Endorsing a Long-Shot: Rachel Anderson for the Senate from West Virginia

My parents grew up in West Virginia and the greater part of both of their extended families still live there.  From Weirton in the northern panhandle, to Clarksburg and Harrison County, and a few still scattered near my mother's home place in Doddridge County, down to Mingo County, Williamson and Matewan, I have a group of first and second cousins.  The younger generation on my Dad's side of the family has moved away from the coal mines and carbon plants that provided jobs for my parent's generation to being insurance agents, retail business owners, including one long-time Italian restaurant, and one West Virginia pub, quite a few nurses, nurse practitioners, one physicians assistant, and two dentists.  And I have one second cousin who is a university professor and an author.  

About half of my extended family no longer lives in West Virginia.  They've scattered to other places, one group to the Washington, DC area, mostly Maryland, and another group westward into Ohio.  The jobs just weren't there.  The half that remains, because of the transition they've made as far as their jobs go, have a decidedly more Republican outlook than my parents and grandparents generations, all of whom were union members.  

But that appears to be changing, especially among those who, like myself, are college educated and in a professional occupation.  Most of those with whom I still have contact started out by supporting Trump in 2016 and 2020, and then again in 2024, though a few of them had cooled off by the last election and I actually had some great conversations with a couple of cousins who saw the truth.  They'd basically dropped out of participation in politics, but since the indictments came down and reality set in, they have registered to vote and support Democrats.  

For months now, among the scattered social media posts and other communication in which I've been involved, there are several of us trying to talk the rest of our family into voting for Rachel Anderson for the U.S. Senate.  I won't be able to vote in West Virginia, but what I'm seeing in our conversations now is the realization that the senior Senator from there, Shelley Moore-Capito, has done nothing for the state, and has actually done nothing notable or vote-worthy for the entire time she has served in the Senate.  

Anderson, who is a member of the Morgantown City Council, and an attorney working in public interest and advocacy for 30 years, won the Democratic nomination.  In the state which Trump won by the largest margin, she is a long shot.  But maybe not as much of a long shot as might be imagined.  Moore-Capito, who is the least accomplished Senator out of a hundred, was not the overwhelming choice of her own party.  Even with Trump's endorsement, in a state he won by 40 points, turnout was underwhelming, and Moore-Capito picked up 66% of the Republican vote.  It cost her more in terms of campaign money than any of her previous primaries, and  it was the lowest vote total she has registered so far.  

I'm not seeing any support for Moore-Capito among those relatives I have in the state who actually register and vote.  Several of them have indicated support for Anderson, and have not received, in response, the normal criticism and derision from the others that would have happened in the past.  Everyone knows where I stand, and I often get the standard Republican push back from most of them, but in the recent discussions we've had, anecdotal and limited for sure, but quite different, there's been no disagreement, and there has been some acknowledgement that a change might be needed, and in order.  

I doubt there are any political pundits who'd predict this would go any way except for the Republican.  On the other hand, among Democrats in West Virginia, Anderson is well known, and one of the interesting political aspects of the state is that the only counties where there has been population growth in the last six decades are the ones where Democrats actually outnumber Republicans.  And while Democrats had a relatively high turnout in their primary, Republican turnout was low.  Don't get me wrong, it's still a long-shot.  

West Virginia is one of the poorest states in the country, it is losing jobs and population regularly, and it has been since 1950.  It is one of the most ignored areas of the country by politicians, and I cannot fathom how misinformed and ignorant the majority of the population must be, when they continuously vote against all of their own interests every election cycle, electing patrician politicians like Moore-Capito who vote for legislation that helps increase the poverty, does nothing to decrease unemployment or business development, and which continues to contribute to people leaving the state in droves. 

I've been following the saga of the only hospital and emergency room in Mingo County closing as a result of the COVID epidemic.  I have relatives who live there, and several who worked at the hospital, Williamson Memorial.  Fortunately, they were able to find jobs at the regional hospital across the river in Kentucky, but a lot of the staff just lost their jobs, and the closure left the county without a functioning emergency room.  

The local physicians group worked hard to get the hospital back open, investing large amounts of money to purchase and renovate the facility.  They got a lot of help as a result of their sitting Senator, and former Governor Joe Manchin, who, as a Democrat, had some pull with the Biden Administration.  And the federal government did come through.  The new Williamson Memorial Hospital is open again, thanks to Democrats, including former Senator Manchin and the Biden Administration.  It does not appear that Senator Moore-Capito was involved at all, except for trying to steal credit on the end result.  

And yet, this is a crisis for a number of counties in the state, especially in the southern counties.  People living in poverty without transportation are living in communities where hospitals are at risk of closing.  But this is not a priority for the Republicans.  

Remember Trump's promise to do everything in his power to bring the coal industry back?  West Virginia is now a wasteland of abandoned mines and laid off workers.  And his endorsed and favorite Senator from the state is doing absolutely nothing about it.  There's not even a hint from her that she cares about this.  

So West Virginia, it's a long shot, but if you really think it is time to send an old school, ineffective, do-nothing Republican home, then turn out and send Rachel Anderson to the Senate.