In a wide-ranging conversation in Huntington, West Virginia residents said they want to hear candidates vying for their votes discuss reproductive rights, harm reduction, education and government accountability and transparency.
More than 20 people showed up at an event, co-hosted by the League of Women Voters of the Huntington Area and Mountain State Spotlight. It was the latest in a series of election listening sessions held across the state by the news outlet.
Reproductive and health care rights
Denise White, a Huntington resident and retired flight attendant, wants politicians to address the abortion issue following the overturning of Roe V. Wade. White, who has lived all over the country, said she remembered marching for women’s rights and equal pay in the 1970s. Today, she feels like those gains that were made are slowly being rolled back.
Abbie Kirpatrick, a 19-year-old Marshall University Student, said the rhetoric and political decisions around reproductive rights have caused her generation to disengage from politics.
Other health care issues that participants focused on in the discussion were addiction and mental health.
Kirkpatrick said she wants to hear more about initiatives like needle exchanges and approaches to the overdose crisis that meet people where they’re at. She believes these can go a long way in reducing stigma and eventually getting people help.
Connecting people with the right resources was important to Marcia Daoust as well. Daoust, a retired librarian, said elected officials need to talk about helping and housing people who are homeless.
“There’s a lack of political will to help the people who are down and out,” Daoust said. She added that often people are homeless due to untreated mental health issues.
“It looks like a matter of choice — it’s a matter of illness.”
Education
Laura Deveny, a retired school teacher, said she was concerned about the state of education. When she retired in 2010, she said absenteeism was an issue – today, she said it hasn’t gotten much better. She said improvements in technology and teacher pay hasn’t resulted in meeting important benchmarks for students to be successful in life.
Heidi Rice, a homeschool mom, moved to the Hurricane area in 2008. She believes the education system, with overloaded teachers and classrooms, is failing.
“I have zero faith in the system,” she said.
Jame McCumbee, who taught in Kentucky for a while said school officials need to start by asking: “What do you want your kid to be able to do at the end of the year?”
McCumbee was raised in the military and lived everywhere growing up, but she has retired to Barboursville with her husband Will. She said she would also like to hear how officials plan to improve schools.
Government accountability
Several attendees said they want greater transparency and accountability from elected officials.
“Tell the politicians, ‘We want to know to whom you are accountable,’” McCumbee said.
“When I ask the people of the state – I don’t want to hear ‘I might,’ and ‘I plan on,’” he said. “I want them to say what you plan to do, and then when you get there — do it,” Jeremy Rice said.
Rice also wanted increased transparency: “I want them to open every book on every government agency, and I want to know where every dollar goes.”
For Wendy Thomas, the repeated mistreatment of children in and out of foster care is an example of lack of oversight on the part of the state.
“It seems like people are not being held accountable,” she said.
Jobs and the economy
Gail Patton, retired director of a local small business incubator, said she wants to hear more focus on aiding small businesses. She said her former business received support from the city of Huntington and federal grants but did not receive any direct aid from the state.
Will McCumbee worked at Marshall University for more than 40 years. He thinks the state is more backward-looking than forward-looking.
He wants to know how candidates are going to develop the state, in large part with regard to energy, but also to train people for jobs — specifically more community and technical jobs.
Daoust said that many lawmakers continue to put their hope in coal and are hesitant to push new forms of energy that could hasten the decline of fossil fuels.
“In West Virginia we have a very real fear of losing employment,” she said, but “King Coal is not going to pay the bills for West Virginians.”
Jeremy Rice, who is a Hurricane-area truck driver, said he took a $40,000 pay cut to drive locally after years of driving outside the state. He wanted to stay at home with his family, but said wages in West Virginia aren’t competitive.
“We don’t have the money here. That’s why I’ve spent so much time on the road.”
Jame McCumbee agreed that the lack of well-paying jobs was a problem.
“If you want communities to thrive, you have to pay people more than the least you can get away with,” she said.
