The Votes Are In: National and State Elections Conclude

Newly elected West Virginia Governor Jim Justice addresses the public.
Photo courtesy of washingtonpost.com

It came down to the wire for all candidates on Election Day, November 8, 2016 in the state of West Virginia. Candidates did all they could to try to persuade fellow West Virginians to cast their votes for them, whether they early voted or voted on Election Day. Thousands of dollars were spent on campaign signs, advertisements for television and radio, and holding rallies to get their name out into our beautiful state.

    The top and most tense elections in the State of West Virginia were the elections for Representatives in Congress, for Governor, for Attorney General, and for Secretary of State. These races were crucial to our state and crucial to shaping life in West Virginia in the upcoming years.

    Incumbent Republican Evan Jenkins faced Democrat Matt Detch and Libertarian Zane Lawhorn in the race for the third Congressional District of West Virginia.  Following the primary election, where none of the candidates faced an opponent, the general election was tough for Detch and Lawhorn. After Jenkins defeated 19-term incumbent Nick Rahall in 2014, Detch and Lawhorn knew they were faced with a tough campaign. Each candidate supports different outlooks on state issues, but all three had a strong campaign on the drug epidemic in our state.

    Congressman Jenkins has advocated for increased funding for the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Administration to ensure that states have the resources necessary to implement much-needed mental health services. He also has championed increased funding for drug courts and veteran’s treatment courts. “These courts offer treatment and assistance in getting one’s life back on track” says Jenkins.  Due to his work on the House Appropriations Committee, Congressman Jenkins secured language that would help keep the focus on Appalachia and West Virginia when securing grant funding for drug abuse programs.

    Democratic candidate Detch believes that “Once addiction takes hold, it can be nearly impossible for a person to return to a sober state. Addiction is a disease and must be treated as such. Physical and mental dependency are hard to combat and we must offer addicts a way out of the cycle of addiction. Focusing efforts on intervention programs will be critical in combating drug usage.” Detch believes that “substance abuse is a chronic disease, and recovery is only possible through effective and ongoing care—not neglect or stigmatization. Everyone who needs treatment and ongoing support should be able to get it. We should invest in and strengthen our recovery community organizations.”

    Libertarian Candidate Lawhorn did not discuss his stance on the drug epidemic on his website. 

Incumbent Jenkins won for the Republican party for the third Congressional District Race in West Virginia. He won his election by a margin of 76,000 votes over his democratic opponent Detch and a margin of 100,000 votes over Libertarian opponent Lawhorn.

    Jenkins gave a statement saying: “I have already reached out to President-Elect Trump’s transition team to offer my congratulations and to begin the push for an agenda to enact solutions to get our coal communities growing again, to invest in our highways and infrastructure, and to create economic opportunity for all.”

State Senate President Bill Cole (Republican) and Jim Justice (Democrat), owner of the Greenbrier Resort, were the candidates for the position of West Virginia Governor. More than 210,000 West Virginians participated in early voting, but the two candidates spent their last few days before Election Day visiting places all over West Virginia trying to win-over undecided voters. In the last West Virginia Metro News Poll on Sunday, Justice was in the lead with 44 percent compared to Cole’s 33 percent.

    One of the hottest subjects of the election was the growing unemployment rate in West Virginia, and the dwindling population. Both Justice and Cole have said bringing jobs and industry back to West Virginia is on the top of their priority list. Cole says bringing agriculture and manufacturing to West Virginia, on top of helping the struggling coal industry, is what will get people back to work. Justice says he has the experience as a businessman to fix the unemployment rate, and that he has the contacts and the passion to get the job done.

    Despite the GOP’s recent wave of wins in West Virginia, the Republican party has gone two decades without winning the West Virginia’s Governor race, and this year again succumbed to the Democratic party.  Democrat Jim Justice, West Virginia’s wealthiest resident, won the Governor election by just seven percent, which is about 44,000 votes. 

Justice made his victory speech at The Greenbrier Resort on Tuesday night with “Country Roads” playing in the background. Justice has promised that West Virginia does not need to be last in every ranking possible. “We don’t need to be 50th. We’re too good,” he said.

