20 years. My office door is always open,” he said.

Some of the initiatives Leonhardt is passionate about include efforts to expand production of specialty crops like mushrooms, and agro therapy for veterans and traumatized first-responders.

“We’re actually coordinating the instruction of an agro therapy [program] at the Veterans Administration Hospital in Huntington, which is one of four in the country. And I’m hoping that ours becomes the model that they use around the country.”

Leonhardt says he’s made his office more efficient during his first term. He says he’s developed a strategic plan and wants to be re-elected to continue to put the plan into action. He says he’s improving communications between the office and farmers, and that he’s working to deregulate antiquated laws to make farming easier.

“We’ve changed the attitude of the department from a heavy-handed regulatory agency to an educate-before-regulate agency. We want to make sure that agribusinesses in the state are able to comply with the food safety aspects, yet be successful at the same time.”

Eric Blend, a farmer in the Northern Panhandle, supports Leonhardt.

“He has really made some changes and added some key players in the department to really help out small-scale agriculture and just agriculture in general.”

Blend is referring to business coordinators in the restructured department who have been very responsive to his needs as he navigates the farming world in the region. He said he’s been able to share practical knowledge from the field with the department, and seen those ideas incorporated into policy. Blend was also invited to help lobby for legislation pushed by the department — specifically the Cottage Food Law, which legislators passed this year.

“So now home-bakers and producers, with proper labeling, can actually sell their goods in retail stores, gas stations, and online as well, as well as just selling it to your neighbor,” Blend said.

Another recent policy adjustment includes a micro dairy rule, designed for smaller dairy farmers who want to process their own milk and dairy products to sell locally. (It doesn’t legalize the sale of raw milk beyond existing herd-share agreements, by the way. That’s a different law.)

And Leonhardt has continued to try to cultivate the hemp industry in the state.

Leonhardt’s Democratic challenger, Beach was one of the sponsors of the Cottage Food Law. But he’s also well known for his enthusiasm and interest in developing the hemp industry.

“There’s a lot of pieces to the hemp industry and to the legislation itself, because you have the state level, obviously, you have the federal level,” Beach said. “I’m trying to learn as much as I can. And the more I learned, the more I realized there’s more to learn.”

Beach grew up on an 800-acre cattle farm here in West Virginia.

“My involvement in agriculture is not eight years, but 54 years,” he said. “We have a lot to bring to the table, we want to focus on what I call ‘ARC,’ and that’s advocating, resources, and communication for the agricultural community.”

Former state Sen. Ronald Miller, a Democrat from Lewisburg, is among those who encouraged Beach to take up a campaign to run. Miller has an agritourism business in southern West Virginia. He remembers serving on the agriculture committee with Beach in the senate and said Beach is willing to tackle important agricultural projects.

“We’re within a big percentage of the nation’s population — they’re within a small drive from West Virginia. That’s important. We should be looking at how do we tap that market?”

Beach said he’d focus more resources on promoting agricultural products grown in the state. He recently released a 10-point plan that emphasizes things like supporting educational initiatives to bring more agriculture into K-12 and higher ed institutions. He also wants to support farmers by expanding access to technology and create more regional networking between farms.

Political Newcomer Takes On Republican Incumbent In Southern W.Va. Race For U.S. House

West Virginia’s Third District Congresswoman Carol Miller is up for re-election, and she’s running against Hilary Turner, a political newbie with progressive support.

The two women are squaring off in what was once a long-time Democratic stronghold. But even before its U.S. House seat recently shifted red in 2014, District 3 has always held a long history of extraction and social conservatism.

“Democrats in West Virginia, especially Southern West Virginia, consider themselves West Virginia Democrats, not national Democrats,” said former Democratic Congressman Nick Rahall — the state’s longest-serving House Representative, who represented southern West Virginia for almost 40 years.

“They don’t associate that much with the National Democratic platform,” Rahall said.

Since 2004, the southern counties have voted for a Republican presidential candidate in every election. But it wasn’t until Donald Trump’s victory in 2016, Rahall said, that local politicians began modeling their campaigns after his endorsement.

Enter Carol Miller, a former House Delegate, Huntington-area real estate agent and bison farmer, who tells voters that she’s pro-coal, pro-life, pro-border and pro-Trump.

“I mean, for every question she got asked there was a written statement response that always started out with how much she loved Donald Trump, loved the Bible and loved our country,” Rahall said of her campaign in 2018. “She was relying on Donald Trump’s coattails to get elected, and it worked. You can’t argue with success.”

