Checking facts and providing context for Thursday’s Republican gubernatorial debate

On Thursday night, West Virginia voters had the opportunity to hear from a majority of the Republican candidates who are vying to be the state’s next governor.

Between Del. Moore Capito, R-Kanawha, business owner Chris Miller and Secretary of State Mac Warner, more agreements surfaced than division during the debate, which was broadcast by West Virginia MetroNews and moderated by TalkLine’s Hoppy Kercheval.

Attorney General Patrick Morrisey, who is also a contender for the state’s executive office, declined to participate in Thursday’s debate, saying last month that he would prefer to wait until after the Jan. 27 filing deadline. Instead, he gave an “exclusive interview” to HD Media on Facebook following the debate.

Topics discussed by the debating candidates on Thursday varied from human rights and social issues to national political stances and the state’s economy. All three candidates describe themselves as being pro-business and pro-Trump Republicans with an emphasis on family values.

Here’s a breakdown of where they differ and where they agreed on the issues raised Thursday, and some facts and context that viewers should keep in mind:

Approach to being governor

Separating themselves from Gov. Jim Justice — who was elected as a Democrat in 2016 before switching to the Republican Party, and who is now running a campaign for U.S. Senate — all three of Thursday’s candidates agreed that they would follow the constitutional requirement of living in the Governor’s Mansion in Charleston if elected.

Justice has historically been criticized for opting to live in his Greenbrier County home, driving hours into Charleston for work at the state capitol when he is needed. Detractors have accused him of often being absent on the job, citing his commitment to coaching high school basketball and a continued refusal to release his work schedule and calendar when requested.

Capito, who is from Kanawha County, said he believed residing in the state capital was “critically important” for building relationships within the community and with lawmakers who are working out of the Capitol.

Miller, who is the son of Rep. Carol Miller, R-W.Va., and who owns multiple car dealerships in the region, was the only candidate who said he would “probably not” put his business assets in a blind trust if elected to the state’s executive office. Upon being pushed by Kercheval to explain that decision, Miller said there wasn’t a need to do so as it is not required by the state constitution.

Instead, he took a play from Justice’s book, pledging to cede control of his companies to others if elected to office. This choice has brought heat to Justice, who has been accused of actively participating in the operations-side of his businesses while serving as governor despite telling constituents he would not.

In 2017, Justice agreed to put some of his more-than 100 businesses into a blind trust while giving operational control of others to his children. In the years since, however, Justice remains a figurehead for his companies, is regularly named in legal proceedings involving them and boasts successes at those companies as personal accomplishments.

In another stark difference from Justice, Warner, Capito and Miller agreed that, if elected, they would hold in-person briefings with members of the press. Even as nearly all operations have returned to normal and in-person, Justice hasn’t allowed members of the press to attend briefings since spring of 2020, when the pandemic started. He and his office are notoriously hard to get comments from, and participating in briefings virtually — where questions are screened and no follow ups are allowed — does not guarantee access to every reporter.

“The governor is the CEO of the state … Communication is imperative [and] interacting with the press is really important,” Miller said. “It is an opportunity to explain to everybody what you’re doing and why.”

Without any fanfare, Warner, Capito and Miller all agreed that they would vote for whichever candidate is selected by the state GOP to be the Republican nominee for governor.

The opioid crisis and response

With millions of dollars becoming available in West Virginia to confront and respond to the ongoing overdose and drug epidemic, the Republican gubernatorial candidates disagreed on the best approach to slow the problem and help West Virginians.

The candidates were asked if they had any first-hand experience with the opioid epidemic and if that experience had changed their thoughts on how to respond.

Warner recalled a week where three people in his office lost loved ones to overdoses. He said he wanted to see an emphasis on education, which he believes could deter children from using drugs from a young age.

Capito, in one of the strongest statements he made during the debate, said there would be no leniency for drug-related charges under his leadership.

“I want to be very clear about this: anybody under a Capito Administration that is pushing fentanyl in our communities will go to jail for life. Full stop,” Capito said.

Kercheval pointed out that some people who may be selling fentanyl or other drugs may also be people living with substance use disorder, and questioned Capito on whether that should be considered.

“For far too long, Hoppy, we’ve given criminals the benefit of the doubt,” Capito responded.

For decades, a law enforcement-centric approach has been utilized when confronting the drug epidemic both in West Virginia and beyond. Countless studies, anecdotes, analyses and more have shown that criminalization is not an adequate solution to quell recreational drug use or decrease overdose rates, of which West Virginia has historically led the nation.

Miller is the only candidate who said he had lived addiction experience, being sober from both alcohol and opioids since 2004, he told Kercheval. He said he would like to see a shift in approach on responding to the epidemic.

“From an attack standpoint, we’ve focused too long on attacking supply and that’s gotten us nowhere,” Miller said. “When you make something illegal you literally do nothing but make criminals rich. I think we need to attack the demand side, which is the families. We need to make sure that families are staying intact, we need to make sure that everyone has the resources they need.”

Miller said that Capito’s pledge to arrest fentanyl dealers was “fantastic” but complicated, as he believes a majority of drugs trafficked into West Virginia come from “illegal” crossings at the county’s southern border and a lack of a border “wall,” which — if constructed — would be nearly 2,000 miles away from West Virginia. This is not factual.

