2024 primary election Story Archives - West Virginia Public Broadcasting

W.Va. Primary Features Culture Wars, Public Works Office Changes

Voters have endured a gubernatorial media campaign blitz with unprecedented mudslinging – coupled with a dominant campaign to see a new but familiar face representing West Virginia in the U.S. Senate.

Tuesday’s primary election may be the most important the state has seen in quite a while. Voters have endured a gubernatorial media campaign blitz with unprecedented mudslinging – coupled with a dominant campaign to see a new but familiar face representing West Virginia in the U.S. Senate.

In their debates and interviews, the four Republican candidates for governor, Attorney General Patrick Morrisey, former Del. Moore Capito, car dealership magnate Chris Miller and Secretary of State Mac Warner have offered plans to tackle issues like education, and substance abuse. All four are pro-coal, pro-Trump and claim to be the most conservative.

However, for all but Warner, the radio and TV campaign advertising culture wars on who is most strongly opposed to transgender children participating in girls’ sports and entering girl’s bathrooms have vilified this already challenged minority.

When asked about his reasoning behind joining the mudslinging fray, Capito avoided a direct response.

“I’ve been around a lot of campaigns in my life,” Capito said. “Generally when you’re getting peppered it means you’re winning.”

Morisey and Miller did not respond to repeated requests for comment.

With state unemployment at a low, corporate economic development at a high, and fairly steady economy, the broad-brush strokes of many short TV campaign ads can get refocused. Political analyst and Associate Professor of Political Science at Marshall University Marybeth Beller said national studies show going negative stimulates the base and beyond.

”What we’ve got candidates doing is trying to look at a social agenda that’s going to promote hatred, promote fear,” Beller said, “Because the facts on the ground don’t support anything but a positive future. We do know that hate and fear are a motivating factor among the electorate.”

Interviews with 15 random voters during a downtown Charleston lunch hour, showed all but one had the same campaign ad sentiment as South Charleston’s Linda Workman.

“My husband automatically clicks every ad off as soon as it comes on,” Workman said. “I can’t stand them anyway. They’re all the same. I don’t believe anything anyone says.”

The lone Democrat running for governor, three-term Huntington Mayor Steve Willams, has saved his campaign war chest and rhetoric for the general election.

Term limited Gov. Jim Justice is leaving the governor’s mansion he periodically occupied. State polling shows Justice with a commanding lead over U.S. Congressman Alex Mooney in the Republican primary race to replace outgoing U.S. Sen Joe Manchin. Among the two frontrunners, Mooney touts his redness in a red state.

“I’m a proven conservative with a conservative voting record,” Mooney said. “I’ve proven that over the years by voting against the out of control spending, and I’ll continue to be a fighting conservative you give me a chance.”

Justice said he plans to bring his folksy presentation to a Washington, D.C. he has always shunned, and plans to be a senator, his way.

“I have to be able to go to D.C. and shake up the world,” Justice said. “I’m not going to just ride along. There’s nothing that excites me about going to D.C. I’ll have to do it in my style. It’ll be different. It’ll be really different.”

Manchin has endorsed Wheeling Mayor Glen Elliot for the Democratic nomination in the Senate race. His primary challengers include former Massey Energy CEO Don Blankenship and Marine Corps veteran Zach Shrewsbury of Princeton.

Other Board of Public Works offices in primary contention include Attorney General, Secretary of State, State Treasurer, State Auditor and Commissioner of Agriculture.

West Virginia primary polling places open at 6:30 Tuesday, and close at 7:30 p.m. West Virginia Public Broadcasting will have live primary election results and reactions throughout Tuesday evening and you can follow primary results with our live blog, highlighting “voices of the voters.” That’s on our website, wvpublic.org.

Attorney General Candidates Discuss Priority Issues

As the chief legal officer for West Virginia’s citizens, state office holders, agencies and boards, the attorney general’s (AG) responsibilities cover the legal gamut. So, where do the candidates stand?

As the chief legal officer for West Virginia’s citizens, state office holders, agencies and boards, the attorney general’s (AG) responsibilities cover the legal gamut.

The four candidates in the upcoming primary races for AG have diverse views on how those responsibilities should be handled – and prioritized.

In balancing legal precedents when it comes to fossil fuels and the advancement of renewable energy, Wheeling attorney Teresa Toriseva, a Democratic attorney general candidate, does not take sides. She said following the law is the AG’s job.

“The way you do that is advocacy, following the law and advocating for changes in the law where appropriate,” Toriseva said. “Using the court system where appropriate to make sure that West Virginia’s interests are protected. That, in a transition that’s going to happen naturally or forced by the federal government, whatever the case may be, that West Virginians are heard and protected.”