Miller’s opponent Turner is banking on more progressive endorsements for her win, including support from the West Virginia Working Families Party and the West Virginia Can’t Wait movement. She’s campaigning on some of the same issues that the national Democratic party advocates for — universal healthcare, sustainable agriculture and a plan to address climate change.

“Far too long, we’ve had basically millionaire and billionaire politicians, buying their seats in office and catering to corporations,” Turner said. “And [they’re] leaving working people and working families behind. It’s just time for a huge shift.”

Going From Majority To Minority

Before Congress, Carol Miller served for about a decade in the West Virginia House of Delegates. Miller has lived in West Virginia for about 45 years, practicing real estate in the Huntington area and farming bison with her husband since the 1990’s. Her father was longtime Ohio Republican Congressman Samuel L. Devine.

While Miller’s win was one of several Republican victories in the West Virginia, she was the only newly elected Republican woman to win a race for the U.S. House in 2018 when that chamber flipped blue. At a bipartisan conference for women legislators, sponsored by Politico at the end of 2018, Miller said she looked forward to finding common ground solutions with lawmakers across the aisle.

“I have served in the minority before,” Miller said, referring to most of her time as a West Virginia House Delegate. “I knew even then that the most important thing is finding people of like mind in both parties, and working on policy that way. And that is the way I will continue to behave, and to learn.”

When it comes to legislation that Miller has co-sponsored, Govtrack reports Miller has been more centered than other members of her party.

However, FiveThirtyEight reported that in voting, Miller sides consistently with Trump on bills that he has publicly supported or opposed, while tracking from ProPublica shows that Miller has voted against her Republican colleagues less than 4% of the time.

‘You Need To Be Willing To Talk About Climate Change’

Miller declined requests from West Virginia Public Broadcasting for an interview through her campaign. Miller did agree to provide a few written responses over email.

Turner, meanwhile, agreed to an interview with WVPB, during which she said that she believes her stances on climate change during the June primary were far more advanced than that of her three Democratic opponents.

“I didn’t see a candidate that was talking about climate change,” Turner said. “That was a sign that maybe I needed to run for that seat, because I think running as a Democrat in 2020, you need to be willing to talk about climate change.”

Turner is a young mother who grew up mostly in Florida, but has deep roots in Greenbrier County, where her family has farmed for six generations. She taught abroad before moving to West Virginia, where she is a yoga instructor and has practiced massage therapy.

This is Turner’s first time running for public office, but she volunteered for the Bernie Sanders campaign in 2016. Turner said that she was inspired to run after watching a documentary on Netflix called “Knocking Down The House,” profiling four women running for the House in 2018 — including West Virginia’s Paula Jean Swearengin, this year’s Democratic nominee for Senate, and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a freshman House Representative from New York.

“You know, I’m only one year older than AOC,” Turner said. “Just showing her victory and how she was able to do that with just a grassroots effort was extremely inspiring, for me.”

Turner is one of four women running for Congress in West Virginia through the movement West Virginia Can’t Wait. She’s also one of more than 40 members who advanced in the June primary.

All of the politicians in West Virginia Can’t Wait have pledged to reject corporate contributions. For the District 3 race, that means Miller has been able to outraise Turner by at least $550,000, according to data from the Federal Election Commission from January 1, 2019, through June 30, 2020.

On Renewable Energy And Economic Development

In Southern West Virginia, where the coal industry was once a major employer and still provides a hefty chunk of jobs, census data from 2010 note that the area holds low college graduation levels and a median household income that’s almost half the national average.

“You’ve got a lot of people who don’t have a highly diverse skill-set,” said MaryBeth Beller, an associate professor of political science at Marshall University. “We don’t have a terribly diverse economy in District 3, and people are hurting.”

The county’s largest coal miner’s union, the United Mine Workers of America, has declined to endorse either candidate for office.

The union has endorsed politicians from both parties this year, including Republican Sen. Shelley Moore Capito for Senate and Democrat Ben Salango for governor, but UMWA members across the southern counties, where West Virginia’s coal jobs are most abundant, will not throw their weight behind either House candidate for 2020.

Turner says that if elected, she would advance policies for a “just transition” — the idea that as the country transitions away from fossil fuels toward cleaner forms of energy, the federal government should ensure coal-dependent communities and workers’ livelihoods are secure, by investing in these opportunities and connecting them directly with jobs in the renewable energy sector.

“A politician can’t really come in and say ‘I’m gonna bring all the coal jobs back, and I’m going to change the direction of the economy,’” Turner said. “But, what we can do is make sure that we are looking at where communities have been hurt by this transition, and looking at [how we can] help communities by investing in our people.”

