This week on Viewpoint, a federal judge has ensured that 18 third-party candidates’ names will appear before voters on November’s general election ballot. Over the course of a week, those names were included, eliminated and then restored to the ballots because of two consecutive court rulings.
Chris Christie, the Fraternal Order of Police, and Kid Rock have thrown their weight behind Donald Trump in the 2016 presidential race. The Obamas, the AFL-CIO, and Meryl Streep, they’re going with Hillary.
But as a voter, does who these politicians, unions, or celebrities say they’re backing matter when you head to the polls?
We turn to two members of the academic world for the answer– David Jackson, a political science professor at Bowling Green State University in Ohio and Sean Kelly, a political science professor at California State University Channel Islands.
During the first evening of keynote addresses at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland Monday, several speakers called for Democratic Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton to be imprisoned after a using a private email server during her time as Secretary of State.
West Virginia’s only Democratic Congressional leader defended Clinton Tuesday.
West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin said the rhetoric displayed at the Republican National Convention Monday night “has no place” in politics in the country.
“If you’re a Democrat and you want to blame Republicans, go right ahead. There’s enough blame for the Republicans and if you’re a Republican and you want to blame Democrats, go right ahead,” Manchin said during a stop in Charleston.
“If you’re an American and you want to fix things, then let’s sit down and work through them.”
Manchin will be attending the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia next week as a delegate and will cast his vote for Hillary Clinton-the candidate he’s been backing since early 2015.
When it comes to Clinton’s potential running mate, Manchin said U.S. Senator and former Virginia Governor Tim Kaine is his top choice.
After holding three events in West Virginia Thursday, Vermont Senator and presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders said he is focused on winning West Virginia because the hardworking people deserve a government that represent all people, not just the interested of billionaires.
“It’s a state of tough people, people who are fighting back against difficult odds today,” Sanders said Friday afternoon.
“I do believe that the people of West Virginia want a government that represents all of us and not just the wealthy campaign contributors or just the 1 percent.”
Sanders shared his message of pushing the interests of the top 1 percent of earners in the nation out of politics during all of his stops in West Virginia. It’s a message he touts on the campaign trail across the country to the crowds he draws with his message of equality.
Sanders also speaks candidly about climate change, saying the issue is often controversial in West Virginia during his Huntington rally last month.
He has spoken out against the use of coal and fracking of natural gas, two industries West Virginia depends on, but the senator said climate change is real and while he believes the nation should stop burning fossil fuels, he won’t leave the state behind.
“The cause of that problem is not the coal miner, it is not the people who are working in the fossil fuel industry,” Sanders said, “and that’s why we have put $41 billion into making sure that if people lose their jobs they will be able to get the extended unemployment they need, the job training they need, and why we are going to reinvest heavily into those communities.”
Sanders pointed to McDowell County, where he visited a food bank Thursday morning, as the perfect example of a community that has been left behind in the transition away from fossil fuels.
As for apparent Republican nominee Donald Trump’s comments about voting shared with a crowd of thousands Thursday evening, comments directing West Virginians not to vote in West Virginia’s May 10 primary, Sanders called them disrespectful.
“Well, that’s a wonderful thing to say about democracy,” Sander said. “People fought and died to make sure that all of us have a right to determine the future of this country. I think that is an absurd remark and an insult to the people who put their lives on the line.”
Sanders said he hopes all West Virginians turn out to vote because, as he’s mentioned at many other rallies across the country, when there’s high voter turn out, his campaign is more likely to win.
Apparent Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump drew a crowd of more than 10,000 to the Charleston Civic Center Thursday for a campaign rally largely focused on revitalizing the coal industry.
Although the candidate shared few specifics about ways to bring the ailing industry back in West Virginia, he several times pointed to the weakening of regulations at the federal level as a way to help miners.
“If they didn’t have ridiculous regulations that put you out of business and make it impossible for you to compete, I’m going to take that off,” Trump said to loud cheers. “You are going to be proud of me.”
Trump received the endorsement of the West Virginia Coal Association shortly before the rally began and was joined on stage by Coal Association Vice President Chris Hamilton who presented him with a hard hat.
“How’s my hair?” Trump joked after trying the hat on.
It was his support of the coal industry that drew many of the West Virginians in attendance. Coal miner Derek Angel of Boone County said he believes Trump is going to put coal back on the map.
“Our county, our state, everything has been on the decline and it’s pushing everybody out of the state of West Virginia,” Angle said. “So, it kind of gives people a sense of hope to even be a coal miner.”
Credit Steve Helber / AP Photo
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AP Photo
A group of coal miners hold Trump signs as they wait for a rally with Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump.
Republican candidate for Governor Bill Cole introduced Trump and House Speaker Tim Armstead, Senate Majority Leader Mitch Carmichael, Del. Josh Nelson and Democratic Del. Rupie Phillips were among those in the crowd.
“I cannot support a candidate who does not support coal,” Phillips said before the rally.
Twice during the 45 minute speech, Trump told supporters he had already won the party nomination and there was no need for voters to head to the polls in the primary.
