Elections Story Archives - Page 2 of 10 - West Virginia Public Broadcasting

State Lawmakers Talk Election Fraud, Integrity

On this episode of The Legislature Today, 90 bills to-date have been introduced this year between the Senate and the House about election laws. Briana Heaney spoke with Del. Josh Holstein, R-Boone, and Sen. Jack Woodrum, R-Summers, to get their perspective.

On this episode of The Legislature Today, 90 bills to-date have been introduced this year between the Senate and the House about election laws.

We’ve heard a lot since the 2020 general election about potential voter fraud, although numerous courts have ruled there was no election fraud that would have changed the outcome of that election. Secretary of State Mac Warner has also said there was also no major election fraud in West Virginia. He has prosecuted a handful of people for election violations in the last few years.

Briana Heaney spoke with Del. Josh Holstein, R-Boone, and Sen. Jack Woodrum, R-Summers, to get their perspective.

In the House, eight bills advanced from third reading to the Senate. Two of the proposals help further protect the environment and one takes telehealth a step further with a proactive technological approach to medical care. Randy Yohe has the story.

In the Senate, the chamber approved five bills, sending them to the House for consideration. The Senate advanced 12 other bills. Briana Heaney has more.

Finally, advocates and recovery experts filled the Capitol rotunda on Monday to educate lawmakers about substance use disorder. Emily Rice has the story.

Having trouble viewing the video below? Click here to watch it on YouTube.

The Legislature Today is West Virginia’s only television/radio simulcast devoted to covering the state’s 60-day regular legislative session.

Watch or listen to new episodes Monday through Friday at 6 p.m. on West Virginia Public Broadcasting.

Primary Election Candidate Filing And Health-Focused New Year’s Resolutions, This West Virginia

On this West Virginia Morning, candidates for local, state and federal offices can file for the May 14 Primary Election until midnight on Saturday, Jan. 27, and we talk with registered dietician and WVU Extension specialist Gina Wood about more sustainable changes to have a larger impact on your health in the long-term.

On this West Virginia Morning, we’ve heard political campaign rhetoric for a while now, but as of Monday, West Virginia’s official candidate filing period is now underway. Candidates for local, state and federal offices can file for the May 14 Primary Election until midnight on Saturday, Jan. 27. As Randy Yohe discovered, the decision to run for political office comes with rules, responsibilities – and reflection.

Also, in this show, many people plan to start a diet as their New Year’s resolution, but studies have shown that restrictive diets have high rates of failure. Chris Schulz spoke with registered dietician and WVU Extension specialist Gina Wood about more sustainable changes to have a larger impact on your health in the long-term.

West Virginia Morning is a production of West Virginia Public Broadcasting which is solely responsible for its content.

Support for our news bureaus comes from Shepherd University.

Eric Douglas produced this show.

Listen to West Virginia Morning weekdays at 7:43 a.m. on WVPB Radio or subscribe to the podcast and never miss an episode. #WVMorning

Manchin’s Retirement Leaves A Statewide Void For Democrats

The retirement of U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin marks the end of an era, as Manchin is the last Democrat to hold statewide office in West Virginia. Sam Workman, director of the Institute for Policy Research and Public Affairs at West Virginia University, spoke to WVPB about what Manchin’s departure means for Democrats and what it would take to fill the void he’ll leave.

The retirement of U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin marks the end of an era, as Manchin is the last Democrat to hold statewide office in West Virginia.

Sam Workman, director of the Institute for Policy Research and Public Affairs at West Virginia University, spoke to reporter Curtis Tate about what Manchin’s departure means for Democrats and what it would take to fill the void he’ll leave.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Tate: Can a Democrat still win a statewide office in West Virginia? What would it take?

Workman: I think the West Virginia that used to exist, where a Democrat talked a lot about coal, and especially coal families and what we were going to do for coal families, I don’t think that’s the West Virginia that exists. The West Virginia that exists is about recreational economy issues. It’s about health care. It’s about the manufacturing and the sort of energy projects we’re going to do in the western part of the state. And I think for a Democrat to win, they have to slot in those issues and be a little more forward looking than your standard, progressive sort of challenger to Manchin of recent times.