At the WVU Center for Energy and Sustainable Development, director Jamie Van Nostrand says the need for a just transition becomes more urgent as climate change in the Mountain State gets worse, and as the demand for nonrenewable energy across the country drops.

“We had some pretty serious flooding four years ago, which I think is pretty largely attributable to the impacts as the temperatures increase, as humidity increases,” Van Nostrand said. Miller referred to the same floods during a 2019 committee hearing on ways to enhance U.S. resilience to climate change.

“The climate crisis is urgent, and it needs to be addressed on a bipartisan basis,” Van Nostrand said. “The world doesn’t care whether you’re Democrat or Republican. Mother Nature doesn’t care, frankly.”

Miller is one of five Republican members in the Select Committee on the Climate Crisis, created in 2019. Theoretically, Van Nostrand said Miller’s minority position could lend a hand to the nuance of West Virginia’s situation and help find common ground solutions with legislators across the aisle.

Yet, Miller’s voting record suggests she opposes most Democrat-backed legislation to address climate change. Miller said in an email to West Virginia Public Broadcasting that she uses the position to “[hold] the line against many radical proposals that will accomplish nothing except kill jobs in West Virginia.”

Miller cited a bill in one email that she co-sponsored with Congressman David McKinley, to demonstrate her commitment to “promoting West Virginia energy.” The Energy Security Cooperation with Allied Partners in Europe (ESCAPE) Act would ensure that U.S. oil will be promoted to the country’s allies abroad, to reduce their reliance on Russian energy. The bill was introduced in late July and was referred to the Energy and Commerce committee.

To Van Nostrand, “you can’t really reconcile” the differences between what this ESCAPE Act offers, and broader actions by the mostly-Democrat House for renewable energy.

“Greenhouse gas is a global pollutant,” Van Nostrand said. “It doesn’t matter whether the natural gas is burned in the United States or exported and burned in Europe, it’s going to contribute to concentrations of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, which is going to contribute to climate change.”

Third District Race Results Could Boil Down To Voter Turnout

Political experts nationally expect the Third District race will be an easy win for Miller. At the University of Virginia, political scientist Larry Sabato of Crystal Ball predicts the Third District will remain safe for Miller, due to her own and the president’s incumbency advantages.

Beller from Marshall University adds that Turner won her primary election in June with a slim 67-vote lead over three other Democrats. This might negatively affect Democrat turnout.

“What typically happens is that a lot of people whose initial candidate doesn’t win tend to not want to participate as much in the general election,” Beller said. “It actually is going to come down truly to voter turnout and party loyalty as to whether or not this is a competitive race.”

Election Day is Nov. 3, with early in-person voting from Oct. 21 to Oct. 31. Registration forms and absentee ballots can be requested from each county’s clerk. The Secretary of State’s office lists each clerk’s contact information on its website.

Emily Allen is a Report for America corps member.

Cline’s Grassroots Campaign Seeks To Beat McKinley In His Run For A Sixth Term In Congress

Fifty years ago West Virginia had five congressional districts — meaning five representatives in Congress — but over time with a population decline, the state has dropped to three. The second largest is District 1, which encompasses 20 counties in the northern part of the state that will be voting for their representation this year.

For the 2020 general election, Republican incumbent David McKinley hopes to retain the seat he has held for five terms against Democratic newcomer Nataline Cline.

District 1 represents much of the state’s rust belt, rural farms and timber production. Major cities and towns in the district include Clarksburg, Morgantown, Parkersburg and Wheeling.

It also includes West Virginia University, the largest four-year school in the state, as well as the FBI’s Criminal Justice Information Services headquarters, which opened in 1995. More people in the region are employed in education, health care or social services than anywhere else in the state, according to a 2019 U.S. Census Bureau study.

Unlike the rest of the state, which has a population decline, District 1 has seen little to no changes in its population in the past 20 years. But the district still shares many of the same concerns as the rest of the state, especially with the pandemic, said Scott Crichlow, associate professor of political science at WVU.

“I think a lot of people will be focused on jobs and access to health care,” he said. “I mean I don’t really think the district stands out from a lot of other districts.”

For almost 60 years prior to McKinley’s first election in 2010, District 1 only changed leadership four times, and three of the congressmen were related. The office was held primarily by Democrats until McKinley took office. Crichlow said McKinley has a long political history in the district.

“He’s from the Northern Panhandle. He’s been in the state house for a long time and the party chair, a businessman, and so he’s been the incumbent for 10 years now,” Crichlow said. “He’s not faced a very strong challenge in the last 10 years, at least in terms of the outcomes of the elections.”