Republican AG candidate, State Auditor J.B. McCuskey, does take sides in state legal energy precedents. He said natural resource energy development is key to America’s power independent future.

“Renewable energy advancements are part of the private marketplace, and if people want to invest in those kinds of resources, that’s fine,” McCuskey said. “But, at the end of the day, the United States cannot run without coal and natural gas. I believe that the future for this country and specifically in West Virginia, will be way better served if we are making electricity as quickly and as vociferously as possible, with the natural resources that we find under our feet.”

AG candidate Sen. Mike Stuart, R-Kanawha, and former U.S. Attorney for West Virginia’s Southern District, strongly advocates legal support for fossil fuels over a renewable energy grid he said is still young and overly protected by federal overreach.

“I’m not against renewables, but the science doesn’t match up with the expectations of renewable energy,” Stuart said. “We’re hitting natural gas, we’re hitting coal, we’re hitting the power plant industry awfully hard. We’re taking offline traditional energy sources, while preferring green energy sources, and it can’t keep up. If we continue on the current track, the trajectory we’re on, we’re going to have rolling blackouts, even in places like West Virginia, in which the ground beneath our feet is loaded with natural resources. We need to be smart about this. I certainly expect in the future renewables will play a bigger role in the energy production of this country and in places like West Virginia, but we’re not there yet.”

Renewables have become a bigger part of the nation’s energy mix, surpassing coal. They produce no carbon emissions and are the lowest cost form of electricity. Storage batteries, including the ones that will be built by Form Energy in Weirton, help make renewables more reliable by storing the power they generate for when it’s needed. Natural gas, though, remains the dominant fuel for U.S. electricity.

In combating the illegal drug epidemic. Democratic AG candidate Richie Robb, a Vietnam veteran and former eight-term South Charleston mayor, said state attorneys general must partner with the federal Department of Defense to change a war on drugs to a war on drug terrorism.

“The military monitors arms shipments around the world, certainly that expertise can be employed to monitor illegal drug shipments as well,” Robb said. “In cooperating with other countries, instead of waiting to apprehend drugs, after they’re already in the United States, or even trying to apprehend those same drugs on the border, my proposal would be to stop the drugs at the source much the same way we do with terrorism.”

Toriseva puts second amendment rights and reproductive rights together. She said it’s not the job of the AG’s office, or the government, to tell people how to live.

“I have the same position on a woman’s right to choose as I do on the Second Amendment and my right to carry a firearm, and that is I’ll decide,” Toriseva said. “I do not need the government in my doctor’s office, I do not need the government in my gun safe.”

McCuskey said no one has faced more onerous federal regulation than West Virginia farmers. As AG, he vowed to continue fighting for farmers’ rights.

“Agriculture is going to be an enormous driver of West Virginia’s economy going forward,” McCuskey said. “It’s not just from a food production standpoint, but also from a tourism standpoint, allowing our farmers to showcase what they do in a way that drives new visitors to West Virginia, but also ensures that that not just West Virginia, but the entire East Coast has food security, and that the food that we eat is known to be safe and secure.”

Robb said consumer fraud is rampant on many levels, highlighting the rise of artificial intelligence. He wants to create an AG fraud tip-line.

“With the current Consumer Protection Office, the present attorney general, in his publicizing that service, it’s been woefully inadequate,” Robb said. “It needs to be publicized. The reason for a tip line is many people, particularly insiders, are afraid to openly report wrongdoing. An anonymous tip line will enable them to do that.”

Stuart said his AG’s office will be proactive in creating veteran’s courts and expanding veteran’s outreach.

“Many times they don’t even know the resources that are available to them,” Stuart said. “Substance abuse, homelessness, all the problems that plague society, plague our veterans at even a higher clip than the standard demographic breakdown of our communities. They deserve our support. Veterans’ courts are intended to do this. We want them to get the services that they need for mental health, physical health. We need to do all we can to make sure veterans get every break they can to try to re-acclimate into society.”

Candidates In Attorney General Primary Explain Their ‘Missions’

The four primary candidates running for AG, two Republicans and two Democrats, have diverse views on the overall mission of the office.

The attorney general’s (AG) job according to state code is to enforce West Virginia’s laws as they relate to – listed in order – consumer protection, unfair trade practices, civil rights and other important areas.

The four primary candidates running for AG, two Republicans and two Democrats, have diverse views on the overall mission of the office.

Sen. Mike Stuart, R-Kanawha, and former U.S. attorney for West Virginia’s Southern District, said the attorney general’s mission goes into two separate buckets, the first being advancing freedoms by pushing back against federal overreach.

