Family affair: West Virginia governor’s race pits familiar names against each other

MARTINSBURG, WEST VIRGINIA — West Virginia voters in 2024 will see some acquainted names on ballots. A number of of them, in actual fact.

The state’s governorship is now open as a result of time period limits are forcing Gov. Jim Justice (R-WV) to retire, and the race to switch him has one clan squaring off towards one other.

They’re reaching for a sexy prize, particularly because the Republican nominee is favored to prevail in November 2024. West Virginia is a deeply crimson state the place former President Donald Trump beat President Joe Biden in 2020 by greater than a 2-to-1 margin.

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State Del. Moore Capito (R-WV) is working for governor, and he’ll must get by way of the essential GOP major in June 2024. If the identify sounds acquainted to political observers, it’s as a result of the GOP state lawmaker is the son of Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV). In 2014, Capito was first elected to the Senate after 14 years within the Home of Representatives and 4 years within the state Home of Delegates earlier than that.

However the youthful Capito hardly has the GOP gubernatorial nomination locked up. Within the major, he faces Chris Miller, a outstanding automobile seller based mostly in Huntington on the western finish of the Mountain State, simply throughout the Ohio River from the state of Ohio. His mom is Rep. Carol Miller (R-WV), who was elected to Congress in 2018. Miller was a member of the state Home of Delegates from 2006 to 2018.

Dynastic politics are nothing new, after all. The Kennedys and the Bushes high the listing of American political dynasties within the fashionable period. And at the moment, there’s Rep. Robert Menendez Jr. (D-NJ), the son of Sen. Bob Menendez (D-NJ), who simply received the open Jersey Metropolis-area eighth Congressional District through the midterm elections. The older Menendez held this seat from 1993 to 2006.

Equally, Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) adopted his father into politics after a profession practising ophthalmology. Former Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX) was a Home member from the Houston space in three totally different stints for a complete of about 23 years. The daddy-son duo of libertarian-minded Republican lawmakers overlapped in Congress between 2011 and 2013.

Gov.-elect Sarah Huckabee Sanders (R-AR), who was the White Home press secretary in Trump’s administration, is the daughter of a earlier Arkansas governor, Mike Huckabee. He received nationwide consideration as a 2008 and 2012 Republican presidential candidate and the one-time host of an eponymous speak present on Fox Information.

The listing of America’s political households goes on and on.

Nonetheless, the dynastic nature of West Virginia politics heading into the 2024 election cycle stands out for the reason that moms of the highest two GOP gubernatorial candidates are congressional colleagues — all in a largely rural state with a shrinking inhabitants base.

Nor do the political lineages of the gubernatorial rivals finish there. Sen. Shelley Moore Capito is the daughter of the late Gov. Arch Moore, who was in workplace from 1969 to 1977 and from 1985 to 1989. Earlier than working the state in Charleston, West Virginia, Moore had a dozen-year congressional profession in Washington, D.C., as a Home member from 1957 to 1969.

And the older Miller is a second-generation member of the Home. Her father, Samuel L. Devine, was a lawyer and, from 1959 to 1981, represented Ohio’s twelfth District, situated in and across the state capital of Columbus.

Chris Miller and Moore Capito aren’t the one political scions working for larger workplace in West Virginia subsequent yr. State Treasurer Riley Moore is looking for the Republican nomination for the 2nd District, situated in jap and northern West Virginia. Rep. Alex Mooney (R-WV) is giving it as much as search the Republican Senate nomination and problem Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) in 2024.

Moore’s grandfather was Arch Moore, the two-time West Virginia governor and eight-year Home member. This makes Sen. Shelley Moore Capito his aunt and gubernatorial hopeful Moore Capito his first cousin.

Riley Moore was named for his grandmother, Shelley Riley Moore, who was twice West Virginia’s first girl. He was elected state treasurer in 2020 after a single, two-year time period as a state delegate.

Power a giant subject

Riley Moore has turn into an outspoken critic of so-called ESG investing and has labored towards the environmental, social, and governance push from companies and monetary establishments. In June 2022, Moore issued a letter to 6 monetary establishments, saying they might now not be allowed to do enterprise with the state of West Virginia as a consequence of their advocacy towards the fossil gasoline trade. The corporations have been BlackRock, Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase, Morgan Stanley, U.S. Bancorp, and Wells Fargo.

The continued significance of fossil fuels in West Virginia’s economic system is also prone to play out within the governor’s race. Miller has touted the problem in his nascent GOP gubernatorial major marketing campaign, launched on Dec. 6. And his skilled background offers credence to the necessity for conventional power sources: Miller owns the Dutch Miller Auto Group, one in every of West Virginia’s largest automobile dealerships.

Capito is working for governor with an extended file within the state legislature of supporting fossil gasoline pursuits. In a Nov. 29 video asserting his marketing campaign for governor, he stated he needs to spice up scholar achievement, enhance enterprise improvement, decrease taxes, and put money into power infrastructure.

“Moore is aware of that Joe Biden’s conflict on power is a conflict on West Virginia,” learn a Capito press launch. “To beat again Biden and the Left, we’d like a fighter who’s battle examined and understands the stakes.”