McKinley did not respond to West Virginia Public Broadcasting’s multiple requests for an interview and neither did chairs of GOP executive committees in the district.

McKinley has served on the House Energy and Commerce Committee his entire time in office. In recent years, he has been a close ally of President Donald Trump in terms of his voting record.

McKinley voted against the president’s impeachment. However, he supported proposed funding for the border wall and limiting legal immigration. He also voted in favor of a proposal that would have made abortions illegal after 20 weeks, except under specific circumstances.

Most recently, McKinley voted against the latest COVID relief bill in the House, citing its partisan nature, but he has signed a petition to extend the paycheck protection program for small businesses.

According to his website, one of McKinley’s big priorities is supporting the coal industry, which hit its lowest levels of production in four decades last year, despite President Trump’s push to revive the slumping industry.

“When I came here in 2010…there were 700 coal-fired power plants…now we only have just over 200 coal-fired power plants,” McKinley said in an Oct. 1 Energy and Commerce Committee hearing. “But what I’m not seeing is any measurable decrease whatsoever in asthma, lung disease, cardiovascular disease. I’m asking, can someone show me that doing away with coal actually improves our health for all these communities?”

However, studies show a decrease in coal-related respiratory issues would not necessarily align with a decline in the industry. In fact, it can take a minimum of 10 years since initial exposure for someone to start exhibiting symptoms from those types of diseases.

McKinley’s opponent, Democrat candidate Natalie Cline, is focusing her campaign on healthcare, education and the economy. She is part of the West Virginia Can’t Wait Movement — a grassroots, progressive effort that has candidates up and down the ballot across the state in this election. Like other candidates in the movement, she has pledged not to take donations from large corporations or their political action committees.

As for the coal industry, she said her position is to expand the energy sector — bringing alternative jobs to communities that have historically relied on the once-thriving industry.

Cline is originally from Williamstown, West Virginia but now lives in Wheeling. She works as a computational linguist for a software company and has taught at both WVU and George Mason University. Although she has never held public office, she said what inspired her to run was moving back to the state a few years ago, after a five-year stint in D.C.

“I felt like a little bit of culture shock and it really bothered me that this is the place where I grew up, this is a place that made me who I am — how can it feel so different?” Cline said. “And a lot of the things that I was noticing were things that were preventable and had everything to do with policy decisions, and, you know, lobbyist, money and politics, most of it stemming from the opioid epidemic.”

Cline said addressing the opioid epidemic and mental health issues that can lead to addiction are her top priorities. If elected she said she would propose the ‘Family Reinvestment Act,’ which would provide federal funding for health crises like the opioid epidemic, focusing both on public schools and communities.

Cline supports universal health care. However, if it cannot be passed in such a partisan climate, she said there needs to be some improvements to the nation’s healthcare system.

“We at least need to start introducing other groups into Medicare, so that we can start expanding it and get people the health care they deserve,” she said.

Another important issue to Cline is broadband access, which is front and center with more children and adults learning and working remotely because of the pandemic. Her campaign is calling it the ‘Gen Z Initiative,’ which would create zero cost virtual courses for upcoming high school graduates, primarily focusing on science, technology, engineering and mathematics.

“So these can be anything from programming and coding, to you know, being more interested in vertical farming or other technologies,” Cline said. “And we want to work with communities that are seeing population loss.”

The goal is to keep young people in the state, Cline said.

District 2: Incumbent Alex Mooney Faces Progressive Challenger Cathy Kunkel

The candidates vying for West Virginia’s 2^nd Congressional District – Republican Rep. Alex Mooney and Democrat Cathy Kunkel – are offering starkly different visions for the sprawling territory that zig-zags across the Mountain State’s middle, touching the Eastern Panhandle, the state’s capitol, Charleston, and even the Ohio River.

Mooney, who cut his political teeth as a lawmaker in Maryland, was first elected to Congress in West Virginia in 2014. The Charles Town resident and son of a Cuban refugee and Vietnam veteran faced a tough first election to win his seat, formerly held by now-U.S. Sen. Shelley Moore Capito.

The congressman, who is seeking his fourth term in office, did not agree to an interview with West Virginia Public Broadcasting, but in an emailed statement aligned himself closely to the top of the Republican ticket: President Donald Trump.

“We have a unique opportunity right now with President Trump, and I want to go back with him and continue to defend our values and way of life,” he said.

Those values include protecting the Second Amendment, defending religious freedom, reducing taxes, protecting the right to life, and making sure coal is “here to stay.”