“The freedom to drill, frack and mine. I call it the beautiful bounce for energy beneath our feet,” Stuart said. “The freedom to push back against federal overreach that tries to shut down our jobs, that fights against our values. We’ve really gotten to a point of great federal intervention in every aspect of our lives, whether it’s education, whether it’s the transgender radical movements that we see today, whether it’s the second amendment, it’s the attorney general, the only person who can take on the federal government to push back when they try to cram their values down our throats.”

Democratic AG candidate Richie Robb, a Vietnam veteran and former eight-term South Charleston mayor, said consumer protection leads his mission list. Robb plans to focus on utility bills and combating fraud.

“First of all, stepping in to assist the Public Service Commission and their consumer advocacy group in combating utility rate increases as well as utility services,” Robb said. “We have the fourth highest utility rates in the country, and the highest number of power outages. On fraud, it seems to be more prevalent now, and more dangerous, that’s the word I use particularly with respect to the internet and artificial intelligence.”

Like Stuart, Republican candidate, and State Auditor J.B. McCuskey said the attorney general’s mission is two pronged. The first prong; to defend the laws and values of West Virginia against people who want to change them to their own preference.

“What we see is that people from D.C. and New York and California don’t want family centered, traditional value states that depend on natural resources for their economy to be successful,” McCuskey said. “You have unelected bureaucrats throughout the federal government, overstepping their legal and constitutional bounds, in order to fulfill political ideologies.”

Wheeling attorney Teresa Toriseva is the other Democratic attorney general candidate. She said the key to the AG’s mission is to prosecute civil lawsuits where citizens and taxpayers are harmed.

“There are laws, and I trust laws, that only the attorney general can prove damages in a certain way that allows you to actually collect damages for taxpayers,” Toriseva said. “We have bad actors in every single industry, and those actors need to be regulated by some law enforcement agency, and that’s the attorney general. The way the attorney general helps with those simple but pervasive fraud is through education information. One of the things that I want are more satellite offices around the state.”

Stuart said consumer protection is found in bucket two of his AG’s mission. He began that second bucket answer with attacking the drug problem.

“Consumers need protection from the drug dealers that are violating our families, killing our kids and destroying our communities,” Stuart said. “I spent years on the front lines of the opiate crisis. When it comes to traditional consumer protection, whether it’s Medicaid fraud, whether it’s landlord-tenant relationships, whether it’s getting ripped off by a utility company, I intend to be incredibly aggressive.“

Robb said he would not be in lockstep with the current AG’s practice of joining in multi-state lawsuits against the federal government.

“I’m not saying I would not do that. But I would look at it with a great deal of circumspection,” Robb said. “I think if it’s something that I believe will benefit the people of West Virginia, as opposed to a political agenda, I wouldn’t cast it aside with respect to the opioid settlements. But in many senses it’s closing the barn door after the horse has already got out. It’s trying to recoup losses and damages that have already been expended. I want to stop them before they happen.”

McCuskey said his second mission for AG is working as the state’s lawyer, representing citizens and all state government bureaucracies.

“Whoever the next governor is, is going to be relying on me as the attorney general to help them reorganize our bureaucracy in a way that is taxpayer centered,” McCuskey said. “In a way that emphasizes efficiency and effectiveness over added spending. And what I mean by that is, we don’t have a spending problem in West Virginia, we have a process problem. It’s high time that we start requiring our agencies to reform their process, as opposed to always blaming a lack of funding for their lack of results.”

Toriseva said a key to her mission as AG is transparency and trust, something she said the current office holder lacks.

“I don’t believe that the current AG has the trust of the voters,” Toriseva said. “I do not think that it is the AG’s job to be a partisan hack. My work has largely been representing public employees for the last decade, I mean, taxpayers, paid employees, first responders and whatnot. And that means that a lot of my work isn’t in the public eye and easy to read about.”

Voters can consider these differing candidate opinions on the mission of the attorney general’s office before casting their ballots on May 14.

In-Person Early Primary Voting Begins May 1

Early in-person voting in all 55 counties for West Virginia’s 2024 primary election runs from Wednesday, May 1 through Saturday, May 11.

The Secretary of State’s office said all counties will offer early voting during regular weekday hours at all county courthouses or courthouse annexes, and on Saturdays from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Several counties will have additional community voting locations that are easily accessible to voters. Days and hours for community early voting locations will vary by county.

“Early voting is a convenient opportunity for many West Virginia voters to cast a ballot when it fits their schedule,” said Secretary of State Mac Warner, who is on the Republican primary ballot for governor. “With 10 days of early voting, which include two Saturdays, voters have plenty of opportunities to plan and participate safely and securely in our primary election.”

To find early voting locations in all 55 counties, click here.

Primary election day is Tuesday, May 14.

