A week before the election, the two leading candidates for governor faced off in a debate on Tuesday to convince voters why they would be the best choice for West Virginia’s next chief executive.
Republican Attorney General Patrick Morrisey and Democratic Mayor of Huntington Steve Williams went toe-to-toe at Fairmont State University in a MetroNews debate hosted by broadcaster Hoppy Kercheval — and briefly interrupted by a fluttering moth.
Morrisey, the front-runner in the race, brought polished talking points and frequent shout-outs to former President Donald Trump. Williams had some shaky, rambling moments, but managed to land a few punches.
Here are five takeaways for voters to consider when they cast their ballots.
Morrisey wants to analyze. Williams wants to build consensus
“Efficiency” was Morrisey’s word of the day at the debate.
Whether it was education, taxes, foster care or the Public Employees Insurance Agency, Morrisey kept circling back to it.
“I would begin on day one with an audit of all of the state agencies to try to get to the bottom of how we can find efficiencies,” Morrisey said.
Alluding to tightening budgets due to the state’s personal income tax cut trigger, Morrisey said he would take a look at every single agency to find any way to save a dime. He also said he would analyze the state’s regulatory framework to find a way to compete with neighboring states.
Williams, on the other hand, said he would find ways to build consensus. When asked how he would fix PEIA as state employees face another year with large premium increases, Williams said he would fund it for the first year, then bring an assortment of parties together to figure out a long-term solution.
Leaning heavily on his experience as the mayor of the state’s second-largest city, Williams said he had experience in bringing people together to hash out issues.
“You get brilliant people around the table, and it’s amazing the innovation that you can do,” he said.
Williams wants to preserve public education and Morrisey wants school choice
A good chunk of the debate was taken up by public education, an issue near and dear to many West Virginians’ hearts.
Each candidate was clear.
Morrisey said he strongly supports the HOPE scholarship, which uses public funds on vouchers for private schools and alternative education options.
“We have to have the best education system,” Morrisey said. “The quickest way we do that is by having the Hope Scholarship be very broad.”
When pressed if he believed public schools were failing, Morrisey didn’t answer the question. But he did say competition from outside the public system would raise the standards.
Williams said he was also in favor of competition between public and private education, but he didn’t think taxpayer money should go to private schools.
“School choice is saying we’re sending our public dollars over into private schools,” Williams said. “Then how are we able to control what those public dollars are going [to]?”
The Democratic candidate said the HOPE Scholarship favors the wealthiest West Virginians, a charge Morrisey categorically denied.
A lot of Morrisey’s promises and plans rely on Trump winning. Williams didn’t mention the national race
If “efficiency” was the word of the day, “President Trump” was a close second for the GOP candidate.
But in a race, most polls are showing will be determined by a few thousand votes in a handful of battleground states, Morrisey staked a whole lot of his plans on Trump winning the presidential election.
Especially when it comes to economic growth.
“When President Trump wins, and we stop all this nonsense from Biden and Harris on our energy resources, we’re going to be able to grow that sector of the economy,” Morrisey said.
And Morrisey never described how he would work with a Democratic administration in Washington, D.C. The closest he came was doubling down on the former President.
“I’m scared about Kamala Harris, at the prospects of her being President,” Morrisey said. “That’s why I’m all in for Donald Trump.”
Williams didn’t breathe one word about the race at the top of the ticket. That shouldn’t be surprising, as state Democrats have distanced themselves from the national party since the Obama administration.
But he did echo some national rhetoric when he said “Freedom is on the ballot.”
On abortion, Williams wants to give voters another chance, and Morrisey defends the state’s current ban
Right out the gate, the two candidates sparred on one of the biggest cultural wedge issues in American politics: abortion.
Throughout the election cycle, Williams has repeatedly called to have abortion placed on a constitutional referendum. However, Morrisey said the issue was already decided in 2018 by voters when they passed an amendment that said the state constitution did not protect the right to an abortion. He also said he supports the state’s 2022 near-total abortion band.
“I think they passed a common sense law that’s being defended right now,”
Morrisey said.
However, Williams said it needed to be taken up again after the 2022 Supreme Court ruling that overturned Roe V. Wade, the case that had established a woman’s right to an abortion nationally.
“I trust women to make their own decisions,” Williams said.
Morrisey wants to keep cutting taxes. Williams wants to cut taxes if the state can pay for it.
When it came to tax cuts, Morrisey said he had a plan. And that plan would be to compare all taxes with neighboring states to get the lowest possible. And it would also need President Trump back in the Oval Office.
“The immediate goal is going to be having a state income tax that’s actually superior, lower than all the states that we touch,” Morrisey said.
Williams agreed with Morrisey — to an extent.
“If I have an opportunity to be able to go in and eliminate the income tax, fine then do that,” Williams said. “But I don’t see a plan in place.”
Williams said in Huntington, he was able to reduce city taxes by making sure there was economic growth in the city to offset the loss in revenues.