W.Va. candidates for governor make case to business community

September 3, 2024

 

Republican Attorney General Patrick Morrisey and Democratic Huntington Mayor Steve Williams offered differing governing styles to members of the West Virginia business community last week as they made their case to be the state’s next governor.

Morrisey, wrapping up his third four-year term as the state’s top attorney, told attendees that he wants to continue to build on the good work of Gov. Jim Justice and the West Virginia Legislature, but said there was more work to do in the future and he is the man to lead the state into that future.

“With the right policies, we have a chance to move up in the rankings in a way that you haven’t seen before,” Morrisey said. “The future is very bright for West Virginia, but we’re going to need to work together…We are all on Team West Virginia now, and we have a chance to do some pretty amazing things together.”

As governor, Morrisey is planning to tackle reducing taxes, regulations, and other hindrances to state economic growth. Morrisey wants to study neighboring states to see how West Virginia can be competitive and exceed bordering states to make West Virginia more attractive for investment.

“We want to have a backyard brawl economically with all the states that we touch,” Morrisey said. “We want to make sure that on questions related to taxes and regulations and workforce rules and licensing, that West Virginia is no longer going to be 48th, 49th, and 50th.”

Williams, who is in his third four-year term as mayor and a former member of the House of Delegates, focused on his accomplishments in turning around a near-bankrupt Huntington and working to reverse the city’s substance use disorder crisis. Williams said West Virginia needs to focus on competing economically on the world stage.

“Our competition is not our neighboring states. Our competition is the global marketplace,” Williams said. “We have the capacity to set the market on innovation and to set standards that the rest of the world would seek to follow. We must believe that we can accomplish anything we set our minds to.”

Turning to the state’s substance use disorder crisis, Morrisey said he will continue to partner with the West Virginia First Foundation, the non-profit organization he helped to found after the Attorney General’s Office and city and county governments secured a more than $1 billion settlement with opioid manufacturers and distributors. The foundation will distribute part of those funds for substance use treatment, recovery, and drug interdiction.

Morrisey also said he would partner with other states to pressure the federal government to take a harder line on stopping the flow of fentanyl into the U.S.

“For the first time ever in our state’s history, we now have a plan of attack against the dreadful drug mess, and we have resources to deal with that,” Morrisey said. “That’s a pretty darn good thing that’s going to save a lot of West Virginia lives. But we have to go further.”

Williams pointed to his success in Huntington on reversing an opioid and heroin overdose epidemic in the city to show he has experiences he can bring as governor.

“Huntington has been transformed from being known as the epicenter of the opioid epidemic to being the epicenter of the solution to the opioid epidemic,” Williams said. “Huntington and its citizens now very proudly proclaim and embrace the moniker of America’s best community and a city of solutions.”

Education will be a focus for Morrisey, who wants to work on driving up public college and university attendance along with the state’s two-year community and technical colleges. He also wants to expand upon school choice options, such as public charter schools and the Hope Scholarship education voucher program that provides eligible parents a portion of state tax dollars for private and homeschool education.

“I want to make sure that school choice in our state is known as the best and the broadest school choice policy in America,” Morrisey said. That’s what I promised to you. And that’s an opportunity we have to send a message of hope all across our state because you see, we’re in the business of selling hope for our future generations.”

Williams has been vocal about his support for a state constitutional amendment protecting women’s reproductive rights in the wake of the overturning of Roe v. Wade and West Virginia’s near-total ban on abortion.

“To lead the nation, we must create a platinum standard of care for women’s health and become a haven for women’s health and reproductive freedom,” Williams said. “When we say mountaineers are always free, we need to make blessed certain that means mountaineer women too.”

Morrisey said the state needs to continue working on improving infrastructure, not just with roads, bridges, and water, but also with expansion of high-speed broadband. Morrisey said West Virginia needs to continue to work and pull down more federal dollars.

“We have to continue to build out on our infrastructure,” Morrisey said. “We have to make sure that in some of the modern infrastructure tools of the 21st century century, West Virginia is winning. We don’t need internet that moves at the speed of slow.”

In closing, Williams said despite being the Democratic candidate, his political philosophy is closer to a fiscal conservative. He urged attendees to give his candidacy a chance.

“I’m seeking to build a state with an economic environment and ecosystem that enables growth, builds prosperity and fosters innovation, and assures the freedom to accomplish our aspirations without government mandate, but with government partnership,” Williams said. “We need all hands on deck, not just hands of the proper political party, gender, race, or any other designation.”

Morrisey told attendees to look at his hard work the last nearly 12 years as attorney general. That’s the work ethic he plans to bring to the role of governor.

“I will tell you, maybe at the end of my tenure of office, you’ll think of me as Mr. Get Things Done. That is certainly the goal,” Morrisey said. “Let’s take on these challenges over the course of the next few years and let’s see West Virginia truly rise in those economic rankings.”

 

Story by Steven Allen Adams, for The Inter-Mountain

 

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