CHARLESTON, W.Va. — One of the goals for the Mountain Party in 2016 is finding a way to channel the anti-establishment fervor that sparked the successful campaign of Democratic Socialist Bernie Sanders in West Virginia and translating it into votes for their candidates in state and local races in November.
Former Democratic gubernatorial candidate Charlotte Pritt sits at the top of the Mountain Party ticket–making her third bid for Governor and first since joining the Mountain Party in 2012.
“I thought that I was finished with [politics],” she said on Wednesday’s edition of “MetroNews Talkline” with Hoppy Kercheval. “I came over to the Mountain Party in 2012 as the chair because of the issues that I felt needed to be addressed.”
Pritt and the Mountain Party advocate in their party platform for issues of social justice regarding racial and LGBTQ equality, cannabis reform, better environmental stewardship, and an intensely pro-labor union and pro-working class message.
“I have a very consistent voting record,” she said. “The stands that I’ve taken from the very beginning are the very same things that I’ve been working for.”
Pritt said voters would have a difficult time distinguishing Democrat Jim Justice , Republican Bill Cole, and Libertarian David Moran from one another on key issues. That’s one of several reasons Pritt believes that the Mountain Party is better suited for a strong performance in 2016 than they have been in years past.
“We have three Republicans,” she said. “Jim Justice, Bill Cole, and [David] Moran. Those are basically all coming from the Republican base. Jim Justice–because he was hand-picked by Joe Manchin–and Bill Cole are both ALEC backed.
ALEC is the American Legislative Exchange Council. In recent years, they have been accused of filtering similar, staunchly conservative bills into state legislatures around the United States.
ALEC describes themselves as, “America’s largest nonpartisan, voluntary membership organization of state legislators dedicated to the principles of limited government, free markets and federalism.”
For Pritt, this is a key difference between her and the other three candidates. In a state that Bernie Sanders won by around 40,000 votes in the primary, she believes her message as more of a “New Deal Democrat” will resonate more with West Virginia voters than the “neoliberal Clinton model.”
“I think we may be the only democracy that focuses on two parties rather than all of the people who are involved in it,” she said. “I think what we’re seeing now is that people are really getting away from labels.”
Particularly, Pritt feels that she can get a strong boost from West Virginia’s millennial population who care far more about the candidate’s authenticity than the aforementioned labels Pritt described.
“They are looking at issues rather than labels,” Pritt said. “I think that’s extremely important for an informed electorate to be able to truly participate in a democracy.”
About 24 percent of voters in West Virginia do not identify as either a Democrat or Republican. Although the Mountain Party has fewer than 1700 registered voters (or 0.13 percent of registered voters), they have typically outperformed their registration numbers in exponential margins.
“The largest voting block now in America now are the independents,” she said. “It’s 40 percent.”
“It’s an exciting time for the process to work.”
The Mountain Party maintains ballot access to elections by earning at least one percent of the vote.
They are also running down ballot candidates in four House of Delegates districts, the Attorney General’s race, and endorsed all three Democrats challenging for the U.S. House of Representatives.
The Mountain Party is is West Virginia’s affiliate of the national Green Party.