If I was DNC chair, I would make getting back WV a top priority. Make it very clear that anti-coal democrats are in the wrong, in fact, kick them out of the party if they won't change their views. Make being pro-coal one of the first things the democratic platform lists, and stress its importance. Apologize over and over again in TV ads for your pure stupidity, recklessness, and destruction of jobs in being anti-coal. Say that you are thankful for the punishment the state gave the democratic party, and have learned from it.
1) West Virginia only has 5 electoral votes, and could lose one in the next census.
2) Unlike Democratic hope states, West Virginia has elected Democrats statewide even to this day, and will likely continue to do so this year. Georgia has not since 2006, South Carolina barely elected a Democrat to an obscure statewide office in 2006, Texas last did so in 1994. States that Democrats can win Presidentially, some of them have poor records for statewide Democrats, such as Ohio and Florida. So West Virginia is not exactly a lost cause for Democrats in the sense of adding Senate, Governor and potentially house seat numbers after Obama leaves office.
3) Many of them just swung so hard Republican Presidentially due to the state being overwhelmingly religious, socially conservative and white. Many are single issue coal voters even.
4) The coal obsession there needs to stop. It has been in decline and will be in decline, especially as alternative sources become more viable.
