We’re headed for a possibly historic midterm election simply because President Grievance and his band of minions have not been able to limit the damage from their stupidity to just blue states. Candidates in states that the Democrats have written off are getting national attention and cash infusions as the GOP daily shows us that they care more for FOX soundbites than our daily lives.

One deep red state that hasn’t gotten any attention is West Virginia, but the tremors of the impending political earthquake are being felt here, too.

The WVGOP is being challenged in ways it has not since I moved here. The state party has multiple problems with candidates and is silent about a statehouse candidate was exposed as a racist in an effort to save his seat. My useless House rep, Riley Moore (Shelley Capito’s nephew), who refuses to do town halls or meet with voters, has agreed to debate his Democratic challenger. His opponent, Ace Parsi, immigrated to the US as a child from Iran. He’s got a compelling story and a straightforward, effective message. And I-Want-To-Be-Labor-Secretary Riley is evidently feeling the heat. I still can’t believe he agreed to an actual debate. And Shelly Capito (Riley Moore’s aunt), who simply does not mix with hoi polloi as a member of the WV political dynasty, announced she would visit all 55 counties.

The WV governor, “Jersey Pat” Morrisey, is also in a precarious position. I’ve written several times about his utter failure, and he continues to dig an even larger hole. There’s a LOT he’s fucked up but in the interest of time, I’ll focus on the latest failure, and that’s only one from this week alone.

Pat and the WVGOP colluded to deny local jurisdictions any input into the placement of data centers, and this is a very hot button issue here. Over the weekend a story broke that Pat had applied to make WV one of the 5 nuclear waste dumps proposed by the Trump administration. Pat responded as he always does:  by calling the reporter a liar.

This issue just completely exploded (insert your own nuclear power plant disaster joke here). I’ll let a WV radio host I almost always disagree with politically tell the story:

West Virginia Governor Patrick Morrisey has fumbled badly with the release of critical information about the state’s months-long pursuit of a federal nuclear energy hub.  The missteps have contributed to concern and confusion over the state’s potential hosting of a Nuclear Lifecycle Innovation Campus.  

And now the state has pulled out altogether.

What was missing was an open, up-front, and consistent dialogue with the public about what the nuclear hubs are, including the responsibility for handling nuclear waste. What happened instead has been self-congratulations, then a freak-out, and then gaslighting, followed by the brief announcement Wednesday that the state was withdrawing its application.

(Read more here from Brad McElhinny.  The withdrawal was first reported by Ogden’s Steven Allen Adams.  Read the brief letter from the state here.)

The entire column is worth your time. And it’s an interesting snapshot of how the political landscape in WV isn’t as uniform as you might think. Public backlash to data centers and to the way the WVGOP and the governor were handling related issues killed the proposal. The governor, who won his election by 30 points, is now on the ropes.

Which leads us to former governor and current US senator Jim Justice who has been having second thoughts about being a senator. Jim is in a bunch of federal and legal state trouble and is angling for a sweet federal pardon from Trump so he can retire in peace and stolen wealth. Jim’s backup plan is to run again for governor, and Morrisey’s spectacular failure of a week must have aligned with some good polling news because on Tuesday he made this startling statement:

Republican Sen. Jim Justice said the Trump administration should reconsider its approach to immigration enforcement Tuesday, joining the chorus of criticism of a recent crackdown that has roiled rural communities ahead of the midterms.

“Before you know it, you get people that get carried away in their job and whatever it may be, and all of a sudden, then you’re dragging people away that have lived on your street corner for 15 years, and I don’t know that we need to be doing that stuff,” the West Virginia lawmaker said in an interview Tuesday.

“To get better, the first thing you got to do is admit you’re doing something wrong,” he said. “And in this situation, with all that’s going on and all the stuff, we probably got to step back from it and say, ‘Maybe we’re doing something wrong here or there,’ and then adjust to that.”

He made those comments after hearing complaints from ranchers. And why would he care? Because 27,000 West Virginians are ranchers. And they vote in state elections.

And this:

Republicans are increasingly worried they failed to address voters’ economic concerns while they had full control of Washington, fueling fears that the party could pay a steep price in November.

The anxieties offer an early preview of the Monday-morning quarterbacking to come after the Nov. 3 midterm elections, in which Republicans increasingly acknowledge they could lose both chambers to Democrats.

Sen. Jim Justice (R-WV), a conservative ally of President Donald Trump, described the GOP as having “glossed over” everyday voters “out here really hurting.” The first-term senator is a millionaire coal tycoon who’s weighing a bid to return to the West Virginia governor’s mansion.

“We, as Republicans, can become tone deaf,” Justice told the Washington Examiner, citing Trump’s desire to acquire Greenland as an example. “I think we, as Republicans, should own it. This is not to say, ‘Well, our president screwed up, or Congress screwed up,’ or whatever it may be. We ought to own it. Period.”

Despite his folksy aw shucks demeanor, Jim is a nasty, weak little man who craves unlimited access to money. He was an inexplicably popular governor, and his tenure is burnished by the giant shit show that is the Morrisey administration. And Jim decided that his personal political ambition was going to be helped by going after Trump. Hmmm.

And yes, he did get attacked by the harpies that orbit the Trump administration and on Wednesday he put out a clarifying statement. But you’ll note that he didn’t take back what he said—it was more of a “yes, and…” statement:

 

There is no public polling available for WV for this election cycle, but from the behavior of the governor, the 2 WV senators, and my sniveling nepo baby House rep it feels like the political ground of WV is shaking. And the source of that shaking is the erosion of Trump’s approval rating. Here’s the updated tracker from The Economist:

According to this tracker,  Trump’s net approval among WV adults is no higher than 5%.

How I wish we had public polling for WV. In the meantime, I’ll leave you with this: