Political shift in West Virginia Story Archives - West Virginia Public Broadcasting

W.Va. Political Party Leaders Assess Imbalance Of Power, Future Goals

As lawmakers prepare for the upcoming 2023 general session, they do so with a near historic imbalance of political party power.

The leaders of both state political parties went into detail on what brought them to this point, and their expectations for the future.

West Virginia Republican Party Chair Elgine McArdle said party dominance in both the general election and the state legislature – 88 to 12 in the House, 31 to 3 in the Senate – means the impact of this “supermajority’s” constituents will be clearly heard.

“I would hope that the conservative principles that have echoed through the state of West Virginia would continue to be put into law,” McArdle said. “I guess it’s just in conservative values on fiscal responsibility to carry through.”

Del. Mike Pushkin, D-Kanawha, is the West Virginia Democratic Party Chair. He said Democrats have a lot of work before them to organize from the ground up. He attributed the election losses in part to branding, blaming concerns about inflation and economy on the national Democratic Party. He also said it was no coincidence the historic defeats came directly after redistricting.

“The maps were definitely drawn to favor the party in power, the Republicans. In certain districts that made it very difficult for us to win,” Pushkin said. “We found that our candidates, if you look at their numbers versus the modeling that we had, really did quite well and overperformed. But it just wasn’t enough to overcome the gerrymandering that was done by the Republican Party.”

McArdle said the fact that so many candidates won, but every amendment Republicans supported lost was not a matter of voter disconnect. She blamed the defeats on a lack of voter education and research.

“Individuals have to do their own research and look at why a particular amendment is being pushed. And not so much listen to media or rhetoric that is being promoted by an individual or individual groups,” McArdle said.

“There were a lot of people who didn’t test the vote at all, one way or the other, for or against the amendments, because they just simply didn’t know what they were about.”

Pushkin said suggesting a lack of voter education and research in the amendment losses was an insult to voters.

“They voted no, because they saw it as a power grab from the state legislature, power grabbing by the Republican Party,” Pushkin said. “I think people still believe in checks and balances, people still believe in separation of power, something our country was founded on.”

McArdle charged her party’s elected representatives with committing to their campaign rhetoric as responsibility.

“They should all remember the promises that they made during the election and keep those promises to the constituents that put them there,” McArdel said.

Pushkin said the democratic hope is to work with representatives in a bipartisan manner on populist policy, not politics.

“The state has a whole lot of serious problems, whether it’s 7,000 children in foster care, our high rate of infant mortality, a whole host of poor public health outcomes, improvement of our public schools, access to health care,” Pushkin said. “I would hope that’s where we placed the focus and not on whatever kind of hot button political issue that they’re going to use to gin up the base.”

The 2023 general legislative session begins January 11th, and runs for 60 days.

West Virginia's 2nd Congressional House Seat Remains Red

The seat in the second Congressional Delegation came up for grabs after Shelley Moore Capito decided to run for the United States Senate.

The enthusiasm at the Mooney campaign’s post-election party in Charles Town was anything but quiet. As soon as the polls closed at 7:30 p.m., supporters showed up in droves.

Throughout the evening, the vote tally between Mooney and Casey remained close, but the Republican’s supporters never faltered in confidence.

During the race for the 2^nd Congressional District seat, Mooney received some criticism from West Virginians for not being a native of the state. But Mooney says he chose West Virginia because he felt connected to it.

“Many of you know, my family and I are West Virginians by choice,” said Mooney, “and we love this state. West Virginia is our home. We love the natural beauty all around us, we love the friendly, welcoming citizens, and we love that West Virginians are principled fighters.”

Bret Hrbek, one of the many Mooney supporters, had this to say about Mooney’s change in venue.

“Maryland wasn’t very welcoming to him,” noted Hrbek, “so he found a place that he would be able to identify with and be able to represent in a better capacity, because his value system and values are West Virginia values.”

With Mooney’s win, the 2^nd Congressional District seat remains red. The seat was previously held by Shelley Moore Capito for 14 years.

On the Democrats side, an enthusiastic room of supporters might have lost their excitement, but stayed committed to the Nick Casey in Charleston as the numbers finally revealed his campaigns demise.

Supporters stuck around and chanted “Nick, Nick, Nick!” as Casey took the podium to deliver the concession speech.

In the end, Casey says he wouldn’t have done anything differently and encourages supporters to keep pride in West Virginia.

“So I ask that you do one thing,” Casey said, “stay invested in to this state. Don’t feel like this is a loss. Feel like this is just another opportunity as we face other opportunities and move forward.”

Casey hurried to the back after the speech. Several of the supporters expressed their disappointment not only in Casey’s race but also races across the state as Democrats lose several political seats on a national and state level.

