Today, the West Virginia Chamber of Commerce released their latest "polling" for the 2024 election cycle. This poll covered many of the state-wide races and the majority of candidates that are seeking them. However, I would be doing our state and our country a great disservice if I didn't dispute the results of the Chamber's "polling" and the intent behind them.
I want to discuss the results of the "polling" for the governor's race in particular. The Chamber has Delegate Moore-Capito as the front-runner with "32%" and true front-runner and the best Attorney General in West Virginia state history in second. As someone who is involved in politics and knows the landscape of West Virginia from previous state-wide campaigns, I can promise you that the energy, support, and momentum are clearly with Patrick Morrisey. From grassroots volunteers to the amount of money raised and the number of unique individual donors, Morrisey is by far leading the pack in every category.
In state-wide races, name recognition plays a huge factor, and I can tell you from experience on the campaign trail that very few people know who Moore-Capito is and usually think people are referring to his mother when hearing about him. Morrisey, on the other hand, has the most name recognition of the entire field. From his great work as our Attorney General, receiving President Trump's endorsement on multiple occasions, and his exposure in the national media, Morrisey is a household name.
When running for an office such as governor, your accomplishments and voting records matter. You would be hard pressed to find anyone in the entire country who has a proven conservative record that could rival the accomplishments of our Attorney General. Morrisey has been the public face of some of the nation’s most significant legal victories in recent years. He spearheaded America’s largest win against the deep administrative state in decades (WV v. EPA), a pivotal case for our state because it helps protect energy jobs and limits the ability of federal agencies to issue regulations without clear statements from Congress. He was a leading advocate of bringing constitutional carry to West Virginia citizens, led the effort to successfully defend the state’s school choice laws (one of the broadest in the country), and set up the first-ever Disability Fraud Unit in the state over Republican and Democratic opposition. He’s the first pro-life Attorney General in West Virginia history and defends our state’s pro-life laws in court without reservation.
The primary goal of the Chamber's "polling" is to discourage the people of West Virginia and other potential donors from supporting true conservative candidates. I encourage you to do your own homework and vet any and all polling that you may see this election cycle. I would also suggest that if you did your own version of polling by asking your neighbors who they support, the results would definitely be different than those that are skewed and influenced by the Chamber. When done correctly, political polling can be a useful tool that helps a campaign gain insight into where their candidate stands in a race. However, I will remind everyone that polling can be manipulated to achieve a desired result. While there may be other candidates in the race that the people of West Virginia like, the majority agree that there is only one true, proven conservative in the field, and his name is Patrick Morrisey.