Griffith, Baker clash over economic development and 2020 presidential vote certification

In what may be the candidates’ only debate before the general election Nov. 5, Rep. Morgan Griffith, R-Salem, and his Democratic challenger, Karen Baker, squared off on the issues facing Virginia’s 9th Congressional District on Wednesday evening.

Over the hourlong radio debate, which was sponsored by WUVT, an independent student-run radio station licensed by Virginia Tech, the candidates discussed a wide range of issues including housing, the youth vote, abortion, election certification and LGBTQ+ issues. But questions about the economy received the most attention from both candidates.

“A recent poll from Roanoke College found that a plurality of Virginia voters believe the economy, jobs and inflation are the prevailing issues in the commonwealth,” said co-moderator Felix Redmond, the station’s news director and a Virginia Tech student. “What is your view on the economic state of Virginia currently, and what steps will you take to improve it?”

“There are different Virginias,” Griffith said. “Virginia as a whole looks pretty good. We’ve added more jobs. Glenn Youngkin has done a great job as governor. …  The 9th District is a little more stressed. A large part of that has to do with our industries, many of which were shut down over the years by federal regulations and federal decisions. So at one time, the industries were coal, furniture, textiles, tobacco and agriculture. Agriculture is the only one that remains completely healthy. So we have to figure out ways to come in and improve things.”

Griffith touted his work with the Abandoned Mine Land Economic Revitalization program, which has brought in funds to redevelop abandoned coal mine lands for economic development. He also mentioned working with Democratic Virginia Sens. Tim Kaine and Mark Warner in helping to secure funding for the Coalfields Expressway, which is intended to link U.S. 23 in Virginia to major highways in surrounding states.

He cited MELD Manufacturing of Christiansburg as an example of a business that is finding new ways to thrive. The owner “fought hard to make sure that she got her ideas out there,” he said, and now her company is working with Virginia Tech and New River Community College and is bringing jobs to the New River Valley.

“We’re constantly looking for new ways to do things,” he said. “I’ve done economic development, helped build economic development facilities, and I will continue to do that because we have to make it attractive to businesses to move into the 9th District.”

Baker said she would model her economic development after Griffith’s predecessor, Rick Boucher, a Democrat who represented the 9th District from 1983 to 2010, when he was ousted by Griffith.

“Rick Boucher saw his role as one of being an advocate for the 9th District,” Baker said. “He went out and sought business to come to the 9th District. He was constantly looking for ways to create economic growth and development through creative ideas. … When Mr. Griffith got elected, we got neglected. No longer was there a champion for business in the 9th District. No longer was there someone meeting with people, constantly figuring out creative ways to get us what we need.”

Baker said she believes a lack of broadband and cellphone service across Southwest Virginia is a major deterrent to economic development.

“When I get to Congress, the very first thing I will do is find out where the problems are and what can we do to fix them, so we can create a better environment for business by having effective, complete broadband and cell service,” she said.

“I agree with my opponent that the 9th District has not partaken of the general well-being of the rest of the state. In fact, we in the 9th know that people say, ‘What’s beyond Roanoke? I have no idea.’ And this is something that I want to change because we need an advocate in the 9th District. It is a huge problem,” she said.

Baker said the region needs the support of federal programs. “Because the fact of the matter is, when you’re in a very rural district, the profit motive is not going to bring you everything you want because there isn’t a lot of profit to be had. Looking in from the outside — too much space, not enough people. That means that there’s a limited opportunity for initial profit. And that means we have to have incentives for businesses to come, and we need to have creativity in developing businesses to come.”

Griffith responded that it should be recognized that “we are a rural mountainous district with lots of jobs that went away because of federal policies. It’s not going to happen overnight. When you create a new industrial park, like Norton did, you’re not going to fill that industrial park up in the first four or five years. It may take you as long as 20 years to fill that park up. So you have put in place the building blocks for a strong economy in Southwest Virginia. I will continue to work to make sure that we have the opportunities that we deserve in the 9th District.”

Co-moderator Mary Peyton Marble, also a Virginia Tech student, posed what was perhaps the most contentious question of the night to Griffith: “Representative Griffith, you were with over 100 Republicans to question the integrity of the 2020 election, despite ample evidence proving its legitimacy, including statements from former President Donald Trump’s Department of Homeland Security. Do you see your actions following the 2020 election as reckless considering the violent events on January 6th, 2021, which were spurred on by the claims of voter fraud?”

“So let me say first, I did not support any violence,” Griffith said. “I don’t think there should have been any violence. I really thought they screwed up the process because we had a case to make. … If you go back and look at all my statements, I never went with the fraud in the election side. I saw that as a state responsibility. But here’s the problem: Congress is given the responsibility of determining if the laws of federal elections were in fact followed in the various states.”

He asserted that there is legal precedent for Congress being able to question the validity of state electors if a state violated federal election laws.

Baker responded by noting that Griffith had voted against certifying the election for Joe Biden and had joined a lawsuit “attacking the bona fides of the election with no evidence that such was the case.”

None of the lawsuits that attacked the results of the 2020 election succeeded, she said, because they lacked evidence, Baker said. “So for someone who loves the law to vote against certifying elections without any evidence that the election was in any way not valid is, to me, just incomprehensible,” she said.

The moderators asked Griffith if he would vote to certify the results of the 2024 election regardless of the outcome.

“If they follow the law, then I will not have a reason to challenge them at all,” Griffith said. “I want us to have a fair election. I want it to be straightforward. I always said I never saw anything in Virginia that I thought was a problem, even in 2020 and 2021. But there were states that had significant problems. And in some of those states, the margins may very well have been tweaked by actions that I believe were taken by the states that were illegal.”

He continued: “And I will say this, I was following what I believe to be the law and to me, my duty as a congressman. Hoodlums breaking into the Capitol doesn’t change that vote. That’s not the issue. The issue is what’s the right thing to do. And even in the face of all the turmoil we had that day, I was on the floor for 95% of it, and I did what I thought was right.”

Baker said she stood by her statement that the 2020 election had been “fairly run and fairly decided.”

“No court found that the election was improper or the results were affected by anything that was done,” she said. “The Republicans, of course, didn’t complain about any election results in a state where Mr. Trump won. They only complained about it in states he didn’t win. And the fact is, the election results were tested in court after court and jurisdiction after jurisdiction across the United States. And the election was fair. So it’s over.”

Neither Griffith nor Baker faced a primary challenge. In the 2022 general election, Griffith defeated Democratic challenger Taysha DeVaughan with a margin of 73.2% to 26.5%.

Griffith took office in 2011 and currently serves on the House Committee on Energy and Commerce. Prior to his time in Congress, Griffith was a member of the Virginia House of Delegates from 1994 through 2010 and served as majority leader from 2000 through 2010. He earned his bachelor’s degree from Emory and Henry College and holds a law degree from Washington and Lee University.

Karen Baker’s career includes serving as an administrative law judge for 17 years. She transitioned from law to health care and became a registered nurse working in the intensive care unit of a small rural hospital. She earned a bachelor’s degree from William Smith College and a law degree from Catholic University.

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