MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — U.S. Rep. David McKinley, R-W.Va., knows well what it’s like being a Republican in West Virginia.
His experience prior to serving in the House of Representatives includes 14 years in the West Virginia House of Delegates — when Republicans were the minority in the state Legislature — and running the state Republican Party from 1990 to 1994.
Now, nearing the end of his fourth term in Washington, McKinley says the GOP has reached a level of confidence unseen prior to the election of President Donald Trump.
“I think he’s setting a tone for a new look of the political arena,” he said. “It’s awkward how he gets it done, but at the end of the day, people like it. This election, in many respects, is going to turn out to be a referendum (of Trump), but also a reflection of whether or not people want to continue the economic surge and comeback of West Virginia.”
For Democrat Kendra Fershee, the rise of political outsiders, such as Trump, was a trend she noticed in the 2016 election cycle.
“He really had no political experience, and that was attractive to people, as well as the fact he didn’t have to raise money from corporate PACs,” she said of the president. “It showed that he was independent and could make decisions on his own.”
Fershee is running against McKinley in the 1st Congressional District contest. The district includes northern parts of the state.
Political analysis organizations see McKinley as heavily favored to win on Nov. 6.
Fershee, a law professor at the West Virginia University College of Law, told MetroNews she wants to focus on serving working-class families; she refuses to accept corporate PAC money and has said she has no obligation to toe the Democratic Party line.
“I think we’ve gotten away from this idea that if we make sure people are healthy, stable, employed and educated, then our communities and societies will follow,” she said. “Instead, we make sure that our corporations are healthy and stable, but we see the effects of that. Corporations don’t pass those riches along to the people. Sometimes they do, but a lot of times they don’t.”
Fershee said the state is currently not healthy; she often hears from law students about plans to move to other states, namely Colorado.
“It’s as close as they can get in terms of topography and the feel of West Virginia. They go there because it reminds them of here,” she said.
“We should be able to sustain the number of attorneys from law school each year and we can’t. People are working really, really hard to try to stay here, and they’re not able to.”
The state’s economy lags behind the national economy; West Virginia’s unemployment rate is 5.2 percent compared to the national rate of 3.7 percent.
“You can get a job at Walmart or Dollar General, and WVU Medicine is a large employer. But it’s tough to get a job that pays enough for people to feed their families,” Fershee said. “A lot of our graduates feel like they have to leave to get a good job.”
McKinley said the difference between the economy under former President Barack Obama and Trump is “night and day.”
“We’ve got 7.1 million job openings. We don’t have people to fill the jobs. It’s exploding out there, the number of job opportunities,” he said.
“You go to (Orbital) ATK in Keyser, West Virginia. Northrop Grumman has just acquired them, and they plan to expand that operation. In Clarksburg, Aurora Flight has been making aerospace parts. They’ve now been acquired by Boeing. Now, we have the largest airframe corporation in the world have a presence in West Virginia, and they’re going to expand Aurora.”
McKinley tied recent economic growth to the Tax Bill and Jobs Act, which became law last December. The bill lowered individual tax rates through 2025 and the corporate tax rate permanently to 21 percent.
The House passed a bill in September to solidify the individual tax changes.
“We got it passed, and now we’ve got to finish the job,” McKinley said. “There is no question in my mind it is going to be made permanent. We can’t have that uncertainty hanging out there.”
As for attracting new employers to the state, McKinley said he has worked with WVU President Gordon Gee to expand research opportunities.
“Pittsburgh is a classic example. When the steel industry left downtown Pittsburgh, it was replaced with intellectual properties, the internet, access research. All being done between Pitt and Carnegie Mellon (universities.) They reinvented themselves,” he said. “Companies came because they had some of the scientists and the work being done. We can be doing the same thing at some of our universities.”
Fershee agreed educational investment is key to economic growth, but so is eliminating obstacles for small businesses, pointing out the state’s medical marijuana law.
“If the federal government is making it so that revenue can’t come into West Virginia, that’s a small business opportunity we are losing out on,” she said. “It’s difficult to move money when the banks aren’t allowed to touch it because it’s a schedule I narcotic that makes it so federally insured banks can’t touch that money.”
During an appearance on MetroNews “Talkline” in May, Fershee said providing health care was a moral right. She explained last week health care procedures can be a financial burden.
“We shouldn’t live in a place where people are dying of cancer or other illnesses because they can’t afford the treatment,” she said. “Not only is it wrong that people would be precluded from treatment because they can’t afford it, but it’s also inefficient and expensive. If we’re being smart economically, universal health care would help West Virginia more than any other state in the country.”
As for a specific plan, Fershee said she would rather listen than propose.
“The goal is to make sure West Virginians have health care, and whatever serves that goal most quickly is the best plan,” she said. “My goal is to make sure people know that I think everyone in West Virginia deserves to have health care, regardless of where they work or their age.”
Fershee also said she favors protecting insurance coverage for individuals with pre-existing conditions, which is part of the Affordable Care Act, legislation Republicans have attempted to repeal on multiple occassions.
“All of a sudden, everyone is jumping on board saying, ‘We need to make sure pre-existing conditions don’t prevent people from (accessing) health care.’ We evolve, we learn and we figure out what’s good,” she said.
Trump tweeted last week Republicans will “totally protect people with Pre-Existing Conditions.” Republicans, however, failed last year to repeal parts of the law; McKinley voted last year in favor of the American Health Care Act, which would have covered pre-existing conditions but, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation, millions of people could have faced higher premiums.
McKinley told MetroNews ensuring coverage for pre-existing conditions is a must in any future health care bill.
“Nothing is going to pass on health care reform if it doesn’t have protection for pre-existing conditions,” McKinley said.
Among the congressman’s duties in the House is serving on the House Energy and Commerce Committee, where he has played an active role in the committee’s work regarding the opioid crisis.
“Prior to electing Donald Trump, we were trying to get people educated around the country and in committee about this. It’s been there, but it was just slowly growing, becoming a real cancer in our society,” he said.
Congress has approved $10.7 billion over the last two years toward addressing the opioid epidemic.
“To get the resources for rehabilitation, some enforcement and a lot of education — how do we get people not to turn to drugs in the first place? What about the pharmacies? What’s their role in all of this?” he said.
Yet for Fershee, there is not enough resource allocation taking place.
“When the country was grappling with the HIV/AIDS crisis, the way that it was tackled was through resource investment in the states to get people the health care they needed to contribute to research and developing and new drugs, as well as prevention,” she said.
“This is a war. We are at war, particularly in West Virginia. We need to treat it as such and fund it as such,” she added.
Fershee criticized McKinley for accepting campaign contributions from the pharmaceutical industry; according to Open Secrets, the industry has donated $20,750 to McKinley’s campaign in this election cycle
“You can’t wag your finger with one hand and take checks with the other and say you’re doing something about it,” she said.
Unlike the two other congressional contests in West Virginia, a forum between McKinley and Fershee will be held; the two will meet on Wednesday’s MetroNews “Talkline” for a roundtable regarding issues facing the 1st District.