Latest / Commentary - TJ Meadows / How Democrats Can Win in West Virginia

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How Democrats Can Win in West Virginia · Commentary - TJ Meadows

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  Speaker 1: What should a Democrat seeking office in West Virginia do
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  Speaker 1: to get elected? My advice, take a page from Sean
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  Speaker 1: Fluharty's playbook. A new poll shows 57% of West Virginians
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  Speaker 1: believe the state is headed in the wrong direction. And
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  Speaker 1: among those dissatisfied voters, 51% blame Republicans. That's political currency.
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  Speaker 1: But dissatisfaction doesn't automatically translate... into votes. Republicans hold a
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  Speaker 1: commanding advantage in voter registration. Democrats must persuade independents and
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  Speaker 1: even some longtime Republicans to cross party lines. That's no
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  Speaker 1: easy task. Consider a text received Tuesday. Quote, the Democrats
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  Speaker 1: ruined West Virginia from 1930 until 2016. Although Republicans have
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  Speaker 1: tripped all over themselves, I'm not ready for the Democrats
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  Speaker 1: to run West Virginia into the ditch again yet. And
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  Speaker 1: therein lies the problem. Voters can be deeply dissatisfied with
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  Speaker 1: Republican leadership and still refuse to vote for a Democrat.
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  Speaker 1: Which brings me to Sean Fluharty. The longtime Democratic delegate
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  Speaker 1: is challenging Republican Senator Laura Wakeham Chapman. And Fluharty is
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  Speaker 1: making the economy his central argument. West Virginia's economy contracted 2.3%
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  Speaker 1: in the second quarter, ranking dead last nationally. Fluharty is
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  Speaker 1: blaming Republican leadership for that performance. James Carville would be proud.
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  Speaker 1: Remember the line, it's the economy, stupid. Meanwhile, a political
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  Speaker 1: action committee associated with Senate President Randy Smith is attacking
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  Speaker 1: Fluharty over transgender athletics. Consider the contrast. Fluharty is talking
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  Speaker 1: about economic performance and the daily struggles of West Virginians.
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  Speaker 1: His opponents are revisiting a cultural controversy the legislature has
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  Speaker 1: already addressed. Republicans won that policy argument against the Supreme
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  Speaker 1: Court of the United States affirmed the state's law. Now what?
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  Speaker 1: Will another argument about transgender athletics convince a frustrated Republican
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  Speaker 1: who cares about economic opportunity to vote for Republicans? Will
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  Speaker 1: it persuade an independent worried about jobs, population loss, and
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  Speaker 1: West Virginia's future? I have doubts. Flewharty is betting those
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  Speaker 1: voters care more about economic results. Democrats also have an
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  Speaker 1: opening with independent voters, whose participation Republicans sought to restrict
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  Speaker 1: by closing their primaries. But here's the larger point. Democrats
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  Speaker 1: cannot simply campaign against the Morrissey faction and expect frustrated
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  Speaker 1: voters to abandon their Republican loyalties. They must offer voters
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  Speaker 1: a way to reject Republican governance without rejecting their own
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  Speaker 1: conservative values. That means focusing on jobs, economic growth, accountability,
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  Speaker 1: and opportunity. It means making the election a referendum on
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  Speaker 1: the performance of those in power rather than allowing Republicans
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  Speaker 1: to define every contest around national cultural controversies. Sean Fluharty
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  Speaker 1: appears to understand that distinction. Other West Virginia Democrats would
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  Speaker 1: be wise to follow his lead.