With a hoarse voice, Cole offered his concession speech at Embassy Suites in Charleston “I end this race with a new appreciation for our state,” Cole said. He then described a series of accomplishments from his two years as state Senate President, including the repeal of prevailing wage and the passage of right-to-work. This was the first race for governor by two viable parties in almost a generation in West Virginia. Cole said he had called Justice to congratulate him.

    Republican incumbent Patrick Morrisey and Democratic opponent Doug Reynolds have spent millions in the race for West Virginia Attorney General. Along with the candidates for Congress, Morrisey and Reynolds both hold strong views on the drug epidemic in West Virginia and place it at the top of their priority lists.

    Morrisey has spent time advertising the work his office has done to fight the opioid epidemic. In 2015, he established a partnership with the U.S. Attorney’s Office in West Virginia’s Northern District which designated two special federal prosecutors to help prosecute drug traffickers. He has partnered with Ohio’s Attorney General for the Taking Back Our Communities conference, a faith-based initiative to tackle the substance abuse crisis with a grassroots approach. Morrisey has also expanded his office’s substance abuse capabilities, including increasing the number of investigators in his office to five.

    Reynolds says “West Virginia’s growing drug crisis has crippled communities and devastated families throughout the state. It has also drastically curbed our ability to attract new employers and businesses, since we can no longer guarantee a drug-free workforce.  We need a comprehensive approach to combating this epidemic, including stricter punishment for drug distributors that knowingly flood West Virginia’s communities with excessive amounts of prescription pain killers. We also need more programs that offer treatment and support to those West Virginians afflicted by addiction, so that they can recover and continue to live productive lives here in the Mountain State.”

    Morrisey won his re-election on Tuesday night by a margin of ten percent. Morrisey was powered by around $6.8 million in outside TV ads by the Republican Attorney General Association. The messaging was created to lump Reynolds in with Hillary Clinton and President Barack Obama. Reynolds spent millions of his personal wealth to contend that Morrisey is swayed by the pharmaceutical industry because his wife has lobbied for drug manufacturing interest.

    One race that was a big shake up to West Virginia was the race for Secretary of State between incumbent Democrat Natalie Tennant and Republican Mac Warner. Tennant has been West Virginia’s Secretary of State for the past nine years, but that has now changed; Warner won on Election Day.

    Both candidates have strong stances on different platforms. Tennant took a strong stand on protecting voting rights. She has fought to protect the right to vote, at the same time leading investigations that have led to more convictions of election law violations than any other Secretary of State.  Tennant made it a priority to open more voting locations so people who live in outlying areas in West Virginia counties can cast a ballot in the early voting period.

    Warner was a military lawyer in the United States Army for twenty years. Before that he graduated from West Virginia College of Law in 1982. Warner has spent most of his life away from West Virginia on multiple deployments.  For the past five years, Warner has been working to establish a functional judicial system in Afghanistan for the U.S. State Department. Upon returning home to West Virginia, Warner filed to run for the office of Secretary of State. Warner has always stated he believes in a better West Virginia. “We will solve our State’s problems best by creating jobs, increasing revenues, and building a robust economy. West Virginia is ready for new leadership and new ideas. I bring a life of professional service and experience from around the globe to West Virginia. As a father, husband, Veteran, and sixth generation West Virginian, I’ll work hard every day to improve election fairness, promote transparent government, and increase business investment to create jobs.” Warner won the office of Secretary of State in West Virginia by one percent, just 8,403 votes.

    One of the biggest races that we have all been a part of was the Presidential election. Republican Donald Trump and Democrat Hillary Clinton were the two main candidates for the election this year. In West Virginia, Donald Trump won by a landslide of votes at almost 42 percent. Nationally, Trump had won 254 electoral votes by 2:00 AM on November 9, while Clinton sat at 218 electoral votes. At that point Clinton’s campaign chairman asked Clinton supporters to return to their homes and sleep until all the votes came in. Trump left Trump Towers and headed over to Trump Headquarters in New York City to speak to supporters at around 2:45 in the morning on November 9 when the election was called in his favor. Trump won with 276 electoral votes, while Clinton sat at 218.