Mooney faces a challenge from political newcomer Cathy Kunkel. Kunkel has spent the last decade working in energy policy, including testifying in front of the West Virginia Public Service Commission as a consumer advocate. In 2014 during the Elk River water crisis, Kunkel emerged as one of the voices fighting for safe drinking water. By contrast, her vision for West Virginia is rooted in ensuring policies passed in Washington D.C. work for all West Virginians.

“I think we need leadership in D.C. that has been rooted in our communities that is listening to West Virginians, and is not afraid to stand up to special interests and fight for an economy that truly works for all of us and not just a wealthy few,” Kunkel said in an interview with West Virginia Public Broadcasting.

Kunkel’s platform is rooted in her experience as a grassroots organizer and reflected in her tagline: “For the many, not the few.”

She is part of the progressive WV Can’t Wait movement and has pledged not to take corporate campaign donations. Kunkel also co-founded and chaired Rise Up WV, a Charleston-based volunteer organization that supports health care for all, quality public education and better services for those suffering from addiction. Her campaign has focused on accessibility — holding socially distant town halls across the district.

That accessibility is one reason Charleston resident Paul Epstein is supporting Kunkel.

“As I compare her to the person that she’s running against, Alex Mooney, I have seen very little of him in public over the years,” he said. “He doesn’t come around. He doesn’t do public meetings. He doesn’t answer questions. He seems to represent corporate interests and money interests, and does not seem to vote in favor of things that would help the people of West Virginia most of whom don’t have a lot of resources and are struggling, working people.”

Mooney has had to answer questions about his status as an outsider, said Kyle Kondik, managing editor of Sabato’s Crystal Ball at the University of Virginia Center for Politics.

Kondik said as West Virginia continues its shift toward being a safely Republican-voting state, Trump’s appeal — he won the state in 2016 with 68.5 percent of the vote – will help give cover to other Republican candidates on the ticket.

“Mooney’s had to deal with questions about, you know, not really being from West Virginia, but at the same time, it doesn’t seem like he’s in any particular danger of losing,” he said.

An analysis by news prediction website fivethirtyeight.com, finds Mooney has voted in line with the president nearly 88 percent of the time. In October, during the impeachment proceedings against Trump, Mooney made headlines when he stormed into a secure room at the Capitol in protest.

One notable break from the Trump administration in his voting record was in March when he voted against the second COVID relief bill, the Families First Coronavirus Response Act. The $2 trillion bill provided pandemic food assistance and funded additional unemployment benefits.

In a floor speech, Mooney took issue with various aspects of that coronavirus relief package and its price tag.

“How do you pay for it?” he said. “We going to borrow it from China, borrow it from Russia?”

For Kunkel, the campaign is centered on those she would represent, if elected.

“West Virginia is really hurting right now,” she said. “Our economy is not working for the vast majority of West Virginians. Our health care system is broken. Public schools are underfunded. We lack basic infrastructure. And, you know, COVID has obviously made all of this worse.”

She said the Mountain State has an opportunity to reshape itself into something more equitable, as one of its key resources, coal, continues to decline. According to federal data, in 2019, coal production fell to its lowest level since 1978. The pandemic has further stressed the industry, pushing several companies into bankruptcy.

“We need to use this as an opportunity to repay the debt that the rest of the country owes to West Virginia for the coal and gas that have powered this country for such a long time,” she said. “We need to fight for billions of dollars of reinvestment in our state in basic infrastructure, in environmental reclamation, clean energy manufacturing, so that we can do this transition in a way that leaves our economy stronger here in West Virginia.”

It is yet another issue where the two candidates disagree. Mooney said he is, “fighting to make sure that coal is here to stay,” and praised Trump for protecting energy jobs.

Kunkel has been endorsed by Bernie Sanders, the Planned Parenthood Action Fund, AFT-West Virginia and the state AFL-CIO chapter. Mooney is backed by groups such as the NRA and West Virginians For Life.

No debate between the two candidates is currently planned.

Capito Stands On Record For Reelection, Swearengin Argues W.Va. Needs Greater Support

One of West Virginia’s two U.S. Senate seats are on the ballot this year as the GOP fights nationally to retain its majority in Washington, D.C. Republican Sen. Shelley Moore Capito has held this office since 2015 and is the first woman from West Virginia to be elected to the U.S. Senate. Facing her is Democrat Paula Jean Swearengin who has never held a political office but believes her ideas and experiences are exactly what the state needs in Congress.