Manchin’s an older sort of politician who could kind of go at people with the elements of policy and whatnot. I don’t think that’s as viable a strategy anymore. I think the Democrats in the state really need to think about how their platform relates to the investments and the jobs that we have right now, not the ones we used to have.

Tate: Who steps in to fill the void Manchin leaves?

Workman: I’m going to give you a two part answer to that question. The first part is that looking to compare anyone to Joe Manchin, that gives them a tough road ahead, because Joe Manchin, in my lifetime, is the best politician. Now understand what I’m saying. Not saying that everyone agrees with him, rah rah. But as just a sheer politician, he’s the best politician the state has witnessed in my lifetime. I don’t think (Robert) Byrd or (Jay) Rockefeller could have held that seat as long as he did. He understands politics on the ground in difficult situations, probably better and has a better feel for it than anyone that I have come across on either side of the aisle, frankly. So that’s part one.

Part two is I think, no one steps up to the Democrats and fills those shoes in this election cycle. When we talk about the reemergence of the Democratic Party in West Virginia, I think you’re talking about something that is two, three cycles away, in terms of elections. Because we do have good sort of politicians at lower levels. If you take the state party chair, Mike Pushkin, a very prominent figure, in general does a good job of sort of navigating the waters of politics here on the ground. This guy (Zach) Shrewsbury, from my home county of Fayette County, he’s got a little more wind in his sails now with Manchin out of there. I still think folks like that run into the problem of sort of thinking about the West Virginia they grew up in and not the one that exists today. Steve Williams, the mayor from Huntington, he’s kind of a little late to statewide politics. But he’s fairly well known. He’s been a great mayor of Huntington. So there are people. I guess what I’m saying is there are people out there.

Tate: Gov. Jim Justice is likely the successor to Manchin. But he’s got to get through a Republican primary with Rep. Alex Mooney. Won’t that expose many of his vulnerabilities?

Workman: Sort of the godsend to the governor, if he gets through the primary, Manchin was no longer waiting on the other side, which he most certainly would have. And, as I think I may have said to you at some point before, each of those folks would have been the best politician the other has ever faced, for certain. So it’s very hard for me to see the governor not getting through the primary. And that’s not a statement about representative Mooney, he’s a very able, obviously very able and agile politician, because he took down Rep. (David) McKinley, largely in his own district. So Mooney has the acumen to make it tough. But the governor is so entrenched in the minds of the state.

He’s also entrenched in national Republican minds. The pandemic and the fallout from it gave the governor a lot of airtime and space and national politics. He was on all the big shows, at one point or another, talking about our vaccine programs, which were initially very successful, all this sort of stuff. But it’s very hard, barring health issues, barring financial or legal troubles, or something we don’t know yet. It’s very hard to see the governor – it would be a monumental collapse, I think, for the governor to lose this. I think Gov. Justice is probably our next senator and I just do not see in the span of one year, a Democrat making up all that space from such a low starting point for Democratic politics in the state. It’s very difficult to see that.

Tate: Joe Manchin is already a national figure, if not a household name. So what purpose would running for president as a third-party candidate serve for him?

Workman: I think it’s also the case that becoming a national figure may put him in a spot to take a cabinet position of some sort. I know if I were a betting person, I would say he would love probably to be energy secretary and have some measure of authority over how all of the money for energy transitions that he has secured, have some ability to direct those funds on the ground. So I think it comes from both believing that that middle was there, genuinely because it’s who he is. And it’s how he’s won. It’s how he’s built his political career.

But I also think there might be some angling here to be part of a presidential administration as a cabinet member or whatnot. So we all know, it’s almost structurally impossible for a third party candidate to win, right? Our elections are structured in a way that really prevents it. It’s why we’ve not really seen it.

Manchin Leaving Congress He Calls Divided, Yet Productive

Manchin announced last week he won’t be running for reelection to the US Senate. Speaking to a group of West Virginia reporters Wednesday, he says he’s leaving the chamber on both low and high notes.

U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., said he’s never seen Washington more divided. And yet, he says the most recent Congress – the one that ended in January – was a productive one.

Manchin announced last week he won’t be running for reelection to the United States Senate. Speaking to a group of West Virginia reporters Wednesday, he said he’s leaving the chamber on both low and high notes.

“Everything that we did in the 117th Congress, which I think that’s 2020 to 2022, and then really finished up in January 2023,” he said. “But I think it will go down as one of the most, in history, one of the most productive Congresses we’ve ever had.”

There was COVID-19 relief, an infrastructure bill, the CHIPS and Science Act, the Inflation Reduction Act and a bill to help veterans exposed to toxic burn pits.

And it was all done in a Senate divided 50-50 between Democrats and Republicans, with Manchin sometimes as the most critical vote of all.

Though he was a decisive vote on some of that legislation, and could single-handedly stop some of President Joe Biden’s nominees, Manchin downplayed his own influence.

“When you have an even split, it’s kind of hard for one side to blame the other. Because they’re equal,” he said. “They can equally have all the same power, no one has more power than the other person. One person can shut things down, one person can make things happen.”

Manchin will leave a chamber that could well flip to Republican control after next year. Democrats will have one less vote if a Republican wins Manchin’s seat, and that’s considered highly likely.

Manchin said throughout his time in the Senate, he tried to work across the aisle. He also said his staff closed more than 100,000 constituent cases. Those include basic services like getting veterans benefits or Social Security benefits.

Manchin has been hinting that he might pursue a third-party bid for president. But Wednesday, he didn’t make any specific commitment to run.

Manchin Isn’t Seeking Reelection And WVPB Remembers Woody Williams In New Documentary, This West Virginia Week

On this West Virginia Week, U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., announced Thursday he will not seek re-election to the United States Senate, and WVPB will premiere its newest documentary about the late Hershel “Woody” Williams this weekend.

On this West Virginia Week, U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., announced Thursday he will not seek reelection to the United States Senate.

Also this week, state agencies partnered with the FBI to conduct antisemitism training for law enforcement, a settlement in a lawsuit alleging inhumane jailhouse treatment is pending, Breeze Airways has added a new route to its service from West Virginia’s Charleston International Yeager Airport, and the West Virginia Board of Education issued a state of emergency for Special Education Services in Hampshire County Schools.

Finally, thousands gathered at the state Capitol to see the West Virginia tree that’s going to the U.S. Capitol for Christmas, and WVPB will premiere its newest documentary about the late Hershel “Woody” Williams this weekend.

Randy Yohe is our host this week. Our theme music is by Matt Jackfert.

West Virginia Week is a web-only podcast that explores the week’s biggest news in the Mountain State. It’s produced with help from Bill Lynch, Briana Heaney, Caroline MacGregor, Chris Schulz, Curtis Tate, Emily Rice, Eric Douglas, Liz McCormick, and Randy Yohe.

Learn more about West Virginia Week.

W.Va.’s 2024 U.S. Senate Race: Justice Is In, But What About Manchin?

It is still a year away, but already, West Virginia’s U.S. Senate election is set to be one of the most competitive and most watched in the country.

To get an idea of how it might shape up, Curtis Tate spoke with Kyle Kondik, communications director for the University of Virginia Center for Politics. He’s also managing editor of its widely read newsletter, Sabato’s Crystal Ball.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Tate: What do you think Sen. Joe Manchin will do now that Gov. Jim Justice is in the race?

Kondik: I always hesitate to try to prognosticate how someone’s going to make a reelection decision, because at the end of the day, only he knows exactly what he is thinking. I think he’s certainly taking steps to allow himself to run for reelection again. But I think it’s an open question. He has suggested that decision might not come until December. So I guess it could happen at any time, while it might just actually wait until then.