A new generation of West Virginia voters in search of a new party

On a national level, political watchers say West Virginia is on the verge of a big change, one that would pull the state from its traditionally Democratic roots and push it toward a future of Republican leaders and a new generation of young voters might be behind that change.

West Virginians are a proud people, proud most of all of their heritage. Almost any West Virginian can share his or her story of a parent or grandparent who came to the state to work in the factories, steel mills or coal mines to provide for their families.

But a part of that heritage is also political. And most West Virginians will tell you, their parents and grandparents voted blue.

“What we’re finding is when they say that they’re a Democrat, they argue well, my dad was a Democrat or my granddad was a Democrat,” said Dr. Robert Rupp, professor of history at West Virginia Wesleyan College. “There’s a reluctance, one, to break with that tradition and also a kind of continuance of what’s being handed down from generation to generation.”

Rupp said that has been the trend for at least three generations in West Virginia, my grandparents voted Democrat, my parents voted Democrat so I vote Democrat.

But in the state, the tendency to vote blue is beginning to change, at least at the federal level. The state hasn’t been won by a Democratic candidate for President since 1996 with Bill Clinton, two of the three seats in the U.S. House are held by Republicans and, next year, the state could possibly see its first Republican U.S. Senator since the late 1950s.

“So, there’s a real question over whether these people are ultimately going to change their identity and become Republicans or whether there is enough of the Democratic Party in West Virginia’s heritage that they will continue to be Democrats,” said National Political Correspondent for The Washington Post Karen Tumulty, “at least in name.”

Tumulty’s article, “A Blue State’s Road to Red,” focuses on the transition in party power in southern West Virginia.

“West Virginians are so conservative they vote Democrat out of tradition,” said state Republican Party Chairman Conrad Lucas.

Lucas said that tradition is what’s hindering his party’s success at the state and local levels. West Virginians are so proud of their heritage they don’t want to let it go, but Lucas said his party is slowly starting to see a change.

“I come from a long line of Lincoln County Democrats myself, so we see younger people in West Virginia being more willing to vote Republican than those who have been voting Democrat for so many generations, for election after election and wanting to stay with their party,” he said, “but it’s younger folks who realizing that the values of the national and state Democrat Party don’t align with their belief systems.”

Rupp said nearly 60 percent of a person’s party identification is based on family, but in West Virginia, the inclination to vote blue is starting to change, in part, Rupp said just as Lucas sees it, because of a new generation of voters. Millennials.

"What we seem to be finding is that most Americans, but particularly this generation, are socially liberal and conservative on fiscal issues. Mainly, they want a small government and lower taxes and they want that same small government to keep out of their private affairs." – Dr. Robert Rupp

“What we seem to be finding is that most Americans, but particularly this generation, are socially liberal and conservative on fiscal issues,” Rupp said. “Mainly, they want a small government and lower taxes and they want that same small government to keep out of their private affairs.”

“The difficulty is that neither the Republican nor Democratic Party appears to offer both of those conditions. So, we have a generation that’s kind of up for grabs. That’s skeptical.”

The transition, however, is happening at a slower rate than many other southern states that went through the same political shift decades ago. For example, Rupp said Georgia took less than a decade to transition from a solidly blue to solidly red state.

Part of the reason Rupp accounted to the age of the average West Virginian. If the party switch is being pushed by the young voter, with the oldest median age of any state in the country, it’s easy to see why the transition may take longer here than the rest of the south.

And then there’s participation. Tumulty said young, West Virginia voters’ participation rates are among the lowest in the nation.

“If you look at those voter turnout numbers, last year voter turnout among the young plummeted in West Virginia. Certainly, I talked to young people, I saw young people, but they more than any element of the population in West Virginia seem to be the ones who are just turning their backs on politics,” she said, “and I think those voter turnout numbers speak volumes to that.”

Low turnout may be because young voters feel outnumbered in an older state or maybe because they don’t seem to fit with either party. Rupp said either could be true, but if the parties can get Millenials involved in the election process again, he believes we will see a change in results.

“I think that is going to contribute, maybe not for a transition from Democrat to totally Republican, but it will mean more divided ballots. It will mean voting will be based on pragmatic issues rather than ideological issues or party issues,” Rupp said.

“I think that way, if we do see this transition happening, the key role will be what is this generation of young voters who’s basically parents and grandparents continued allegiance to the Democratic Party and now they’re questioning if that allegiance should go. I think the fact that we have a split level shows that we are living in very interesting times.”

Rupp said another contributing factor to the change in politics for young voters is the decreasing importance young people see in unions.

