CHARLESTON, WV (LOOTPRESS) – Voters across the state are making their way out to the polls as the final hours of the West Virginia Primary Election are upon us.
The gubernatorial race has been a topic of much discussion amongst voters in recent months, with former House of Delegates member Moore Capito, businessman Chris Miller, Attorney General Patrick Morrisey, and Secretary of State Mac Warner commanding the lion’s share of attention in early polls. Huntington Mayor Steve Williams is running as the only Democratic candidate in the race, while Republicans Mitch Roberts and Kevin Christian have also thrown their respective hats in the ring.
LOOTPRESS reached out to businessman and Republican candidate Chris Miller on Election Day to discuss his campaign, issues facing the State of West Virginia, and more ahead of the conclusion of the race. The conversation can be seen below.
LP: Coming up on the tail end of this primary cycle, what are your feelings as you approach the finish line, as it were?
CM: The absolute best thing about the state of West Virginia are the people. We have the best people on planet Earth, man. And I’m very, very excited about being able to represent them. The momentum is there, everything feels good. But man, our people. Only in West Virginia will people bring you into their home and feed you even when they don’t have a lot. And it’s also only in West Virginia when your Tesla breaks down out in coal country that a bunch of miners come out of the mine and push your Tesla to the nearest coal powered generator to make sure you’ve got enough charge to get on down the road and see your family. So that’s West Virginia goodness right there in a nutshell. That has absolutely been the best part about doing this is meeting so many fantastic people all around the state. West Virginia’s got just the best people on planet Earth.
LP: And to that end, your campaign has had a broad reach across the state. You’ve been traveling all over the place, specifically to places which perhaps are under-acknowledged; you’re out in McDowell County, out in Mingo, Wyoming County; how has the response been from those areas which don’t necessarily see as much representation or engagement with those in office or running for office.
CM: Oh, off the charts! You know, a lot of them feel forgotten and the fact that they had somebody running for governor come down there and want to talk to them and meet them face to face and spend time listening to them, they just they loved it. There was a function in Wayne County this weekend in Dunlow, and that was the first Governor candidate to go down there since Arch Moore.
LP: Wow!
CM: The South has been forgotten. We’re going to bring the South back to life. It deserves better than what it has been getting. It has paid all the severance taxes for the longest time to the state to let us thrive and survive. And now, because of what the EPA did, they’ve been shut down and losing population and are struggling a little bit. Man, we’ve got to bring it back to life. They deserve better than that. They deserve better than what they are getting, that’s for darn sure.
LP: Your business background has been a key focus of the campaign, which has drawn a lot of parallels from voters to yourself and former president and current presidential candidate Donald Trump, who has had great success with West Virginia voters. What do you think it is about that sort of brass tax, no nonsense approach that really resonates with West Virginians?
CM: People are dying for authenticity. They’re tired of politicians that talk out of both sides of their mouths and say all kinds of words and don’t do anything. People want resolve, and that was the thing that Trump brought. He brought no-nonsense, straight-to-the point results, and people in West Virginia are dying for that too. That is definitely the difference between me and everybody else in the race. Being an outsider, coming from business – my goal is going to be to take everybody on the inside and make them outsiders, and to take everybody on the outside and make them the insiders. The government should always be about the people, always. It should never be about the political class, it should be about the people and it should be about results. So people love that. They love the fact that I’m straight forward and to the point and say what I mean and do what I say.
LP: You could see why that would resonate in the South, because that’s the general sort of attitude down that way. State infrastructure has been another big talking point for the campaign. What will be your approach to energy and infrastructure if elected?
CM: So everything that we do has to be focused on growing our economy, it has to be you. If you want to fix the foster care system, you have to grow the economy to have the revenue and resources to do it. You want to fix the road issue and infrastructure? Because right now we are bonded to the, you know what. We’ve got to grow the economy. You want to fix broadband because? Because we messed that up. You’ve got to grow the economy to have the negotiating position and the leverage to be able to get the job done. We have to grow the economy to have the revenue to get the job done at the end of the day, no matter what problem that we’re facing. What people want is a business guy in there because we’re really, really good at negotiating. We understand how the world works. We know how to get stuff done. We don’t want politicians in there because, man, it is so easy to negotiate with somebody else’s money and they’re just bad at it. To be honest, they’re really, really bad at it. Even our opiate settlements: bad deal for West Virginia; not good enough. Poorly negotiated.
LP: Any final thoughts as this portion of the race draws to a close?
CM: Well, it’s been an absolute honor to do this and I’m so excited to be given the opportunity to represent the people of West Virginia. I’ve been all around the state and, like I said, the best part about West Virginia is the people. There’s so many great people all around our state and we deserve better. We really do. Given the opportunity, I will work 70 hours a week to make sure that people in West Virginia finally have what they deserve and we should be a powerhouse. We should be the richest state in the country because of everything that we have. All the coal, all the natural gas, the incredible amount of water, the rare earth elements in the southern part of the state, the fact the Department of Energy says that West Virginia could be the powerhouse of geothermal for the country; We can generate more power through geothermal than Saudi Arabia can generate BTUs and natural gas. We’re not the richest state in the country because of politicians, and they don’t have the foresight to get big deals done and to see the playing field the right way. We need more business people. We need more educators involved. We need more farmers involved. We need people that understand labor getting involved. We do that: West Virginia wins, and I’ve got a funny feeling that West Virginia is really going to start winning. I really do.
LP: Thanks so much for taking the time! Best of luck to you and thanks again.
CM: I appreciate it!
