West Virginia GOP Story Archives - West Virginia Public Broadcasting

High Profile Leadership Appointment Changes State Senate Primary Race

When Mon Health Vice President Jonathan Board was named executive director of the West Virginia First Foundation Board, he suspended his campaign for state Senate.

When Mon Health Vice President Jonathan Board was named executive director of the West Virginia First Foundation Board, he suspended his campaign for state Senate. The Foundation was established to distribute millions of dollars in opioid litigation money.

Board was the only Republican on the 13th District primary ballot, covering Monongalia and Marion counties. Del. Joey Garcia is the only Democrat running for the same seat. Current 13th District Sen. Mike Caputo, a Democrat, is retiring from office.

Mike Queen, communications director for the Secretary of State, said due to the late date of the campaign suspension, Board’s name will stay on the primary ballot. Queen said Board will formally withdraw after the primary vote is certified.

State GOP Chairman Matt Herriage said a specific local committee will then help determine a Republican general election candidate.

“We congratulate Mr. Board on the new position and look forward to supporting a new Republican candidate in November,” Herriage said.

Garcia said he has the utmost respect for long time friend Jonathan Board. He said his campaign is not about the opponent, but his own efforts.

“The race, to me, isn’t about somebody else,” Garcia said. “It’s about connecting with people in Mon [Monongalia] and Marion county, listening to the needs that they have, getting to know them and building trust with them.”

Queen said Board’s campaign suspension breaks new ground. The only others he remembers in this situation either died or were indicted.

W.Va. GOP, Dems Denounce Del. Porterfield's 'Hateful' Comments About LBGTQ Community

Updated Monday, Feb. 11, 2019 at 9:00 p.m.

The leader of West Virginia Republican party has denounced derogatory comments a state delegate made against members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transsexual and queer communities. That response comes as Democrats have called for the lawmaker’s resignation and have continued to push for added protected classes in the state’s Human Rights Act.

In a statement, state GOP chairwoman Melody Potter said that Mercer County Delegate Eric Porterfield’s comments were “hateful, hurtful, and do not reflect the values of our country, our state, and the Republican Party.”

Porterfield said last week he thinks LGBTQ groups are “socialists” and ”discriminatory bigots.” In an interview with the Charleston Gazette-Mail, he referred to some groups in the LGBTQ communities as “a modern day version of the Ku Klux Klan.” He also called the gay community a “terrorist group.”

Porterfield said he received threats after earlier remarks in a committee meeting in support of an amendment that would overrule local ordinances which protect lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people from discrimination. The amendment failed.

Following Monday’s floor session, Porterfield met privately with House Speaker Roger Hanshaw.

Asked whether he was removed from any committee assignments, Porterfield declined to answer. He currently sits on the Banking & Insurance, Energy, Government Organization and Industry & Labor committees.

Hanshaw has not yet commented on the matter beyond stating he hopes no one would make such derogatory remarks.

House Majority Leader Amy Summers said Monday that the state GOP’s position on the matter represents the same as her chamber’s caucus.

Since Porterfield’s initial comments, House Democrats have tried twice, but failed, to fast track House Bill 2733. The measure would add gender and sexual orientation to the state’s Human Rights Act.

Del. Shawn Fluharty, D-Ohio, attempted Thursdayto discharge the bill from committee and bring it to the floor. That motion was tabled on a 58-40 vote along party lines.

During Monday’s House floor session, Amanda Estep-Burton, D-Kanawha, moved to bring House Bill 2733 from the table in another attempt to push the bill towards a vote. Her motion to bring the bill from the table Monday also failed along party lines — this time on a 40-57 vote.

Del. Cody Thompson, D-Randolph, also gave remarks on the floor regarding the controversy over Porterfield and the inflammatory statements.

“I will tell my fellow members of the LGBT community that you are loved. You are loved, you’re respected you matter and I stand with you in solidarity,” Thompson said.

Thompson also made reference to an interview Porterfield gave to WVVA over the weekend. A reporter from the Bluefield television station asked the embattled delegate how he would respond if his either or both of his two children were gay or lesbian.

“Well, I’ll address my daughter first. I would take her for a pedicure, take her to get her nails done and see if she could swim. If it was my son, I would probably take him hunting. I would take him fishing and I’d see if he could swim,” Porterfield told WVVA.

Asked what he meant, Porterfield failed to elaborate beyond stating he “would just want to make sure they could swim.”

Thompson specifically addressed that interview on the House floor.

