West Virginia just witnessed one of the most competitive Republican state legislative primaries in recent memory. There are a few key takeaways from election night that indicate better days are ahead for the Mountain State.
One thing is abundantly clear: Republican primaries are going to be competitive moving forward, and that is healthy for politics and policy in our state.
For too long, many incumbents went unchallenged in their primary elections. In that kind of low-stakes environment, politicians can become complacent or, even worse, entitled. Opposition at the ballot box reminds incumbents that their seat doesn’t “belong” to them. Instead, lawmakers must earn the privilege of representing their constituents in Charleston by making the case for their priorities and record.
Republican primary voters are paying attention. As the adage goes, elections have consequences, and as some recently ousted statehouse incumbents can attest to, so do bad policy decisions.
For instance, school choice was on the ballot on election night and won big with the ousting of House Finance Chairman Vernon Criss. Despite educational freedom being a litmus test for conservative lawmakers, Criss led a failed attack on school choice with legislation that would have effectively kicked thousands of kids out of the Hope Scholarship. It would wind up costing him his seat. Voters in Wood County selected his opponent and vocal advocate for educational freedom, Charles Hartzog, by over 60 percent.
Another inflection point of the night was the defeat of Delegate Scot Heckert. Heckert, an outspoken opponent of Governor Morrisey’s pro-growth agenda, was the deciding vote in the House Health Committee against legislation that would have repealed the state’s Certificate of Need (CON) laws. This issue is growing in salience amongst likely republican voters because CON is government-run healthcare at its worst. When a medical provider wants to expand current or open new services, they first must ask permission from a board of unelected bureaucrats.
Incumbent Hospital Monopolies participate in this broken process by vetoing competition to shore up their own profits. Heckert’s contention that the government should run health care in West Virginia blocked a $500M private health care investment in his district. Voters, rightly, saw fit to replace him with Melissa McCrady, who supports cutting needless red tape holding our state back from more quality health care options at prices folks can afford.
In the Senate, a small coalition of back bench moderates, led by Senator Tom Takubo, recruited a slate of candidates in an attempt to defeat the conservative incumbent majority led by President Randy Smith. The moderate coalition—backed by labor unions, Hospital Monopolies, and the increasingly liberal West Virginia Chamber of Commerce—failed to score a single victory. Voters overwhelmingly supported principled policy champions in the senate.
As have other successful red state governors have, Governor Patrick Morrisey was very active in engaging in key races in a common-sense move to grow his governing majority to help meet the policy mandate of West Virginia’s deeply red electorate. His efforts were a deciding factor in several close contests around the state. Grassroots activists are happy to stand with Governor Morrisey to hold lawmakers’ feet to the fire on the policies that matter most to them. With Election Day behind us, the Governor has called for the party to unite around proven reforms to help every West Virginian thrive. This is what Mountaineers expect.
Sadly, recent comments from House Speaker Roger Hanshaw and Sen. Takubo seem to indicate that some are more interested in retribution over election results that did not go their way than making a good faith effort to find common ground on policy.
West Virginians deserve better than sour grapes that serve no one or elected officials crying foul at the electorate if their preferred candidates failed to make their case to constituents. Factions within the Republican Party appealed to the voters and they have spoken. We hope that Republican lawmakers appeal to their better angels because, with the sparring over, it is time to come together and govern. Remember, the voters are watching.
Jason Huffman is the West Virginia State Director of Americans for Prosperity.