Once a major part of the state’s economic and political processes, Rupp said unions are becoming less important as we move away from an industry based economy, having less influence over a new generation in the workforce.

W.Va.’s political center shifting north from a once booming south

Southern West Virginia has traditionally been a Democratic stronghold, but an article in The Washington Post said that is starting to change.

With a decline in the coal industry’s production and a President enacting stronger regulations on it, the politics are shifting toward the right, at least, that’s what the article claims. But can it be said that a trend in southern West Virginia is actually happening across the entire state?

“Just about everybody you talk to can tell you of a grandfather or a great grandfather who actually came to West Virginia to make a life for themselves and their family and find economic opportunity in the coal mines,” said Karen Tumulty, national political correspondent for The Washington Post.

She spent time this summer traveling southern West Virginia, talking to people.

“The coal miner is just such a part of the shared heritage of West Virginia. The industry has a significance, I think, that goes much, much deeper than economic statistics will tell,” she said.

But as the industry struggles, West Virginians often look to place the blame, and State Democratic Party Chairman Larry Puccio said today, that blame is being shifted to Washington.

“The truth of the matter is I think that West Virginians believe not only the President is not doing enough to support the coal industry,” he said, “but they truly believe the President, with some of his beliefs and restrictions are harming the industry.”

Puccio said leaders from his party inside the beltway are making it clear they stand against the President and his position on coal, but with each election, the Democratic Party in West Virginia appears to be growing weaker as more and more Republicans are taking office. At least, that’s how Tumulty depicted the party in her article, “A Blue State’s Road to Red.”

“The southern part of the state has traditionally been the most deeply Democratic part of the state,” Tumulty said. “That is where the Democratic Party has always gotten the bulk of the votes with which it won statewide.”

But she added that trend is changing.

At the federal level, West Virginians are slowly turning away from their Democratic roots and voting Republican. She wrote, “What’s happening in West Virginia runs against the tide nationally, and even more, against the pull of its own history.”

“If I have difficulty with the story, it is it’s concentration on the narrative in southern West Virginia,” said Dr. Robert Rupp, professor of history at West Virginia Wesleyan College.

"Fifty years ago, southern West Virginia was the key economic driver, it was the key to the Democratic Party, it held political power, but now in the 21st century, we have seen a rapid decline in all those factors in terms of population, in terms of the economy and in terms of political clout." – Dr. Robert Rupp

He questioned Tumulty’s ability to assert the entire state is experiencing this change in party when she focused only on one region.

“Now, 50 years ago, southern West Virginia was the key economic driver, it was the key to the Democratic Party, it held political power,” he said, “but now in the 21st century, we have seen a rapid decline in all those factors in terms of population, in terms of the economy and in terms of political clout.”

“So, if you just visit this one section where there is decline in West Virginia, it’s an interesting narrative to ask how those citizens are reacting, but I think it’s a warped strategy because you’re ignoring what’s happening in the rest of the state.”

Rupp said the political center of the state is moving in a northeastern direction. Earl Ray Tomblin is the first governor since 1965 to truly come from southern West Virginia and today, both the state House and Senate are lead by northerners.

“If you’re really talking about looking at an entire state, then why visit those counties that have lost population rather than visit those counties that have gained in population and gained in the economy,” Rupp said. “There’s an entire picture of West Virginia that is lost to a national audience when the focus of outside journalists are simply on one area in the southern part.”

Tumulty counters by noting she interviewed members of the Governor’s staff who represent the entire state, both U.S. Senators who, again, together represent the entire state and writes of the booming shale industry in the northern counties and a panhandle thriving as suburb of D.C.

“What I was looking for was a way of explaining the transformation and again most of that transformation has been happening in the very deeply Democratic bastions of coal country,” she said.

Rupp, however, said he does agree with Tumulty’s thesis that the state is transitioning between the two political parties, after all the 3rd Congressional District is the only remaining seat in the U.S. House held by a Democrat in West Virginia.

Historically, he said, West Virginia is joining in with its southern cousins who followed the trend decades ago, but believes the other regions of West Virginia are still important to understanding the political change.

“I think if we really want to understand this transition, we have to be able to examine and explore what is happening politically in the other sections of the state, particularly in the panhandle,” Rupp said. “That’s the fastest growing region and any political party that is able to get the edge in that region will probably dominate the state just as the Democrats were able to get the edge in the southern part of the state and were able to dominate the state for such a long time.”

Tumulty said West Virginia will be a state to watch come the 2016 election. She contended there’s still a chance the right type of Democrat could win the states vote for President and make a difference, even though it only carries 5 votes.

“Well, if Al Gore had had those five votes he’d be building his presidential library about now.”