WV-Gov: Gov. Jim Justice, who was elected as a Democrat in 2016 but rejoined the GOP the next year, picked up his first notable Democratic opponent last week. Former West Virginia Healthy Kids and Families Coalition Stephen Noble Smith, who spent six years heading up a group of nonprofits that worked to combat poverty, announced he was in. Smith is a first-time candidate, but local political columnist Steven Allen Adams writes that he “has a vast network statewide already in place that can help him in 2020.”
However, Adams adds that it’s “apparent based on his statements [Smith] plans to run from the far-left” in a way that probably won’t play well in this conservative state, though Adams doesn’t go into any details about what statements he’s referring to. In his campaign kickoff Smith argued that, while the state seems to be producing more wealth than ever, that money isn’t “staying in our pockets, it's not staying in our roads, it's not staying in our schools.” That approach hardly strikes us as “far-left” rhetoric that’s toxic with conservative voters who are unhappy with the status quo.
Smith may get some competition in the primary. Adams writes that former U.S. Attorney Booth Goodwin, who lost the 2016 Democratic primary to Justice 51-25, is considering a second try. Last month Goodwin’s wife, Amy Shuler Goodwin, was elected mayor of Charleston, the state’s capital and largest city, which could give him a bigger profile if he runs again. Smith also adds that Booth Goodwin spent this last election cycle working with several political action committees to unseat GOP legislators.
Adams also adds that Woody Thrasher, who served as commerce secretary under Justice, is also considering. Like Goodwin, Thrasher doesn’t appear to have said anything publicly about his interest.
Thrasher ran a successful engineering firm before he joined the Justice administration in early 2017, and he remained in office after Justice switched parties months later. Thrasher scored a high-profile win a year ago when he announced that China Energy was making an $83 million investment in West Virginia natural gas projects, a deal he signed in China in front of Donald Trump. But Thrasher attracted some bad attention a few months later over his department’s handling of federal flood-relief money, and Justice forced him to resign in June.
Adams also name-drops former Secretary of State Natalie Tennant, who was Team Blue’s 2014 Senate nominee. Tennant ran for re-election in 2016 but lost 49-47. Afterwards, she took a job at the New York University School of Law’s Brennan Center for Justice as their manager of state advocacy for the Voting Rights and Elections project. Tennant filed pre-candidacy paperwork with the state to set up a committee for a 2020 race back in September, but we still don’t know if Tennant’s looking at running for governor, secretary of state, a different office, or just keeping her options open.
Justice himself hasn’t confirmed that he’ll run again, but he said in late October that he would probably seek a second term, and he would be sure in a "little while." Adams writes that, while Republican state legislators praise the governor openly, there’s still plenty of behind-the-scenes distrust when it comes to the former Democrat. (We’re shocked they haven’t gotten over the manure veto incident.) Adams says that the name he hears the most from Republicans looking to challenge the governor in a primary is Rep. David McKinley, who also doesn’t appear to have said anything publicly about his plans.
McKinley ran for governor all the way back in 1996, and he’s considered other statewide bids in recent years. McKinley toyed with running for governor for months in 2016 and he briefly flirted with challenging Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin this year, but he chose to seek re-election to his safely red northern West Virginia seat both times. However, Adams notes that the state looks likely to lose one of its three congressional seats in 2022, so McKinley may decide it's better to run for governor again now rather than take his chances with redistricting two years down the line.