Think WV's Senate Seat Is Lost?

[lees1975]

47. I'm the son of native West Virginians who moved out of the state

because even back then, in 1954, the population was declining, coal jobs were declining, and my Dad, a WW2 Navy vet, with a degree in chemistry from WVU, looked at his cousins, working in a carbon plant, exposed to black lung, and barely making it wage-wise, saw no future there, and moved to Arizona.

The county where they lived supported Trump in 2016 67%-31%. Since then, the carbon plant closed, as the mines slowly ran out of coal and shut down. They've lost all but about 10% of their remaining jobs. The population of the county, which has declined every year since 1950, has dropped from 47,000 to 23,000 and it dropped 12% since 2016. The county seat has gone from 8,500 at its peak to just 3,000. The only hospital and emergency room in the county closed in 2020. The local school districts, for self-preservation and to save money, consolidated five high schools into one a few years back.

That's not an isolated story. You'll find that in most of the surrounding counties there, many of them worse off. It's a set up for a Democratic candidate, with Democratic values and a Democratic party agenda, to win big. West Virginia's other Senator, Shelly Moore-Capito, the daughter of a former governor, Archie Moore, who knew how to throw economic bones to get votes, is a do-nothing elitist who managed to win office on Republican social issues and has yet to come up with legislation to benefit the state.

So I think the right Democrat can play this political mix, penetrate what is stultifying political ignorance and media control, and win this seat, keeping it out of Republican hands. Of all states where a woman's right to choose is a necessity, it's West Virginia.

BTW, that hospital that closed is now re-opening in stages, thanks to the help of the Biden Adminisration, which worked with a local medical practice to help them purchase the facility and give it a $12 million upgrade. They're opening in stages, I think the ER is open now, and lab services are available, along with acute patient care. 80 jobs created.