“In case anyone was interested, my caring, loving and supportive parents never threw me into any body of water. But they did teach me how to swim,” Thompson said.

The West Virginia Democratic Party called for Porterfield’s resignation as early as Friday.

Melody Potter Re-Elected West Virginia GOP Chief

Melody Potter has been unanimously re-elected as chairwoman of West Virginia’s Republican Party.

The state GOP says in a news release that Potter was elected Saturday by the 125 members of the Republican State Executive Committee at their summer meeting in Wheeling.

The South Charleston resident is a small business owner. She was originally elected chairwoman in January. She’s the first woman to lead the state Republican Party.

“It’s an honor to be re-elected Chairwoman of the West Virginia Republican Party. I’m thankful for the members of the Republican State Executive Committee and their confidence in my leadership. My focus continues to be the election of Republicans to public office across the state of West Virginia. Our party is a big team with lots of hard workers, and I’m honored to be selected to lead the Republican team,” Potter said in the release.

W.Va. GOP Chairman Announces Run for Congress

The chairman of the West Virginia Republican Party announced he’ll be running for West Virginia’s 3^rd Congressional District in the United States House of Representatives.

Conrad Lucas made the announcement via an emailed letter and online video. This follows an earlier announcement this year, saying he would be stepping down as chairman of the West Virginia GOP.

Lucas is vying for U.S. Representative Evan Jenkins’ seat. Jenkins, a Republican, is running for Democrat Joe Manchin’s seat in the U.S. Senate.

Lucas joins a handful of other West Virginia representatives who are aiming for a shot in Congress, such as Republicans Rupie Phillips and Carol Miller – both members of the West Virginia House of Delegates, and Democrat Richard Ojeda – a member of the State Senate.

Lucas will also be running against former Republican Delegate Rick Snuffer.

GOP Leaders to Justice: Let Us Help You

Republicans who will hold a rare majority of West Virginia’s six statewide offices are already banding together to try to influence yet another Democratic governor and a GOP-controlled Legislature.

Attorney General Patrick Morrisey was the lone Republican on the six-member Board of Public Works after he was elected in 2012. That number swelled to four with GOP wins in races for secretary of state, auditor and agriculture commissioner.

All four attended a news conference at the Capitol on Wednesday to put out an early plea to Gov.-elect Jim Justice to let them help him fix West Virginia’s many problems. The Board of Public Works meets up to four times a year, and Morrisey said he’d like that to happen more frequently.

“I think that there’s a lot more that we can do if we tap into the great expertise that exists within these constitutional offices,” he said. “This is a chance to work together. We have to do everything in our power to identify fraud, waste and abuse in government. I think there’s a lot more there.”

JB McCuskey is the first Republican elected as West Virginia’s auditor since 1928. Kent Leonhardt is the first GOP-elected ag commissioner since 1988. Mac Warner ousted two-term incumbent Natalie Tennant for secretary of state Tuesday night.

Republicans also maintained their majorities in the Legislature.

Besides Justice, the only other Democrat in statewide office next year will be treasurer John Perdue, who won his sixth term.

Justice, the billionaire owner of the Greenbrier resort, will inherit as governor the challenge of addressing job losses, especially in the coal industry, and ongoing state budget shortfalls.

Morrisey said the GOP leaders have not heard from Justice since his election and they looked forward to speaking with him.

A former Republican, Justice has touted himself as a political outsider with outside-the-box ideas to create jobs without big cuts or tax hikes. But he’s offered few specifics so far and didn’t immediately return a telephone message from The Associated Press on Wednesday.

He said in his victory speech Tuesday night at the Greenbrier that “we cannot possibly cut our way out of this mess, and you can’t possibly tax our people more than they have today. We have got to grow our way out of this mess.”

He promised only to surround himself with smart people to tackle the most important issues. Comparing it to figuring out how to solve a jigsaw puzzle, he said, “if there’s anything that I would tell you that I would brag about, I’m the best there is at figuring out how to put them together and make it work.”

Some of those puzzle pieces will certainly include finding jobs and addressing the state’s budget problems.

West Virginia’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate of 5.8 percent in September was the fifth highest in the country. Tax collections for the first three months of the state’s fiscal year were $87.4 million below estimates.

Earlier this year, a sharply divided debate over higher taxes to remedy the budget woes spilled over into a special session that cost the state about $600,000. Eventually, higher taxes were passed on cigarettes and other tobacco products.

One issue on which he agreed with Justice: “We don’t need higher taxes in the state of West Virginia,” Morrisey said.

In the state Legislature, Republicans picked up four seats in the Senate and now hold a 22-12 advantage, according to unofficial results.

Democratic incumbents who were unseated included Sen. Jack Yost of Brooke County and Sen. Bob Williams of Taylor County, while GOP incumbent Chris Walters of Putnam County lost.

The seat vacated by Democratic Sen. Herb Snyder of Jefferson County went to Republican Patricia Rucker over Democratic Del. Stephen Skinner.

Republicans also were elected to seats vacated when Senate President Bill Cole, R-Mercer, and Senate Minority Leader Jeff Kessler, D-Marshall, ran for governor, and when Sen. Bill Laird, D-Fayette, didn’t seek re-election.

In the 100-member House of Delegates, Republicans entered election night with a 64-36 majority and didn’t appear to lose more than one seat, although a few races were still too close to call Wednesday, according to unofficial results.

Straight-ticket Box Gone, West Virginia GOP Leans on Trump

Republican candidates throughout West Virginia’s ballot are trying to show voters they’re with Donald Trump.

But getting a bump from Trump could take extra legwork this year, after the GOP dropped the option to vote straight party-line with one mark on the ballot.

In TV ads, gubernatorial hopeful Bill Cole promises a Cole-Trump team will make West Virginia great again.

U.S. Rep. Alex Mooney is handing out yard signs with his name next to Trump’s.

And Attorney General Patrick Morrisey’s latest ad says he and Trump will protect coal jobs and support gun rights.

While many Republicans elsewhere have run away from Trump, the Mountain State’s down-ballot candidates hope to capitalize on what could be the billionaire’s most supportive voter base. The local GOP is even dropping Trump’s name in the Wood County clerk race.

“Like Donald Trump, (Bob Buchanan) will build a wall around the ballots, and make sure only legal Americans are voting in Wood County,” the radio ad says.

In 2015, the GOP-led Legislature scrapped the ability for voters to check one box and pick all candidates from one political party. The option favored Republicans in their takeover of the Legislature after the 2014 election.

Although West Virginia has veered to the political right in recent years, its voters have split tickets in major races. The state hasn’t preferred a Democrat for president since Bill Clinton in 1996 — the same year it last elected a Republican governor, Cecil Underwood.

Trump has surged in popularity by making broad-stroke promises to put coal miners back to work, defying economic forecasts.

Hillary Clinton has drawn little love in West Virginia after supporting anti-global warming limits on carbon pollution from coal-fired power plants. The backlash became even stronger when she said she would “put a lot of coal miners and coal companies out of business.” She later called it a misstatement as she called for new economic opportunities for the coalfields, particularly in renewable energy.

After the 2014 election, the state GOP turned a corner by flipping the majority in the Legislature for the first time in more than eight decades. This year’s election will show whether the GOP can take over the vast majority of the state government — or if Democrats can bounce back from losses in a state where Clinton and President Barack Obama are woefully unpopular.

U.S. Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, who is not on this year’s ballot, told The Associated Press last month that “from the outside looking in, everybody says West Virginia is a Republican state. That’s not the case.”

She added, “As the lead Republican in the state, it’s taken a long time to get to even somebody making that statement. There’s still a very large network of strong Democrats that still remain in the state and are going to want to have the stranglehold of the state Capitol remain in that party, because they’ve lost the House and Senate.”

In the 2014 general election, voters cast more than 126,400 straight-ticket ballots — roughly 53 percent for Republicans and 42 percent for Democrats. The rest opted for other parties.

About 462,900 people turned out to vote, meaning 27 percent of voters used the straight-party option. In previous elections, Republicans criticized the policy, saying it protected Democratic incumbents.

Lawmakers ushered in the change under the leadership of Cole, the state Senate president and GOP gubernatorial nominee. He now faces the prospect of losing more split-ticket votes to Democratic nominee Jim Justice, a billionaire coal businessman and household name.

“I’m not going to lie to you: I wish I had waited two years, because I think a straight ticket with Donald Trump at the top, and his continued high popularity in this state, might have made my life a lot easier,” Cole said. “But it was the right thing to do.”

Democrats think the elimination of straight-ticket voting could limit how Republicans benefit from the Trump tide.

“That was one of their promises to the electorate, that they would change straight-line voting,” said Mark Hunt, a Democrat challenging Rep. Mooney. “By George, they did it, to their detriment, I think.”