From Democrats’ perspective, it’s not like there’s really anyone waiting in the wings who can replace Manchin as a credible candidate. Maybe the Democrats would be able to run someone with some name ID or something, but the Democratic bench in West Virginia has been completely wiped out. If you believe that Manchin, even if he runs, is an underdog – and that’s how I feel about it – if Manchin doesn’t run, it’s probably a runaway for whoever the Republican nominee is.

Tate: Is it a foregone conclusion that Justice will be the Republican nominee, over Rep. Alex Mooney?

Kondik: I don’t know if it’s a foregone conclusion. Republican primary electorates sometimes will go with someone who is more ideological, who is able to run them to the right of the other alternative. I will say that Jim Justice seems like a pretty popular governor. A lot of national Republicans really like Jim Justice and hope he’s the nominee.

I think he’d be a strong nominee, although I also think that Mooney would be capable of winning the seat, too, even though I think if you’re Joe Manchin, you’d certainly rather run against Mooney. But do I think Justice is favored? I think that recent polling has sort of suggested that, what we have out there publicly, but I think it’s still something of an open question anyway.

Tate: Who will Donald Trump endorse, Mooney or Justice? Or will he sit this one out?

Kondik: We’ll see if Trump intervenes in the race. Maybe he just stays out of it. But I think Mooney needs Trump’s endorsement more than Justice does. And it’s not like Trump never loses in a primary, but his candidates often do win. So we’ll have to see how that develops. But I don’t necessarily think that you can really point to anything in the past to predict what Trump’s gonna do. Just because Trump endorsed Mooney before, doesn’t mean he’s gonna endorse him now, because he’s got a good connection and relationship with Justice, as far as I know.

Tate: If Justice were to get elected to the Senate, he’d go right to the bottom of the heap in seniority. Do you think he’s considered that?

Kondik: There are a lot of governors who go on to become senators who then make it very publicly known that they preferred being governor. I can imagine that happening with Justice if, in fact, he gets elected. Manchin himself is like that. He’s mooted coming back to West Virginia and running for governor, although I believe he’s ruled that out and in a 2024 context. [Sen.] Mark Warner in neighboring Virginia has spoken wistfully of his time as governor compared to his time in the U.S. Senate. There really are tons of other examples.

What Justice is trying to do is very common as a sitting or former governor, running for the U.S. Senate, but it’s pretty rare to hear people who have served in both roles, saying that they prefer being a senator. Most of these folks prefer being governor. But often there’s a time limit with being a governor. You’re forced to try to figure out something else to do, which is what’s happening with Justice here.

Tate: With Senate control on the line next year, how does that affect Manchin’s working relationship with Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, or for that matter, senators from any state with a split delegation?

Kondik: Broadly speaking, some of the themes of collegiality have eroded over time, but the senators can still work together on certain things, even as the campaign is going on. And again, this does happen pretty often, although there aren’t that many states now that have split Senate delegations. There are only five if you include Kyrsten Sinema, Bernie Sanders and Angus King, if you consider them Democrats as opposed to independents.

There are only five split Senate delegations: West Virginia, Montana, and Ohio, and then Wisconsin and Maine. Part of what’s going on here is there are fewer and fewer split party Senate delegations. If Republicans get their way, there are gonna be even fewer in 2024, if they aggressively try to flip Montana, Ohio and West Virginia, the three remaining Democrats in Trump-won states.

Tate: How would you rate Manchin’s chances if he decides to run?

Kondik: I would be surprised if Mancin got reelected. The trends are set. Manchin is such an outlier.Trump won his state by roughly 40 points. No other senator holds a state that’s even half as hostile as West Virginia is.

The next on the list is [Jon] Tester. Trump won Montana by 16 and a half points. In the House, the worst district that anyone holds, in terms of how it voted for president, the most lopsided against the party of the member who holds that house seat, it’s about 15 points.

Manchin is a real outlier now, and generally what happens with outliers is eventually they go away. That’s not to say Manchin is guaranteed to lose, but I do think he’s an underdog and that’s reflected in our ratings. We started West Virginia as ‘leans Republican,’ and if Manchin were to retire, we’d move it to ‘safe Republican.’ I don’t think there’s any path for Democrats to hold it without Manchin.