Capito grew up in public service. Her father, Arch Moore Jr., was both a U.S. congressman and a governor of West Virginia. Capito said she learned from a very young age what it meant to be a public servant. But it wasn’t until she became a parent that she said she realized just how much she wanted to help people.

“I just felt like as a relatively young mother in West Virginia, I wanted to try to do that for the next generations of West Virginians – to participate, to be a part of the solutions instead of just carping about what was wrong and how I could have done it better,” Capito said. “Well, I was ready to try it myself.”

There are several issues Capito feels strongly about this year, but she said one of her top priorities is expanding broadband in rural areas. She said having dependable internet access is key to many of the challenges in West Virginia, especially right now.

“Now we see in light of COVID how important this issue is for healthcare, for education, for economic development,” she said. “And really, to keep our young people in West Virginia, it’s exceedingly important as well.”

Capito said she started the rural broadband caucus in the U.S. Senate and works across the aisle on the issue, including with Sen. Amy Klobuchar, a Democrat, from Minissota. If reelected, Capito said, she would continue to fight for broadband growth and access in the state.

Capito said the Trump administration’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic response has been a mixed bag. She thinks Trump should have been stronger on mask-wearing and provided clearer communication to keep people safe.

“If I had to do it over again, for him, I would have been much more concise, clear to the American people of what the dangers are, how you can be effective in fighting the dangers and be very honest with where we are at any given time,” she said.

Other important issues to Capito are healthcare access like telehealth and tackling the opioid epidemic by providing federal dollars to support those in recovery. Finding a cure for Alzheimer’s Disease is also an issue Capito said is close to her heart. She supports job creation and supports the coal and natural gas industries.

Capito said she thinks creating more jobs in West Virginia like manufacturing PPE, or personal protective equipment, could be great economic drivers for the state. She also said supporting small business growth is key to a healthy West Virginia.

“I think the small business aspects of West Virginia are critically important,” she said. “And so, to retain our jobs, to keep our creativity, we’ve got to find a way to keep our small businesses’ heads above water.”

All-in-all, Capito is hoping West Virginians will reelect her based on her dedication to the state and her accomplishments while in the Senate. Capito has supported efforts in providing federal funding to the state to support broadband expansion, substance use treatment, and infrastructure needs. She is a member of the Senate Appropriations Committee, the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, the chair of the Subcommittee on Transportation and Infrastructure, and a member of the Senate Commerce Committee.

But facing Capito in November is Democrat Paula Jean Swearengin who thinks that Capito has done little to understand the real challenges faced by West Virginians.

“If you would have told me 15 years ago that I’d be the Democratic nominee for the United States Senate, I probably laughed at you,” Swearengin said. “I just got tired of begging and going on deaf ears, and I know a lot of West Virginia feels the same way. I’m not going for personal gain, it’s about survival for West Virginians.”

Swearengin’s overall message is West Virginia needs representation in Washington, D.C. from someone who knows first hand what it was like to have financial hardships or who knows what it’s like to live without clean water.

“Our water came out of an abandoned coal mine, and it was orange with a blue and purple film,” she said. “And we drank it. We bathed in it. We cooked with it, and I didn’t know until my stepdad got laid off in the coal mines that I wasn’t a redhead until I had access to clean water, and I found out I was a brunette.”

Swearengin was born in Mullins, West Virginia. She said she grew up in poverty and is the daughter and granddaughter of coal miners. Her grandfather passed away from black lung disease. Her father also had black lung disease, and he died of cancer.

Swearengin has never held a political office, but this isn’t the first time she’s been on the ballot for a seat in the U.S. Senate. She lost to Democrat Sen. Joe Manchin in the 2018 primary election. Now, she’s trying again, this time, as the Democratic nominee.

Swearengin describes Capito as “out of touch” and not serving West Virginians’ needs.

“Everybody doesn’t have to agree on everything, but their sole purpose should be serving the people that put them there, and that’s the people in the United States,” she said. “In West Virginia, we have been underserved, and it’s important to me that West Virginians have a seat at the table in Washington, DC.”

Swearengin said West Virginia has been abused for its resources and that West Virginians have had to pay the price, both in health and money.

She stands on issues like expanding broadband access but making it a public utility. She is supportive of the legalization and taxation of marijuana. She also thinks West Virginia needs to diversify its economy and support new ideas in areas like geothermal energy, hydro power, roads, schools, and adequate water and sewer systems.

“The possibilities for West Virginia are endless,” she said. “We can’t put our eggs in one basket anymore, and we definitely can’t put all of our eggs in the politicians that are visionaries for their pocketbooks and visionaries for our demise.”