According to the United States Sentencing Commission, more than 85% of people charged with fentanyl trafficking annually are U.S. citizens. Most — more than 90% — of the fentanyl that is seized at the Mexican border comes through legal points of entry, according to U.S. Customs and Border Patrol.

In February, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas told reporters it was “unequivocally false” that “non-citizens” were bringing fentanyl into the United States. Most immigrants at the border, he said, are asylum-seekers who are “making claims of credible fear” and looking for a safer place to live.

LGBTQ protections and rights

A study released earlier this week by the Williams Institute at UCLA reported that at least 4% of adults in West Virginia — about 60,000 people — identify themselves as members of the LGBTQ community, which, along with Mississippi, is the lowest rate in the nation. A 2020 study by the same group found that 10,000 of the state’s children identified as LGBTQ.

Despite the small population, there have been numerous laws adopted in the state by the Legislature that disproportionately affect LGBTQ people, including children.

No clear, affirmative answers were given by any of the candidates when they were asked by Kercheval if they supported “unconditional equality” for LGBTQ people.

Warner said he followed the old adage of “hate the sin not the sinner” when it came to accepting people who are LGBTQ. He said that marriage, unequivocally, should be between “a man and a woman” and that it is a mistake to recognize same-sex marriages in the eyes of God. He railed against the United States Supreme Court decision that granted same-sex couples the right to marry in 2015.

“We have to support the nuclear family,” Warner said.

30% of LGBTQ people in West Virginia are raising children, according to the Williams Institute. Thousands of families in the state are also not defined as being “nuclear families,” as grandparents and other family members are often primary caregivers.

Miller, who declared he has “plenty of friends who are gay,” said he doesn’t “hate people,” but refused to say that he supported the rights of people who are LGBTQ. All three candidates undermined the existence of transgender people, thousands of whom live in West Virginia.

Capito said that while he and the other candidates “know people that are in the gay and lesbian community,” a governor’s role should be to “protect children.” He did not explain how supporting the unequivocal rights of people who are LGBTQ — including kids — would harm children.

Instead, he said he was “very proud” to support and pass a bill during the 2023 regular session to limit gender affirming care for minors, which are medically supported treatments approved by all major health organizations in the nation. Per the Williams Institute in 2017, West Virginia had the highest per capita rate of trans youth in the nation.

The bill prohibits those under 18 from being prescribed hormone therapy and fully reversible puberty blockers. It also bans minors from receiving gender-affirming surgery, which physicians have repeatedly said aren’t performed in West Virginia.

According to the Trevor Project, a nonprofit focused on suicide prevention for LGBTQ youth,

50% of LGBTQ youth in West Virginia seriously considered suicide in 2021. About 14% of those kids attempted suicide.

LGBTQ kids experience higher rates of depression and anxiety than their straight and cisgender peers, and there are historically fewer resources to support these mental health challenges. More than 80% of queer kids in the state reported facing discrimination because of their identity in 2021, per the Trevor Project.

There are no protections in place in West Virginia for people who identify as LGBTQ and the Legislature, for years, has voted against implementing such protections.

Former President Donald Trump and the 2020 election

All three candidates participating Thursday held steadfast in their support for former President Donald Trump, who is facing 91 felony charges for allegations of fraud, racketeering, election interference and more. Miller and Capito said they would certainly endorse Trump for the 2024 presidency, while Warner said he abstains from making endorsements as he serves as the state’s elections officer.

“I like to think of the world the way it is, not the way it should be,” Miller said, shrugging when asked by Kercheval if any of the allegations against Trump mattered to him.

Capito said Trump “cares about West Virginia,” which is reason enough to support another bid from him for the country’s highest office.

“He talks about West Virginia and he’s made it very very clear that West Virginia is going to be a big part of his economic policy to bring back the economy,” Capito continued.

Both Capito and Miller were hesitant to say that the results of the 2020 election were illegitimate, citing security concerns but not outright fraud. Capito said that, in West Virginia, the election was “rock solid.”

Warner, however, took a different approach.

“The election was stolen, Hoppy. It was stolen, and it was stolen by the CIA,” Warner claimed, doubling down on election denialism that has been pervasive among the far right over the last few years.

Warner, who oversees West Virginia’s elections as the secretary of state, alleged that the FBI and Mark Zuckerberg — founder of Facebook — were also responsible for covering up fraud in the 2020 election. The only charges that have risen nationally alleging fraud or wrongdoing in 2020 have been against Trump and his associates.

Warner was photographed following the 2020 election at a Trump rally in Charleston, where he was seen holding a “stop the steal” sign. In an interview with Right Side Broadcasting Network at the event, Warner was vocal about his support for Trump and his lack of faith in the election results.

This is a stark difference from where he stood in 2019, when he adamantly defended the results of the 2016 election despite allegations and evidence of interference by international forces. He told CNN at the time that election denialism was a tactic deployed to undercut the faith people have in their institutions.

“Not one vote was changed anywhere in America that’s been documented, that anyone’s aware of,” Warner told CNN in 2019. “What the Russians have been attacking has been our mind, our thought process, the spirit of America. They’re trying to put that division in there so citizens don’t trust citizens, citizens don’t trust the government, citizens don’t trust the democratic process.”