Gov. Jim Justice acknowledges he has an executive’s mindset and a preference for home.
But Justice says he’ll adjust if he’s elected to the U.S. Senate, where he would need to serve on committees, participate in the Republican caucus and live in Washington, D.C.
Asked on MetroNews’ “Talkline” if his personality is suited to being one of 100 co-equal, collaborative representatives, Justice said “Well, no. I’m not.
“But that doesn’t mean you can’t be tremendously successful in that role. If you really look into my personality really deep, you’d find that I’m a guy that tries to recruit a team that has a goal and be driven toward that goal.”
Each of Justice’s public roles in life has been as an executive.
His family-owned businesses include coal holdings, agriculture properties, The Greenbrier resort and other hospitality enterprises. He is also the longtime girls basketball coach at Greenbrier East High School, a role that he has continued while serving as governor.
Justice is a two-term governor, first elected to that office in 2016 as a Democrat and then switching to become a Republican in 2017.
His preference to live at his longtime home in Lewisburg, rather than a couple of hours away at the seat of government in Charleston, led to a constitutional challenge in the court system.
Justice’s campaign kickoff at The Greenbrier included comments that he doesn’t relish traipsing off to Washington. But Justice said today on statewide radio that he’ll find ways to adjust.
“From the standpoint of being in Washington, going back and forth and everything, I do have the means to be able to do that, do that very quickly,” he said.
“You know, I can fly on my plane, go back and forth a whole lot. Surely I’ll have to live there a whole lot and everything. But we’ll make all that work.”
Justice is jumping into a race for the seat currently held by Senator Joe Manchin, a Democrat. Manchin has not said yet if he intends to run for re-election, “but make no mistake, I will win any race I enter” he stated this week.
Justice points out that if Republicans intend to take over control of the Senate in the next electoral cycle, West Virginia is one of the best chances for a pickup next year when the national electoral map generally favors the GOP.
“And I’m the only avenue from the standpoint of a guaranteed win in West Virginia. If you’ve got that then you’ve got a real chance in Montana and Ohio, but beyond that — ’26, you don’t have a prayer of anything else and ’28 the same thing.”
Justice has received support from Republican leaders in the Senate, including Mitch McConnell and Steve Daines. Senator Lindsey Graham spoke on Justice’s behalf at The Greenbrier kickoff. “I promise you, Jim Justice is the right person for West Virginia,” Graham said.
First, though, Justice will face competition from Congressman Alex Mooney, a Republican who declared his candidacy last November.
The campaign for Mooney, a five-term congressman, distributed an advertisement against Justice along with responses through email and social media.
“Yesterday, Jim Justice gave a low-energy announcement of his US Senate candidacy so boring he had to beg Babydog to stay awake,” the Mooney campaign stated in a mass email this morning.
Mooney has millions of dollars in promised financial support from Club for Growth, and CPAC — the Conservative Political Action Coalition — weighed in for Mooney too.
“CPAC believes that adding more establishment Rs to the Senate may help gain a majority but won’t stop America’s slide into socialism,” CPAC stated in its endorsement of Mooney.
On the other side of the political aisle, the Senate Majority PAC representing Democrats put out a statement today saying “West Virginia’s GOP primary kicked off with a brutal amount of infighting that will only get worse in the months to come.
“And to cap it all off, Justice’s announcement speech was less a celebration and more a desperate plea explaining to voters that he is, in fact, a Republican, responding almost directly to Mooney’s attacks.”
Jonathan Kott, a longtime adviser to Manchin, said Justice would be making a mistake to overlook his primary race competition.
“I think Jim Justice has to focus on getting through a Republican primary first, and having Lindsey Graham — who also last night Donald Trump called ‘a progressive’ — might not have been the best person to invite to your kickoff rally,” Kott said on “Talkline.”
“I mean, he’s going to go up against Alex Mooney, who just won a Republican primary in two thirds of the state. You’ve got the Club for Growth backing. I feel like Justice is overlooking a primary that’s going to be really tough. So just as a political adviser, I didn’t think yesterday’s announcement really was great and gave him a strong boost.”