Early voting starts on Oct. 21 and runs until Oct. 31.

The deadline for absentee ballots is Oct. 28. Election Day is Nov. 3.

Justice and Salango May Be On The Ballot For Governor, But Democratic Stalwart Manchin’s Presence Still Lingers

With rumors swirling during the summer of 2019 that he might return home to again run for governor, U.S. Senator Joe Manchin decided against trying to leave Washington. But despite that decision, Manchin has still drifted into the race between Republican incumbent Jim Justice and Democratic challenger Ben Salango.

In the 2016 race for Governor, billionaire businessman Jim Justice ran as a Democrat. But less than seven months after taking office, Justice stood on a stage in Huntington alongside President Donald Trump and announced he was returning to the Republican Party.

“Today, I will tell you, as West Virginians, I can’t help you anymore being a Democratic governor,” Justice said. “So, tomorrow, I will be changing my registration to Republican. As a coach, I will tell you it is time to run another play.”

Justice’s party-affiliation switch was less than surprising to those observing the state’s political landscape. West Virginia had quickly turned red in recent years. And even as a Democratic candidate, Justice touted his affinity for Trump.

In the background through it all was Manchin, who had endorsed Justice in 2016.

President Donald Trump, left, reaches out to shake hands with West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice, right, at a campaign-style rally at Big Sandy Superstore Arena in Huntington, W.Va., Thursday, Aug. 3, 2017, where Justice announced that he is changing parties to be a Republican . (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)

While Manchin remains one of the most moderate Democrats in all of Washington — and has occasionally positioned himself as friendly with President Trump — Justice’s political maneuvering has not sat well with the senator.

“He decides to change and he wouldn’t even have the decency to call. He’s gonna change his politics. I’m thinking, ‘My goodness, you just had all these people who fought for your beliefs,’” Manchin told West Virginia Public Broadcasting in an interview last month. “Here’s a person that really wanted to work and believed in the policies and philosophies as far as West Virginia Democrats — not a Washington Democrat or Washington Republican. West Virginia. And he just abandoned, without any discussion whatsoever, saying that the Democrats don’t want to work with him.”

As Justice’s first term has moved along, he’s dealt with two teacher’s strikes — which ultimately led to all state employees getting a raise — has tried to revied a struggling coal industry, has supported and signed anti-abortion rights legislation and ushered through a $1.6 billion road bond program. The state budget has bounced back and forth between deficits and surpluses.

But as the 2020 election cycle heated up last fall, all eyes turned to Manchin.

Last re-elected to a six-year term in the Senate in 2018, Manchin had nothing to lose if he decided to run again for governor. A showdown between him and Justice would have made for engaging political theater.

Not only because Manchin was already sparring with Justice in the news media — but also because it might have served as a referendum on the Senator’s party and its waning grasp.

Manchin himself acknowledges the West Virginia Democratic Party has been losing ground for some time. To him, Justice is a side effect of what’s happening on the national stage.

“It is challenged as we all know, right now, because people have supported Donald Trump and his whole different philosophies — not so much Republican as it is Trump’s party — and they have followed along and supported that and I hope they’re watching and everything right now,” Manchin said. “Because, you know, we’re living in Trump’s America.”

But when it comes to Justice, Manchin has taken issue with what he sees as a lack of engagement when it comes to fulfilling the duties of governor. Since taking office in 2017, questions have arisen about how often Justice has been at the Capitol. And with Justice admitting to living full time in Greenbrier County, a state lawmaker has brought a lawsuit to compel the governor to abide by a constitutional mandate to reside in Charleston.

Manchin says he’s disappointed and frustrated over all of this. After all, he says, the job of governor requires one’s attention all day every day.

“I have nothing personal about Jim. Like or dislike, I always get along fine with Jim,” Manchin said.” I’m personally, just basically, totally at odds with how he’s running the state — or letting other people run the state as an absentee governor.”

Fast forward to 2020 — the year in which Justice has been flung into the spotlight to lead West Virginia’s response to the coronavirus pandemic. After Congress passed a federal relief package known as the CARES Act, Manchin questioned why the $1.25 billion that came to his home state wasn’t leaving the West Virginia treasury.

West Virginia Gov. Joe Manchin III, center, and his wife, Gayle, pose for photos as they present Greenbrier resort owner Jim Justice the Distinguished West Virginian Award during the first round of the Greenbrier Classic PGA Tour Golf Tournament at the Greenbrier in White Sulphur Springs, WV., Thursday, July 29, 2010. (AP Photo/Steve Helber)

“Here’s Jim Justice, who inherited a tremendous fortune from his father and basically has never had to — because it’s not a public company — he’s never had to answer to anybody,” Manchin said. “And now having a legislature that has the power of the purse, that he just can’t spend and commit and do this and that. And he doesn’t want to be accountable to that.”

