West Virginia Governor Jim Justice, who switched from Republican to Democrat in 2015 ahead of his 2016 bid for the Governor’s race, and then switched back to Republican in August of 2017 at a President Trump rally, is facing some heat today from the GOP in his state. According to “MetroNews“, The Kanawha County Republican Executive Committee which is the County that Charleston West Virginia presides in, has taken up a “resolution of no confidence” measure during its executive session on Monday, April 2nd.
The resolution overwhelmingly passed in favor of no confidence by a tally of 19-4. Clearly the “sometimes Republican sometimes Democrat Billionaire Governor has got some explaining to do at the very least. The County GOP unit has, in fact, a laundry list of complaints and grievances to air, determined by, in part, the foundation of their creed, The West Virginia Republican Party Platform.
SEE TWEET BELOW
According to “MetroNews”, Carolyn Stricklin is the former
chairwoman of the Kanawha County Republican Party Executive Committee.
“We’re hoping that the governor will look at this and realize that, even though he has exhibited some random acts of Republicanism, he’s really not being the leader of the Republicans sitting in the governor’s office right now,” Carolyn Stricklin said on Wednesday’s MetroNews “Talkline.”
A top concern being raised about Governor Justice is that he has appointed some Democrats to various government positions since becoming a Republican. Another topic of contention is the fact that the Governor opposes Charter schools which in essence is being in opposition to school choice. Justice’s position on right-to-work legislation as well as road transportation issues. As of March 2019, Justice has announced a new Transportation Secretary and plans to fix issues with roads but if you read between the lines the details seem fuzzy. In the article linked above it states his plans “details will be announced in the future”. It’s always nice to say you’re going to fix stuff or even talk about where you’re going to get the money from but it appears as though the Republicans aren’t confident in the plan coming to fruition.
Kanawha County is the most populous County in West Virginia but has more Democrats than Republicans. Still, Kanawha County Republican Party has a lot of statewide clout with this resolution, at least as long as the Governor doesn’t change back to being a Democrat again.
The unscientific poll in the below Tweet asks the Question, “The Kanawha C. GOP backs a resolution of ‘no confidence’ in @WVGovernor Justice. Do you believe that is A) A few dissatisfied Republicans B) Indicative of broader dissatisfaction within the GOP?” As of my last check it was trending at 69% to 31%, favoring the “Broad dissatisfaction” option with 472 votes.
SEE TWEET BELOW
The Publication quoted earlier, “MetroNews” also did an online poll yesterday, and although Politics Elections could not locate the number of people who voted in the unscientific poll, the numbers showed that 90% of people who voted did not have confidence in Governor Justice.
SEE PHOTO BELOW
As if the Governor didn’t have enough problems to concern himself with, it looks like he’s going to have people vying for his seat in 2020 when Governor Jim Justice plans to run for re-election, from both parties. There appears to be a crowded field, with various announced and potential people running shown here, and here. Even newer to the field and not shown on the aforementioned lists as of this writing, U.S. Senator Joe Manchin is considering a run for the spot as well.
And to top his worries off, apparently, his companies are in record amounts of debt for safety violations. He claims they are violations that are the responsibility of a corporation that he sold the company to, and then bought back later, but sources in the news say otherwise. The bottom line is that the richest man in the state is not tackling his own financial obligations and that doesn’t reflect well upon his integrity.
With all this being said, one person in the running for West Virginia Governor in 2020 on the Republican tickets seems to stand out. He is raising funds before others and runs on a solid Pro Trump, conservative platform, a plus for a state that Trump won in a landslide with nearly 68% of the vote to Hillary Clinton’s 26%. His name is Michael Folk. Michael Folk is a former State Representative for the West Virginia State House of Delegates. Folk runs on being fiscally conservative, repealing common core, stands for “right-to-work” laws, and promoting competition in the free market health care system to lower costs for citizens. See video below from 2016 to hear some of Michael Folks ideas. 2020 will certainly be a very interesting election year, with the Presidential election being front and center to everything else and the question of whether the broader swath of Republican voters the same way as the Kanawha County Republicans.
SEE VIDEO BELOW
