WV - Strategies Unlimited/WV First (D-ish): Justice +6%

[TiltsAreUnderrated]

https://www.newsandsentinel.com/news/local-news/2020/10/second-poll-shows-even-tighter-race-for-west-virginia-governor

September 26-30
600 likely voters
MoE: 4%

I'm not sure WV First is a Democratic outfit, but they are anti-Jim Justice.

Justice (R-inc.) 46%
Salango (D) 40%
Lutz Jr. (Mountain) 5%
Undecided 8%

[Mr. Kanye West]

Getting smaller and smaller

[for a brighter day]

The amount of downballot strength that Democrats retain in WV is pretty remarkable.

It's clear that they want to vote Democrat and feel like they can't because of coal jobs.

Somebody get some tech companies into McDowell County, quick. Silicon Holler.

[Roll Roons]

The amount of downballot strength that Democrats retain in WV is pretty remarkable.

It's clear that they want to vote Democrat and feel like they can't because of coal jobs.

I also wonder how much abortion/guns have to do with it.

[for a brighter day]

The amount of downballot strength that Democrats retain in WV is pretty remarkable.

It's clear that they want to vote Democrat and feel like they can't because of coal jobs.

I also wonder how much abortion/guns have to do with it.

The Democratic Party has supported abortion rights and increased gun control for decades now. The opposition to coal is more recent. I think it's pretty clear.

[RINO Tom]

The amount of downballot strength that Democrats retain in WV is pretty remarkable.

It's clear that they want to vote Democrat and feel like they can't because of coal jobs.

I also wonder how much abortion/guns have to do with it.

The Democratic Party has supported abortion rights and increased gun control for decades now. The opposition to coal is more recent. I think it's pretty clear.

There are also going to be big generational components.  Imagine you are about 35 in West Virginia right now.  Your dad (say, 60) has always voted Democratic, but he's voted Republican at the top of the ballot for years.  Your grandpa (say, 85) just voted for Romney as his first Republican ever, but he cannot imagine that anyone would EVER vote Republican for local offices in his good ole West Virginia.  HIS dad, somehow still alive at age 110, has never voted and will never vote for a Republican, but all of his friends who feel the same are dead.

The 35-year old no doubt has some nostalgia for the "right kind of Democrat," but it's going to be less than his dad's; I mean, he barely got to vote for Robert Byrd once, right?  Both are going to be less than the grandpa, and the great grandpa's attitudes toward the GOP are literally dying every day.  There are certainly many Democrats in WV who'd pull the trigger for a pro-coal Democrat still, and I think they'd certainly be able to propel such a figure to victory in the right environment.  However, there are fewer of them each year.  The 35-year old's kid likely has literally no sentimentality about "local Democrats" at all, to the extent he understands any politics, lol.

[ON Progressive]

Interesting that the Mountain Party (basically WV Greens) is polling that high.

[DINGO Joe]

The amount of downballot strength that Democrats retain in WV is pretty remarkable.

It's clear that they want to vote Democrat and feel like they can't because of coal jobs.

I also wonder how much abortion/guns have to do with it.

The Democratic Party has supported abortion rights and increased gun control for decades now. The opposition to coal is more recent. I think it's pretty clear.

There are also going to be big generational components.  Imagine you are about 35 in West Virginia right now.  Your dad (say, 60) has always voted Democratic, but he's voted Republican at the top of the ballot for years.  Your grandpa (say, 85) just voted for Romney as his first Republican ever, but he cannot imagine that anyone would EVER vote Republican for local offices in his good ole West Virginia.  HIS dad, somehow still alive at age 110, has never voted and will never vote for a Republican, but all of his friends who feel the same are dead.

The 35-year old no doubt has some nostalgia for the "right kind of Democrat," but it's going to be less than his dad's; I mean, he barely got to vote for Robert Byrd once, right?  Both are going to be less than the grandpa, and the great grandpa's attitudes toward the GOP are literally dying every day.  There are certainly many Democrats in WV who'd pull the trigger for a pro-coal Democrat still, and I think they'd certainly be able to propel such a figure to victory in the right environment.  However, there are fewer of them each year.  The 35-year old's kid likely has literally no sentimentality about "local Democrats" at all, to the extent he understands any politics, lol.

The 35 yr olds that you speak of have left WV.  I mean McDowell cast 34,000 votes in 1952 and like 6,000 in 2016.  And aside from Morgantown and the Eastern Panhandle, the population pyramids are way out of whack, everybody over 50.  It's just an extreme situation.

[RINO Tom]

^ Okay, well I think you probably could have hypothesized a small number of 35-year olds who have remained in West Virginia for the sake of what we were talking about, rather than yet again practically take pleasure in pointing out the state's decline.

[wifikitten]

Interesting that the Mountain Party (basically WV Greens) is polling that high.

They got 5.9% in the 2016 gubernatorial election so they seem to have a strong base.

[GALeftist]

Titanium Mountain Party gain.

[DINGO Joe]

^ Okay, well I think you probably could have hypothesized a small number of 35-year olds who have remained in West Virginia for the sake of what we were talking about, rather than yet again practically take pleasure in pointing out the state's decline.