Justice, who declined through his campaign multiple offers to be interviewed for this story, has fired back at Manchin throughout the pandemic.

“Joe needs to pay attention to what’s in Washington,” Justice said on May 15.

But as the pandemic continued on, so had the primary season. After not agreeing to a debate with his fellow candidates, Justice handedly won the Republican nomination.

With Manchin not in the race and the party’s once-overwhelming stronghold at the statehouse faded away, Democrats faced an identity crisis in trying to figure out how to best challenge Justice.

In the end, they went with attorney, businessman and Kanawha County Commissioner Ben Salango, who was endorsed by Manchin in March.

The incumbent Republican continued to fire shots at Manchin and Salango.

“What Senator Manchin ought to do is concentrate on the job he has in D.C. and get that job done and get that job done properly,” Justice said at a late July briefing on the coronavirus. “He ought not concentrate so much on trying to run Ben Salango’s campaign.”

But Salango argues Manchin’s endorsement is about what’s best for West Virginia.

“I think that Senator Manchin’s endorsement is not because I’m of a particular party. His endorsement is because he’s not satisfied with the way that Jim Justice is running the state,” Salango said.

Salango points to an intersection of his experiences as making him qualified to become West Virginia’s chief executive. As a county commissioner, he spurred along a multimillion dollar youth sports complex. He’s also owned a variety of businesses, including a t-shirt printing company and had — up until recently — a stake in local new media such as The Charleston Gazette-Mail. Upon entering the race for governor, Salango announced he was selling off his share of the company.

In the race for governor, Salango has called out Justice and his businesses for racking up large debts — to federal mine safety regulators, to other companies who’ve been left unpaid and for taxes to the state itself.

“When Jim Justice came in 2016, the only experience he had was business experience. And, quite frankly, it wasn’t that good of an experience,” Salango said. “He had no government experience whatsoever. So he thought he could come in and run the state like you run a business. It doesn’t work that way.”

West Virginia Democratic gubernatorial candidate Ben Salango, speaks during a stop Wednesday, Aug. 26, 2020, outside the state Capitol in Charleston, W.Va. Salango has embarked on a statewide tour that will take him to 11 cities in three days. He faces Republican incumbent Gov. Jim Justice in November. (AP Photo/John Raby)

Salango said getting the state back out in front of its response to the coronavirus is one of his biggest priorities. While West Virginia fared relatively well compared to other states early on during the pandemic, Salango argues there’s a lot to be desired as of late — with some county school systems unable to hold in-person classes, maps and metrics changing and a recent spike in cases.

“We knew it wasn’t going to happen immediately. And so the governor, honestly, he relaxed, he thought that this was going to be a cakewalk,” Salango said. “And now that we see that his lack of planning back then we’re paying the price for now.”

West Virginia Wesleyan College political science professor Robert Rupp says, despite the worrisome realities of a pandemic, Justice has benefited politically by holding press conferences daily in the beginning before rolling that back to three days a week.

“He turned a good situation into a great situation by responding on a continual stage of discussing the COVID crisis. But it wasn’t just Justice,” Rupp said. “Governors across the nation have stepped forward. And part of the benefit of stepping forward is that allows them all this free publicity, and oftentimes positive publicity.”

Rupp said Justice’s wide name recognition, the state’s recent hard swing to the right and the inherent advantage of incumbency puts the sitting Republican as a clear favorite.

“One could start with the argument that there is no longer a strong Democratic — if even there’s a Democratic Party left in the state,” Rupp said. “What we have is the success of Joe Manchin and the power that he exerts can be seen by [him] backing Salango.”

And Rupp wonders whether Manchin’s meddling in this governor’s race — whether intentional or circumstantial — has put his own party in a sort of disarray.

“Now, the interesting question is: Did that action undercut a grassroots strong center to revitalize and redefine the Democratic Party in West Virginia?” Rupp asked. “So in a sense, he’s not only hovering over West Virginia politics, he’s interfering and becoming the dominant player — at least in the Democratic Party.”

Whether Manchin’s influence as a former governor, a critic of Justice and the key player in the Democratic Party can push Salango to a win remains to be seen. To be sure, a lot stands in the way. Justice — who has gotten much attention in a critical time — has plenty in his favor as voters head to the polls or vote absentee through Nov. 3.