MARTINSBURG, WEST VIRGINIA — West Virginia voters in 2024 will see some familiar names on ballots. Several of them, in fact.
The state’s governorship is now open because term limits are forcing Gov. Jim Justice (R-WV) to retire, and the race to replace him has one clan squaring off against another.
They are reaching for an attractive prize, especially as the Republican nominee is favored to prevail in November 2024. West Virginia is a deeply red state where former President Donald Trump beat President Joe Biden in 2020 by more than a 2-to-1 margin.
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State Del. Moore Capito (R-WV) is running for governor, and he’ll have to get through the crucial GOP primary in June 2024. If the name sounds familiar to political observers, it’s because the GOP state lawmaker is the son of Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV). In 2014, Capito was first elected to the Senate after 14 years in the House of Representatives and four years in the state House of Delegates before that.
But the younger Capito hardly has the GOP gubernatorial nomination locked up. In the primary, he faces Chris Miller, a prominent car dealer based in Huntington at the western end of the Mountain State, just across the Ohio River from the state of Ohio. His mother is Rep. Carol Miller (R-WV), who was elected to Congress in 2018. Miller was a member of the state House of Delegates from 2006 to 2018.
Dynastic politics are nothing new, of course. The Kennedys and the Bushes top the list of American political dynasties in the modern era. And currently, there’s Rep. Robert Menendez Jr. (D-NJ), the son of Sen. Bob Menendez (D-NJ), who easily won the open Jersey City-area 8th Congressional District during the midterm elections. The older Menendez held this seat from 1993 to 2006.
Similarly, Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) followed his father into politics after a career practicing ophthalmology. Former Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX) was a House member from the Houston area in three different stints for a total of about 23 years. The father-son duo of libertarian-minded Republican lawmakers overlapped in Congress between 2011 and 2013.
Gov.-elect Sarah Huckabee Sanders (R-AR), who was the White House press secretary in Trump’s administration, is the daughter of a previous Arkansas governor, Mike Huckabee. He won national attention as a 2008 and 2012 Republican presidential candidate and the one-time host of an eponymous talk show on Fox News.
The list of America’s political families goes on and on.
Nevertheless, the dynastic nature of West Virginia politics heading into the 2024 election cycle stands out since the mothers of the top two GOP gubernatorial candidates are congressional colleagues — all in a largely rural state with a shrinking population base.
Nor do the political lineages of the gubernatorial rivals end there. Sen. Shelley Moore Capito is the daughter of the late Gov. Arch Moore, who was in office from 1969 to 1977 and from 1985 to 1989. Before running the state in Charleston, West Virginia, Moore had a dozen-year congressional career in Washington, D.C., as a House member from 1957 to 1969.
And the older Miller is a second-generation member of the House. Her father, Samuel L. Devine, was a lawyer and, from 1959 to 1981, represented Ohio’s 12th District, located in and around the state capital of Columbus.
Chris Miller and Moore Capito aren’t the only political scions running for higher office in West Virginia next year. State Treasurer Riley Moore is seeking the Republican nomination for the 2nd District, located in eastern and northern West Virginia. Rep. Alex Mooney (R-WV) is giving it up to seek the Republican Senate nomination and challenge Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) in 2024.
Moore’s grandfather was Arch Moore, the two-time West Virginia governor and eight-year House member. This makes Sen. Shelley Moore Capito his aunt and gubernatorial hopeful Moore Capito his first cousin.
Riley Moore was named for his grandmother, Shelley Riley Moore, who was twice West Virginia’s first lady. He was elected state treasurer in 2020 after a single, two-year term as a state delegate.
Energy a big issue
Riley Moore has become an outspoken critic of so-called ESG investing and has worked against the environmental, social, and governance push from corporations and financial institutions. In June 2022, Moore issued a letter to six financial institutions, saying they would no longer be allowed to do business with the state of West Virginia due to their advocacy against the fossil fuel industry. The firms were BlackRock, Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase, Morgan Stanley, U.S. Bancorp, and Wells Fargo.
The continued importance of fossil fuels in West Virginia’s economy also is likely to play out in the governor’s race. Miller has touted the issue in his nascent GOP gubernatorial primary campaign, launched on Dec. 6. And his professional background gives credence to the need for traditional energy sources: Miller owns the Dutch Miller Auto Group, one of West Virginia’s largest car dealerships.
Capito is running for governor with a long record in the state legislature of supporting fossil fuel interests. In a Nov. 29 video announcing his campaign for governor, he said he wants to boost student achievement, increase business development, lower taxes, and invest in energy infrastructure.
“Moore knows that Joe Biden’s war on energy is a war on West Virginia,” read a Capito press release. “To beat back Biden and the Left, we need a fighter who is battle tested and understands the stakes.”
“Governor Capito will mean great news for West Virginia’s economy, and bad news for Biden’s leftwing agenda.”
Miller, though a son and grandson of House members, touts himself as a nonpolitician who will bring a business-oriented approach to the state’s $4.6 billion budget.
“I’m the only outsider. I’m the only person who knows how to run a business. I employ about 650 people, and I know how to balance a checkbook,” Miller told WOWK, a television station based in Charleston.
“And I know the importance of making sure people stay employed. That’s the huge difference. I’m not bureaucrat, someone that works inside of the government and just does government stuff all the time,” Miller said in a pointed jab at his primary GOP gubernatorial primary rival, Capito, whose campaign website touts his political experience as a congressional aide and Trump administration staff member.
But the family feel of the early gubernatorial campaign could provide an opening for another Republican candidate who could appeal to voters as a fresh political face. Secretary of State Mac Warner is eyeing the race. So is Attorney General Patrick Morrissey. Republicans Terri Bradshaw of Gandeeville, West Virginia, a farmer, and Rashida Yost of Martinsburg, West Virginia, a preschool owner, also are running.
So far, no big-name Democrat in West Virginia has pondered a run, a reflection of the party’s starkly diminished status after decades of dominance in the Mountain State. Justice, in fact, was elected as a Democratic governor in 2016 but switched parties the next year at the behest of Trump.
Tough challenges for the next West Virginia governor
West Virginia is one of 12 states with a 2024 gubernatorial race, which will overlap with the presidential contest. Whoever wins will face a broad set of challenges in a state that saw America’s deepest population decline between the 2010 and 2020 censuses: 3.2%. That came out to about 59,000 people total in a population of 1.8 million.
Only two other states saw marginal population losses: Illinois and Mississippi, at about 0.1% each. Meanwhile the other 47 states grew in population as the number of people nationwide went up to about 331 million (a decade earlier, it was 309 million).
West Virginia relies on the energy, mining, and extraction industries, especially coal. Plastics and polymers are the staples of West Virginia’s manufacturing industry, and the steel sector remains important. Most of these run counter to the “green energy” agenda of the Biden administration and the Democratic Senate majority.
That helps explain the early sniping between GOP gubernatorial rivals Capito and Miller over who is a more fervent protector of the fossil fuel industry, along with congressional candidate Moore’s push as state treasurer to block “environmentally friendly investing.”
Many West Virginia counties, particularly in the eastern and southern realms of the state, have poverty rates of nearly 20% or more. In McDowell, West Virginia’s southernmost county, more than one-third of all residents live in poverty, and the population declined by nearly 20% since 2000.
West Virginia, however, does have a growing population in its northern realm. Consider Monongalia County, which is along the Pennsylvania state line and home to many people who commute to jobs in the greater Pittsburgh area. Monongalia County is also home to West Virginia University, located in Morgantown. Monongalia’s population grew about 10% in the decade prior to the 2020 Census, making it West Virginia’s third-most populous county.
Dynastic politics on the wane
Whether West Virginia voters want a governor from a political family remains to be seen. After all, American political dynasties in recent years have ended more with a whimper than a bang. A pair of the nation’s most prominent political families have seen their office-seeking fortunes wane considerably.
Texas Land Commissioner George P. Bush lost a 2022 Republican runoff for state attorney general against incumbent Ken Paxton. Two years before, his cousin Pierce Bush was turned away by Republican voters in the race for the nomination in suburban Houston’s 22nd District.
Former Gov. Jeb Bush (R-FL) is George P. Bush’s father. Former President George W. Bush is an uncle. And George P. Bush is also the grandson of President George H.W. Bush and the great-grandson of Sen. Prescott Bush (R-CT).
Also in 2020, then-Rep. Joe Kennedy III lost a Democratic primary challenge to Sen. Ed Markey (D-MA). Kennedy is a grandson of the late attorney general and Sen. Robert F. Kennedy (D-NY) and is the son of former Rep. Joe Kennedy II (D-MA). And, of course, he is the grandnephew of slain Democratic President John F. Kennedy.
In West Virginia this year, some prospective voters said they’re not bothered by the dynastic politics of the state’s 2024 race.
“They’ll have to prove themselves on their own records. But it’s good they’ll know something about how government works,” said Nick Williamson in between giving trims to customers at Panhandle Barbers in Martinsburg.
But Steve Lynn, a small business owner in the area, told the Washington Examiner the idea of a governor whose mother was a senator or a congresswoman was a bit much.
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“It seems like we could find other people who could do a good job. It doesn’t have to be from the same families all the time,” Lynn said.
If Capito and Miller are the only big-name candidates in the governor’s race, however, voters won’t have a choice on that front.