“Governor Capito will imply nice information for West Virginia’s economic system, and unhealthy information for Biden’s leftwing agenda.”

Miller, although a son and grandson of Home members, touts himself as a nonpolitician who will deliver a business-oriented method to the state’s $4.6 billion funds.

“I’m the one outsider. I’m the one one that is aware of the way to run a enterprise. I make use of about 650 individuals, and I understand how to stability a checkbook,” Miller advised WOWK, a tv station based mostly in Charleston.

“And I do know the significance of creating positive individuals keep employed. That’s the large distinction. I’m not bureaucrat, somebody that works within the federal government and simply does authorities stuff on a regular basis,” Miller stated in a pointed jab at his major GOP gubernatorial major rival, Capito, whose marketing campaign web site touts his political expertise as a congressional aide and Trump administration employees member.

However the household really feel of the early gubernatorial marketing campaign may present a gap for one more Republican candidate who may enchantment to voters as a recent political face. Secretary of State Mac Warner is eyeing the race. So is Legal professional Normal Patrick Morrissey. Republicans Terri Bradshaw of Gandeeville, West Virginia, a farmer, and Rashida Yost of Martinsburg, West Virginia, a preschool proprietor, are also working.

To this point, no big-name Democrat in West Virginia has contemplated a run, a mirrored image of the occasion’s starkly diminished standing after many years of dominance within the Mountain State. Justice, in actual fact, was elected as a Democratic governor in 2016 however switched events the subsequent yr on the behest of Trump.

Robust challenges for the subsequent West Virginia governor

West Virginia is one in every of 12 states with a 2024 gubernatorial race, which is able to overlap with the presidential contest. Whoever wins will face a broad set of challenges in a state that noticed America’s deepest inhabitants decline between the 2010 and 2020 censuses: 3.2%. That got here out to about 59,000 individuals complete in a inhabitants of 1.8 million.

Solely two different states noticed marginal inhabitants losses: Illinois and Mississippi, at about 0.1% every. In the meantime the opposite 47 states grew in inhabitants because the variety of individuals nationwide went as much as about 331 million (a decade earlier, it was 309 million).

West Virginia depends on the power, mining, and extraction industries, particularly coal. Plastics and polymers are the staples of West Virginia’s manufacturing trade, and the metal sector stays necessary. Most of those run counter to the “inexperienced power” agenda of the Biden administration and the Democratic Senate majority.

That helps clarify the early sniping between GOP gubernatorial rivals Capito and Miller over who’s a extra fervent protector of the fossil gasoline trade, together with congressional candidate Moore’s push as state treasurer to dam “environmentally pleasant investing.”

Many West Virginia counties, significantly within the jap and southern realms of the state, have poverty charges of practically 20% or extra. In McDowell, West Virginia’s southernmost county, greater than one-third of all residents stay in poverty, and the inhabitants declined by practically 20% since 2000.

West Virginia, nonetheless, does have a rising inhabitants in its northern realm. Take into account Monongalia County, which is alongside the Pennsylvania state line and residential to many individuals who commute to jobs within the larger Pittsburgh space. Monongalia County can also be dwelling to West Virginia College, situated in Morgantown. Monongalia’s inhabitants grew about 10% within the decade previous to the 2020 Census, making it West Virginia’s third-most populous county.

Dynastic politics on the wane

Whether or not West Virginia voters desire a governor from a political household stays to be seen. In spite of everything, American political dynasties lately have ended extra with a whimper than a bang. A pair of the nation’s most outstanding political households have seen their office-seeking fortunes wane significantly.

Texas Land Commissioner George P. Bush misplaced a 2022 Republican runoff for state lawyer basic towards incumbent Ken Paxton. Two years earlier than, his cousin Pierce Bush was turned away by Republican voters within the race for the nomination in suburban Houston’s twenty second District.

Former Gov. Jeb Bush (R-FL) is George P. Bush’s father. Former President George W. Bush is an uncle. And George P. Bush can also be the grandson of President George H.W. Bush and the great-grandson of Sen. Prescott Bush (R-CT).

Additionally in 2020, then-Rep. Joe Kennedy III misplaced a Democratic major problem to Sen. Ed Markey (D-MA). Kennedy is a grandson of the late lawyer basic and Sen. Robert F. Kennedy (D-NY) and is the son of former Rep. Joe Kennedy II (D-MA). And, after all, he’s the grandnephew of slain Democratic President John F. Kennedy.

In West Virginia this yr, some potential voters stated they’re not bothered by the dynastic politics of the state’s 2024 race.

“They’ll must show themselves on their very own data. But it surely’s good they’ll know one thing about how authorities works,” stated Nick Williamson in between giving trims to prospects at Panhandle Barbers in Martinsburg.

However Steve Lynn, a small enterprise proprietor within the space, advised the Washington Examiner the thought of a governor whose mom was a senator or a congresswoman was a bit a lot.

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“It looks as if we may discover different individuals who may do job. It doesn’t must be from the identical households on a regular basis,” Lynn stated.

If Capito and Miller are the one big-name candidates within the governor’s race, nonetheless, voters received’t have a alternative on that entrance.