“Stay at home,” Trump told the crowd, “and get twice as many people to vote in November.”
Early voting is already underway in the state. West Virginia’s primary election is May 10.
While former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton preached a message of friendship and promised progress for southern West Virginia inside a campaign event in downtown Williamson Monday, dozens of protestors filled the streets outside chanting messages that made it clear Clinton was not welcome in their community.
“Hillary is a crook!” one man chanted just feet from the event’s entrance. Others yelled loudly, “Remember Benghazi!”
Not everyone who stood outside the rally was against the Clinton visit, though. Timothy Hatcher is a lifelong Williamson resident who held his “Hillary for President”sign proudly.
“People are taking her the wrong way. She has done nothing but great things,” he said. “A lot of people think you can change things in four years — it’s impossible. It takes time for one person to [change] the whole nation.”
Credit Ashton Marra / West Virginia Public Broadcasting
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West Virginia Public Broadcasting
Timothy Hatcher of Williamson proudly displays his Clinton sign outside the Monday event.
“It’s about clean coal,” Hatcher said. “I’m sure she will help the coal miners here in West Virginia.”
Clinton shared that same message with the small group that participated in her roundtable at the Williamson Health and Wellness Center, calling herself a friend of the state.
“I’m not going to sit here and say I’ll wave a magic wand and make something happen, but I will work my heart out for you. I will do everything I possibly can to support what is the character of West Virginia, the people of this state,” Clinton said.
Clinton repeatedly referred to a plan she released last summer that would invest $30 billion in coal communities for education, among other things. Bo Copley is a member of the panel who was recently laid off from his job as a maintenance planner at an Arch Coal subsidiary. He told Clinton her recent comments about the coal industry were at conflict with her new message of friendship.
“I just want to know how you can say you’re going to put a lot of coal miners out of jobs and then come in here and tell us how you’re going to be our friend,” Copley told Clinton, “because those people out there don’t see you as a friend.”
Clinton made the comment at a town hall in Ohio earlier this year, but defended herself Monday, saying the comments were taken out of context and she had repeatedly apologized for them.
Credit Paul Sancya / AP Photo
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AP Photo
Protesters outside Monday’s Hillary Clinton event in Williamson.
Still, those misstatements, as she referred to them, continued to resonate with protestors outside like Emma Runyon. She’s a Williamson native who volunteered on the 2008 Clinton campaign and has since switched her party registration to Republican.
Runyon stood outside the Williamson Wellness Center wearing a Donald Trump hat and T-shirt, waving a Trump sign.
“This very time I was phone banking for Hillary Clinton in 2008,” Runyon said. “She changed every position from 2008 to now. She slowly went so far away from working people.”
Runyon added Clinton also promotes the “War on Coal,” a sentiment that helped Republicans take over the state Legislature during the 2014 election.
Clinton will make an additional stop in West Virginia this week, holding a roundtable discussion in Charleston on Tuesday focused on substance abuse.
The event is the same day that two states, Indiana and Tennessee, head to the polls to cast ballots in their primary elections.
West Virginia’s primary is May 10.
Editor’s Note: For more on election coverage leading up to West Virginia’s May 10 primary, visit elections.wvpublic.org.
An estimated 6,000 Bernie Sanders supporters attended the Tuesday rally in Huntington, standing in line for hours to see the Democratic candidate for president.
The results Tuesday evening, however, showed Sanders lagging even further behind former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, winning only one of five state primary elections, but neither Sanders nor his supporters are ready to back out of the race just yet.
Still, Clinton’s nomination appears to be more and more inevitable as voters across the country continue to cast ballots. So, should their candidate lose the race, how will West Virginia’s Sanders supporters vote in November?
We asked a few Sanders supporters.
“I’ll die before I vote Republican,” 28-year-old Dustin Cheney of Charleston said as he waited with a group of friends outside the Big Sandy Arena. He would take Clinton over any Republican nominee.
“I can’t get behind a party that can’t get behind themselves. They act like babies.”
Virginia Dobreff traveled nearly three hours with her 20-year-old son to attend the rally and shared a similar sentiment. A registered Republican, Dobreff said the field of candidates in her party is lacking, pushing her to vote for Sanders.
“I don’t agree with everything he says, but we can’t all be the same,” she said. “I think that he is someone I could look up to as a leader because he truly seems to respect people.”
Credit John Minchillo / AP Photo
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AP Photo
Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders at his rally in Huntington Tuesday.
That respect is not something you find in the Republican field, Dobreff said, but her support won’t transfer to Clinton in the fall should she win the party’s nomination. Both Dobreff and her son, Andy, said they would write in Sanders before voting for anyone else.
Ashley Deem, a 19-year-old Marshall University sophomore, also shared some skepticism of a Clinton presidency.
“I’ve always wanted a female president, but I’d rather have a female president that stands for what I believe and what I think needs to be done rather than just having a female president,” she said.
Deem said she would probably vote for Clinton in the general election in November.