Candidate Sends Thousands Of Voters Wrong Election Dates

A West Virginia resident alerted the office of Secretary of State Mac Warner Thursday that a candidate’s campaign messages misrepresented the dates of this year’s primary election.

A candidate running for statewide office sent thousands of West Virginia voters incorrect dates for this year’s primary election, according to Secretary of State Mac Warner.

Warner confirmed Thursday that his office received a verbal complaint regarding campaign text messages sent to many West Virginia voters containing inaccurate dates for the state’s primary election and early, in-person voting period.

Mike Queen, Warner’s deputy chief of staff, said that the incident seemed to be accidental, and resulted from campaign staff members copying the incorrect dates onto the candidate’s campaign messages.

Queen declined to disclose the candidate in question, and said his office notified the candidate of these concerns shortly after receiving the complaint. He added that the campaign team sent a follow-up text message clarifying the correct dates.

Still, “there is no way to correct it 100 percent,” Queen said.

Whether distributed intentionally or not, “inaccurate information disenfranchises voters,” he said. “It concerns voters, and a lot of times it leads to reduced confidence in the election process.”

Candidates accidentally distributing incorrect election information is uncommon, Queen said. However, this week’s incident was distinct due to its scale, with voters receiving the message across West Virginia.

“This isn’t the first time that it’s happened. There are folks who make a typo on a Facebook post,” he said. “We paid particular attention to this, and the only reason was this was such a large push out … so we wanted to make sure that we worked with the candidate to correct the error as soon as possible.”

Queen said Warner’s office took the incident as an opportunity to remind West Virginia voters to verify where they receive election information from, and rely only on the state’s election authorities — namely the secretary of state and county clerks.

“We work so hard to promote that there are only two trusted sources when it comes to election information, particularly dates,” he said.

Warner echoed Queen’s sentiments in a statement released Thursday.

“Even well-intended organizations and candidate committees encouraging voters to participate in the election process get the information wrong sometimes,” he said. “Those organizations, candidates, political parties and political action committees should always refer voters to their county clerk or secretary of state’s website.”

This year, West Virginia’s primary election will be held May 14. Early, in-person voting will be held from May 1-11.

For more information on West Virginia’s upcoming primary election, visit GoVoteWV.com — a website administered by the West Virginia secretary of state’s office.

Voices Of The Voters: Three Weeks Until The Primary

Government reporter Randy Yohe took to the streets to gauge voter concerns and readiness before they head to the polls.

The West Virginia Primary Election is three weeks away. Government reporter Randy Yohe took to the streets to gauge voter concerns and readiness before they head to the polls.

During lunch hour in downtown Charleston, Yohe asked the same election-related questions to random men and women on the street — voters like Mia Mucheck, from Cross Lanes, who said her political decisions are generational.

“What about looking at some of these campaign TV ads that we’re seeing,” Yohe asked. “Do those influence your vote at all,”

“Not me,” Mucheck said. “I’m too much a part of the younger generation to let something like that sway me.”

On the other hand, Charleston’s Steve Downey said he knows just how he is going to vote and why.

“What issues are you concerned about,” Yohe asked Downey.

“I think economic fiscal responsibility is important to me,” he answered. “I think that’s probably one of the most important things that I focus on. I’m a huge capitalist. I believe in capitalism and want to see that continue.”

Akash Begala from Charleston said he wants his candidates to focus on the regular Joes and Janes.

“The state offices. Governor, Attorney General, Secretary of State, any particular thoughts on those,” Yohe asked.

“I’m looking for someone who feels like they care about the people of West Virginia,” Begala said. “Some of the other elected officials that we’ve had. It’s been a lot of focus on big businesses, and just big businesses and what can we do to help them, but not so much on what we are doing to help the everyday residents of West Virginia.”

Taylor Davis from Charleston said she has a single voting influencer.

“Have you decided on who you’re going to vote for when it comes to some of the big state offices?” Yohe asked her.

“No, I have not,” Davis said.

“What’s going to help make that decision?’ Yohe asked.

“My husband,” she said after some careful thought.

Charleston’s Emily Bissell said she doesn’t do candidate research like she used to.

“Have you made some decisions on some of these big state offices and who you’re going to vote for,” Yohe asked Bissell.

“In the past, I would say yes, I have done a lot of research,” Bissell said. “Now, It’s kind of you just see who the D and R is next to what name, and I don’t like that.”

And finally, there was Charleston’s Brett Walker.

“The West Virginia primary is three weeks from today. Are you registered to vote,” Yohe asked.

“I don’t vote,” Walker said. “How come,” Yohe asked. I’m a Democrat and this is now a Republican state,” Walker said. “You’re not going to win anyway.”