Fine, the 35 yr olds left think like you say and then gets on his ATV, has a beer and a little meth and drives around shooting his gun in the air til he drives off a cliff.  Better?

[Mr. Kanye West]

I can see in a blue wave MO and WVA going D for Gov

[○∙◄☻¥tπ[╪AV┼cVê└]

The 35 yr olds that you speak of have left WV.  I mean McDowell cast 34,000 votes in 1952 and like 6,000 in 2016.  And aside from Morgantown and the Eastern Panhandle, the population pyramids are way out of whack, everybody over 50.  It's just an extreme situation.

It was amazing how Hillary managed to get the fewest votes statewide of any Democrat in the century since women got the right to vote.

[RINO Tom]

^ Okay, well I think you probably could have hypothesized a small number of 35-year olds who have remained in West Virginia for the sake of what we were talking about, rather than yet again practically take pleasure in pointing out the state's decline.

Fine, the 35 yr olds left think like you say and then gets on his ATV, has a beer and a little meth and drives around shooting his gun in the air til he drives off a cliff.  Better?

No.

[Roll Roons]

https://www.post-gazette.com/news/transportation/2020/10/08/hyperloop-West-Virginia-Virgin-Hyperloop-One-certificiation-facility-WVU/stories/202010080163

Richard Branson is building a hyperloop testing facility in West Virginia, which is likely to create thousands of new jobs. I wonder if this could be the start of a new trend, where tech companies start building facilities in places like West Virginia.

[Senator Scott, PPT]

Getting smaller and smaller

[DINGO Joe]

https://www.post-gazette.com/news/transportation/2020/10/08/hyperloop-West-Virginia-Virgin-Hyperloop-One-certificiation-facility-WVU/stories/202010080163

Richard Branson is building a hyperloop testing facility in West Virginia, which is likely to create thousands of new jobs. I wonder if this could be the start of a new trend, where tech companies start building facilities in places like West Virginia.

It's supposed to create 1000 construction jobs and about 100 permanent jobs (mostly connected with WVU presumably).  WV already has a surprising number of these things thanks to their emptiness and previous Senator.  Still, it's a nice thing to have.   Obviously, the Morgantown area and Eastern Panhandle have the kind of things necessary to attract something like this.  It's a much heavier lift to get any type of project off the ground in the rest of the state.

[Alben Barkley]

The amount of downballot strength that Democrats retain in WV is pretty remarkable.

It's clear that they want to vote Democrat and feel like they can't because of coal jobs.

I also wonder how much abortion/guns have to do with it.

The Democratic Party has supported abortion rights and increased gun control for decades now. The opposition to coal is more recent. I think it's pretty clear.

Ancestral Democrats who largely ignored those issues and/or didn't but still saw Democrats as better anyway are dying out though. Current West Virginians are more likely to not only be socially conservative, but vote like it. Note West Virginia is not a particularly religious state, certainly not compared to the Deep South, but it's still socially conservative. There's also things like immigration, not even just abortion and guns. And yes, obviously coal is a large part of it, probably the single largest but there's more to it than just coal.

[for a brighter day]

https://www.post-gazette.com/news/transportation/2020/10/08/hyperloop-West-Virginia-Virgin-Hyperloop-One-certificiation-facility-WVU/stories/202010080163

Richard Branson is building a hyperloop testing facility in West Virginia, which is likely to create thousands of new jobs. I wonder if this could be the start of a new trend, where tech companies start building facilities in places like West Virginia.

Yes! We need more of this. WV has so much potential.

They need to make sure it's spread around the state, though. Don't turn WV into Morgantown + empty mountains.

[tack50]

Interesting that the Mountain Party (basically WV Greens) is polling that high.

They got 5.9% in the 2016 gubernatorial election so they seem to have a strong base.

I wonder if, with enough effort, they could get some sort of state legislative seat or local office in one of the more Dem friendly counties; though I guess those are still too right wing for that.

[lfromnj]

Interesting that the Mountain Party (basically WV Greens) is polling that high.

They got 5.9% in the 2016 gubernatorial election so they seem to have a strong base.

I wonder if, with enough effort, they could get some sort of state legislative seat or local office in one of the more Dem friendly counties; though I guess those are still too right wing for that.

Theres a woke 60% Clinton seat in Charleston proper.

[LabourJersey]

https://www.post-gazette.com/news/transportation/2020/10/08/hyperloop-West-Virginia-Virgin-Hyperloop-One-certificiation-facility-WVU/stories/202010080163

Richard Branson is building a hyperloop testing facility in West Virginia, which is likely to create thousands of new jobs. I wonder if this could be the start of a new trend, where tech companies start building facilities in places like West Virginia.

Yes! We need more of this. WV has so much potential.

They need to make sure it's spread around the state, though. Don't turn WV into Morgantown + empty mountains.

I mean that is a pretty common issue for most rural-ish states, not just WV. The economic opportunities are continuing to be more concentrated in the handful of desirable cities and towns in those states.

[Lief 🐋]

New Poll: West Virginia Governor by Other Source on 2020-09-30

Summary: D: 40%, R: 46%, U: 8%

Poll Source URL: Full Poll Details