When it comes to national politics, West Virginia rarely shows up on the radar screen. Unless an election is running close, or a primary, little attention is paid to what goes on in this small state that once was a Democratic party stronghold because of organzed labor in the coal industry, but which, because of the culture war, a lot of ignorance, and no one really caring much, has become one of the reddest states in the union. And as coal has collapsed, which Republicans falsely and deceptively blamed on Democrats when it was their own doing, under Bush and under Trump during his first term, the population has declined, the state lost a congressional seat, and the voter turnout in elections has plummeted to all time lows as the opioid crisis roared and people who could still afford to do so moved elsewhere.
I have a personal stake in what goes on in West Virginia politics. My family roots are there. My parents, grandparents, great grandparents and ancestors came from Irish and Scottish immigrants who moved into the mountains when it was still part of Virginia. For them, the attraction was the jobs, in the coal mines and in the industries that use it. And I spent some time there myself, working at door to door sales jobs in the summer to earn money for college. The coal fields were prosperous back then, and I was able to pay for tuition and fees by walking the hollers in Mingo, Logan and Wyoming counties, where I think I probably knocked on every door to every house.
Hospital Closing is a Sign of Political Malaise
So a few years back, browsing the online edition of the Williamson Daily News, I noticed that the Williamson Memorial Hospital had closed, a victim of the opioid crisis that hit rural West Virginia hard, and of the COVID pandemic. The high rates of poverty in the county, high unemployment, and low numbers of people with adequate insurance, left the hospital short of operating capital, and it was forced to close.
It was the only hospital and emergency room in Mingo County, serving 25,000 residents, many in remote rural areas. It was not the only rural hospital in West Virginia that was struggling. More than a dozen rural hospitals closed in the state as a result of the debt they incurred having to treat so many uninsured patients who were victims of the opioid crisis or COVID.
West Virginia's state legislature, and governor, have done little to nothing to provide help to allieviate the opioid issue, or to keep accesss to medical care in rural areas open, in spite of the fact that there's no profit to be made off health care facilities in communities where as many as 40% of the residents are on medicare, medicaid, or do not have insurance at all. And if anything happens to the ACA, it will have a devastating effect on medical care in rural West Virginia.
There was some hope for WIlliamson Memorial Hospital, when it closed. When the Biden Administratin was in power, West Virginia's Democratic Senator, Joe Manchin, worked to bring local resources together with federal money, and secured enough help from the federal government to combine with what was available from local physicians and local resources to renovate the facility, bring it up to standard, and eventually, after several years, get it open and operating again. The state government was largely absent from the process.
So was the state's other Senator, Shelley Moore Capito. She stands out in contrast to her constituents, the daugher of a family that made their money exploiting the people of West Virginia, and of a governor whose record is one of the worst when it comes to doing what state governments are supposed to do for their constituents. Even among some of my more conservative family members who still live in West Virginia, the name "Archie Moore" can't be mentioned without generating some anger and expressions of derision.
So how does this, one of the most ineffective, inept members of the United States Senate, get re-elected? The apathy among West Virginia voters, when it comes to their faith in their own leaders and government, is at an all time high. Turnout is low, people are more focused on day to day survival than on who will represent them in the US Senate, and money buys elections in West Virginia in a way that it doesn't do so anywhere else.
Moore-Capito did absolutely nothing to help the hospital in Williamson re-open, but she was there, once Senator Manchin was gone, to help claim credit. I have done reasearch, through the news reports from the local newspaper, and from television stations in Huntington and Charleston that carried the stories about the hospital, and cannot find a single reference to Moore-Capito in all that was done to secure federal funding, over $2 million, for the hospital. Nothing.
A Long Shot That Might Not be so Long
I am encouraging Democrats and independents I know to help Zach Shrewsbury beat Moore-Capito in his challenge to win this Senate seat. I've written to every family member I have in West Virginia encouraging them to take a look at this guy and get out and vote for him. For many of them, who consider themselves Republican, that was a shocking request, but all I asked of them was to give him a fair consideration. I found that several of them, including the ones who still live in Mingo County, are planning to break their fast from voting, one cousin and his wife not having been to the polls in over 20 years, and will vote for Zach. They've been beneficiaries of his work, and they know about him and what he does, and his care and concern for the people of West Virginia. That, frankly, was more than I expected.
But he's apparently getting his message out. I've heard from other family members, mostly in my own generation, who are planning to support him. That's progress. Politics was off the discussion table in my extended family, and I'm kind of an outsider, not growing up in West Virginia, but this discussion got more acceptance than I thought it would. People are paying attention, and Shrewsbury's message is clearly resonating, unlike the gaslighting they hear from Moore-Capito and the GOP.
Shrewsbury's message is aimed at West Virginians who have, in surprisingly large numbers, stayed away from the polls over the years. I remember hearing my mother and father, and my grandmother, express their doubts about whether any politician was honest enough or sincere enough to be concerned about their life and their needs, and that it really didn't matter who they voted for, nothing would change. That came from their own experience. How many other people think that way is a clear factor in election outcomes, since more people don't register or vote than those who actually do.
West Virginia, especially its southern counties, deep in the Appalachian Mountains, is feeling the effects of the affordability crisis more than most places. A high percentage of the population, those who haven't moved to find better jobs, are on fixed incomes, like black lung pensions, or social security, so when the local grocery store, or Wal-Mart, or hospital, closes, they have the expense of long drives added to the higher prices of goods. Try to find what Moore-Capito is doing, anything, to help. You won't find a thing. She's more interested in being a good Trumpie than she is in helping the people of West Virginia, she's just using them for her own political career.
Shrewsbury is Running the Kind of Campaign It Takes to Win an Election Like This
Committed not to take corporate, dirty money, and to run an "on the ground" campaign, Shrewsbury has a chance to win this election, if he can do what he is aiming to do, and that is to activate apathetic voters. It's pretty clear from what he already does for the people of West Virginia, that he's not going to sit around and do nothing. Of course, what politicians say they are going to do and what they wind up doing are usually two different things, but Shewsbury is an advocate for the people already. He is clearly worth the financial support he will need to unexpectedly flip this seat, help people understand that voting for Moore-Capito is voting against their own interests, and win this election.
This is not a politician who is feathering his own nest. This is someone who is making a difference without being a politician.
Join me in sending your contribution to Zach Shrewsbury for Senate, in West Virginia. This is a guy who can win.
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