In the months leading up to the 2024 election, the team at Mountain State Spotlight set an ambitious goal: We would report from every one of West Virginia’s 55 counties.
Our reporters and editors had the opportunity after Election Day to reflect on the people they met, the things they heard and how our reporting can better reflect and uplift the issues that West Virginians care about.
Here’s what our team learned from reporting from all 55 counties this year:
Henry Culvyhouse
State Government Watchdog Reporter
You ever wonder whose goofy idea it was for Mountain State Spotlight reporters to criss-cross hell’s half acre in this state and talk to residents in all 55 counties?
That’d be me.
When we were developing the Citizens Agenda for this past election cycle, I marched into Ken Ward’s office, closed the door and took a seat.
“Why not do all 55? You know, 55 strong, all that jazz?”
Well, the boss liked it.
Traveling around the state, going to counties I had never set foot in, like McDowell and Mercer, I learned something I never knew: we are all more alike than we are different. I know, it sounds corny, but wherever I went, no matter if it was in one of the richest or poorest counties in the state, I found people who were just trying to work and raise up their families. Sure, the accents might be different, but overall everyone I spoke to had the same issues at heart.
They wanted better schools.
They wanted better roads.
Water, food, medical care. Jobs.
Whether you’re in Martinsburg or Anawalt, Wheeling or Slab Fork, your friends and neighbors largely want the same things out of their state.
And you know what? Even though I was reporting on an election, I couldn’t even begin to tell you whether I was speaking to a Republican, a Democrat or even a damned Communist.
Sarah Elbeshbishi
Energy and Environment Reporter
Over the last six months, I’ve gotten to see so much more of West Virginia.
From the first state capitol building up in Wheeling to the historic steps of the McDowell County Courthouse down in Welch to where the Luke Paper Mill previously stood near Keyser. I’ve seen the grassy hills of Monroe County and where the Greenbrier and New Rivers and Bluestone Lake meet in Summers.
And along the way, I’ve met countless West Virginians from all parts of the state, who have welcomed me into their communities and shared their stories so that Mountain State Spotlight can share them with you.
I’ve heard about it all: the need for more affordable housing, well-paying jobs, public transportation and recovery and treatment options. I’ve also heard about the need for more grocery stores and qualified teachers as well as better drinking water.
What I’ve learned since we set out to visit all 55 counties is that although the top priority often varies, folks across the state are reckoning with their own versions of the same issues. The concerns I heard in one county were always brought up in another.
Tre Spencer
Economic Development Reporter
After traveling across the state and speaking with residents from the Eastern Panhandle to the Greenbrier Valley, I can say that West Virginians are incredibly tenacious and proud.
I saw communities come together in ways I’ve never seen before. As a newer West Virginian, I think it is wonderful to know that this is a state where people stick together, and I’m happy that my reporting has reflected that.
One of the most thrilling places I traveled to was Pocahontas County. The county has completely transformed by embracing the influx of tourists that flock to places like Cass and Snowshoe for skiing or to ride the railroad.
I spoke with folks from Green Bank to Hillsboro about affordable housing, job growth, tourism, and public school funding. Every person I spoke with was incredibly friendly and welcoming, and it was a joy to listen to residents talk about the challenges and opportunities of living in the area.
This ambitious project that we’ve done at Mountain State Spotlight to travel to every county and every corner of the state was incredibly fulfilling.
I’m proud of myself, my coworkers and our newsroom for working to uplift the voices of every West Virginian.
Erin Beck
Community Watchdog Reporter
Sometimes people say West Virginians “vote against their best interests.”
I don’t like when people dictate to others how they should feel or act, but it’s hard to know how to respond. We do have pervasive problems like poverty, poor health and the overdose crisis, and it’s true our public officials don’t fix these problems.
But now that our reporters have traveled the state this election season, asking voters about their challenges, we’ve heard
West Virginians tell us what their best interests are. They need housing. They need better wages. They need health care.
But as we pursued the goal of interviewing people from each of 55 counties, I found that our originally-planned question, “What do you want to hear candidates talking about as they compete for your vote this election season?” needed tweaked.
I started having to ask questions like “What are some problems your community faces?”
After decades of being represented by politicians who fail them, West Virginians are so disillusioned that they have no faith those officials will help them.
But we then took the problems West Virginians told us about to candidates, and we asked them what they were going to do about them anyway.
Because at Mountain State Spotlight, we demand state officials do better. We hold them accountable by expecting them to do what they should be doing, and reporting stories about it when they don’t.
Duncan Slade
Deputy Managing Editor
On a Wednesday in September, my day started with a two-hour rainy drive north on I-79 to Flemington, a town of a few hundred people along the railroad tracks in Taylor County.
After parking in a church lot, I knocked on a nearby door. Carolyn Wilson answered. She invited me to sit on her porch. The honeybees buzzed around us, and her cat jumped up on my lap as I scribbled in a notebook.
Wilson wanted to talk about drugs and how addiction had torn apart her family. One daughter was in prison. The other – Wilson didn’t know where she was and rarely heard from her. Her grandkids had been in and out of the child welfare system.
She wasn’t alone. After saying my goodbye, I drove to Pruntytown, then Grafton. At antique store counters and on front porches, everyone had a story.
A family member who died of an overdose. Sons who struggled with drugs. A parent, in pain, who felt helpless.
A lot of political reporting focuses on the things that make us different. In Taylor County, people had many of the same concerns.
Across the state and different walks of life, there were common refrains: The drug problem needs to be fixed. Things cost too much. There aren’t enough jobs.
More than anything, people were worried about the West Virginia that their kids and grandkids would inherit. And whether they’d be able to keep living here.
Mary Kay McFarland
Managing Editor
I joined the newsroom at Mountain State Spotlight as the managing editor on August 26, 2024.
When I walked in, I noticed a large map of West Virginia on the bulletin board at the back of the newsroom with colorful pushpins stuck in various places all over the state that reporters had traveled since the organization launched in 2020.
Underneath the map was a smaller county map printed on printer paper with all but 22 counties highlighted in yellow. The white counties were the ones we hadn’t written about since beginning our election coverage in January. The goal was to get to all 55 before election day, listening to people talk about what they wanted their representatives to address in their state.
Duncan, our deputy editor, had a “Days to Election” sign posted on the cubicle wall next to his desk. It said 71.
In the 70 days after that, the election came alive to me like never before as I edited stories from our reporters’ travels. A community that had organized a task force to get public transportation was represented by an incumbent candidate who had served for more than a decade and told us he had never had anyone ask him for a ride.
A teacher in the southern part of the state had students in his class who named the days of the week, “No Water Wednesday,” and “No Power Friday.” A woman in Huntington wrote a question for candidates in her district asking why her power bills were so high. In Boone County, a woman who worked on the Quick Response Team needed more treatment options and transportation to help people who had overdosed on drugs get the help they needed. A food pantry worker in Barbour County told us the food for the month, delivered on a Friday, was almost gone by Wednesday of the next week.
I joined the Citizens’ Agenda initiative near the end. But I read and heard enough in 70 days to be reminded that the work we do, shining a light on things that need attention in West Virginia is critical.