Decision 2024: West Virginia gubernatorial election

PARKERSBURG, W.Va. (WTAP) – As West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice's final term comes to an end, five candidates are vying to become the state's next leader: Republican Patrick Morrisey, Democrat Steve Williams, Libertarian Erika Kolenich, the nominee the Constitutional Party S. Marshall Wilson and Mountain Party candidate Chase Linko-Looper.

Morrisey has been West Virginia's attorney general since 2013.

He said his performance in that office showed he was well qualified to be governor.

“We have a track record in the attorney general’s office of getting really big things done on issues that are important to West Virginia,” he said. “The number one drug settlement per person in the country, taking on federal overreach probably more successfully than any other state in the country and protecting our energy jobs.”

Morrisey said the most important issue he would address as governor is workforce participation.

“This is so important because we need more people working and we need to make sure we're increasing our population as well,” Morrisey said. “It’s not sustainable for West Virginia to be 49th or 50th in labor force participation, so we need to change the conditions that exist in West Virginia.”

One way Morrisey plans to address this and other issues is to learn from neighboring states.

“Look at every state we touch from a tax, regulatory, licensing and workforce perspective, select the freest and most economically viable policies, and remove any barriers that create for people to work.” “Live and play in the Mountain State,” he said. “Or to drive capital into our state. That has to be the focus of the next governor.”

West Virginia Democrat Steve Williams has been elected mayor of Huntington three times since 2012.

He said his experience leading one of West Virginia's largest cities makes him a strong candidate for governor.

“I took over a city 12 years ago that was considered the most obese, unhealthiest, drug-addicted city in the country and that was also on the verge of bankruptcy,” he said. “The city we have now is very different from the city I took over as mayor.”

If elected, Williams said there are three different areas of infrastructure he would focus on improving across the state.

“We must ensure that every resident in the state of West Virginia has access to clean water,” he said. “Secondly, I think we need to pay special attention to the highways. High-speed broadband must be guaranteed in every mountain, every stream, every river valley and every city in the state.”

Williams believes improving education must play a fundamental role in solving many other problems in the state. He believes public education in West Virginia is threatened by privatization.

“We must stop the privatization of public education,” he said. “We have Hope scholarships that allow kids to attend private school in another state.”

Constitution Party candidate S. Marshall Wilson served in the House of Representatives from 2016 to 2020, representing District 60.

Wilson said he believes it is fundamentally the governor's job to ensure that the executive branch abides by the constitutions of the United States and West Virginia.

“My goal is to ensure that my children can raise their children in a free country,” he said. “My children cannot be free unless you and your children are also free, and I will take a bullet in the face to protect your natural rights as recognized in the U.S. and West Virginia Constitutions, because my children will be free.” ”

Wilson said his administration would first subject the executive branch to serious scrutiny.

“I intend to review every single function of the executive branch and then, as I do the review, make policy changes, update policies, make personnel changes if necessary, fire and replace people who don't seem to want to do that,” I'm with agree with the program and do not want to uphold the principles,” he said.

Wilson said he would like to see the Public Employees Insurance Agency abolished, with money for the program going into state workers' paychecks.

“Public employees are smart, educated people,” he said. “They are adults. You can make your own decisions about insurance. They don't need the legislature or a council of bureaucrats to make these decisions for them. What they need to do is get together with that money and decide what they want to do with it.”

In addition to putting PEIA funds back into employee salaries, Wilson is also calling for a cost of living increase.

Libertarian gubernatorial candidate Erika Kolenich is a Buckhannon-based attorney. She said she is running because she wants West Virginia's children to feel like they can have a successful future in the state.

“I found it sad that our state is moving in a direction where our children are being taught, intentionally or unintentionally, by our parents, by our parents, by everyone they have to go to for success, that they have to go because of culture, that they have to leave to find work,” she said.

Kolenich said she believes the state faces a myriad of interconnected issues.

“People turn to drugs, use drugs, or develop mental health issues, which results in these people's children being taken into CPS and foster care, which results in us not having the population here that would volunteer to be in foster care Then there’s not enough workers here for companies to come here,” she said.

Kolenich said she believes an important part of addressing these issues is removing the barriers the government has created itself, such as making it easier for people to become foster parents, thereby reducing the burden on that system.

“So as a government we are saying we have a care crisis,” she said. “We have children who, as you know, are being monitored by CPS workers in hotels, but we are making it very difficult for people to be foster parents, thereby removing the barriers that the government actually puts in place for people to succeed. I think that’s the key.”

We were unable to schedule an interview with Mountain Party candidate Chase Linko-Looper.

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