MARTINSBURG, W.Va. — West Virginia’s Senate president, who has carried Republican credentials into the state Legislature for two decades, has two primary election opponents coming from his right.
A debate hosted by WEPM radio’s Panhandle Live last week dwelled on some issues you might expect in a region with the state’s highest population growth: road maintenance and worker pay that matches the expenses of the area.
But the debate also sprawled into the concept of diversity, equality and inclusion; gender dysphoria; the politics of land use for solar energy; and the state’s role in supporting Form Energy, a cutting edge industrial battery manufacturer that is in the northern panhandle — not the eastern panhandle where this race’s voters live.
Those issues were hot-button topics for Republican senatorial candidates Mike Folk, a former delegate who ran for governor in 2020, and Tom Willis, a military veteran who ran for U.S. Senate in 2018.
Their big target, Senate President Craig Blair, R-Berkeley, later assessed a focus on culture issues by saying voters will regard them as extreme. What voters expect instead, Blair said, is a focus on economic growth and efficient government.
“The good things that need to be done, that conservatives believe in, we’re there,” he said in comments on the telephone after the debate was over.
In terms of fundraising, a major campaign asset, Blair is way ahead with $360,000 raised. He started advertising last fall. Folk’s finance reports show that he’s raised a little more than $5,000. Willis has $82,000 on hand, most of it from big loans to his own campaign.
The last time Blair’s seat was up, 2020, he earned 53 percent of the vote in the primary election to his far lesser known opponent’s 47 percent. That year’s general election was then a blowout for Blair.
That was Blair’s closest race since 2010, when he first ran for Senate. That year, he faced then-incumbent Senator John Unger when Democrats still dominated the state’s political landscape. Unger beat him in a squeaker — 18,800 votes for Unger and 18,482 for Blair. Blair sat out two years, ran for Senate again in 2012 in the neighboring district and won handily.
Now, Blair is in this feisty, three-way re-election battle after 20 years in office. He was first elected to the House of Delegates in 2002 and elected to the Senate in 2012. He rose to Senate President in 2021 after his predecessor and friend, Mitch Carmichael, was defeated by school teacher Amy Nichole Grady.
“I’m in the business of fixing West Virginia, being able to make a difference,” Blair said in the closing remarks of last week’s debate.
“My friends here — one ran for U.S. Senate and other one ran for governor. The only thing I’m doing is running for re-election. I’m running for re-election to make this state better, to be able to make the eastern panhandle better, to be able to give our people the opportunity.”
Martinsburg to Charleston
His opponents are trying to knock him out, saying he’s been there too long and become too embedded in West Virginia’s hierarchy.
“I’m running in this race because I’m tired of West Virginia politicians sucking West Virginia taxpayers dry,” Willis said.
That’s, in part, a reference to criticism that Blair has benefited from about $66,000 a year for his Senate president role, built on “duty days” to engage in for meetings and preparation, while also putting in for roughly $50,000 a year in compensation for mileage and expenses.
Folk made reference to that, too, by saying “I won’t spend six days a week at the Capitol, which some people claim on legal forms that they have.”
Blair, whose president’s role also means serving as the lieutenant governor, has contended his presence at the Capitol is necessary on a regular basis to provide a steady hand.
Blair didn’t respond to the allegations about his compensation during the debate, but he did during a later telephone interview.
“I have not done anything wrong,” Blair said. “I’ve taken the job of Senate president and worked it. Yes, I’ve made approximately $65,000 a year.”
For many years, Blair owned Sunset Water Services, a water softening equipment supplier in Martinsburg. He sold the business three years ago, about the time he became Senate president.
Now, Blair said he works in Charleston much of each week, focusing on economic development opportunities and preparing for legislative meetings. “I like being able to read the room and know what’s going on,” he said. On weekends, Blair said, he drives about five hours back to Martinsburg. He said that wears up in terms of mileage and wear and tear.
“Now there’s times that I need to be home, and when I need that I’m home. Otherwise, I’m at the Capitol,” Blair said.
The shape of the Senate
Half of the state Senate is up for election this year, and this particular race won’t change the makeup of the chamber, which includes only three Democrats among 34 members.
These days, Senate debates are mostly settled among Republicans along different ideological lines. That’s where the outcome of this contest — besides determining whether the Senate president stays or goes — could affect the chamber’s approach to policy.
A range of primary races include matchups where more populist candidates are taking on establishment figures, or the other way around. Races that could shape the ultimate flavor of the Senate’s Republican majority include:
Delegate Paul Espinosa against incumbent Senator Patricia Rucker in the Jefferson County area; Delegate Chris Pritt against Senator Eric Nelson in Kanawha County; developer Robbie Morris against incumbent Senator Robert Karnes in a big district that includes Randolph County; former sheriff’s deputy Scott Adams against Senator Ryan Weld in the Brooke County area; and Chris Rose, who mounted a brief campaign for U.S. Senate, now running against Senator Mike Maroney in a district sprawling over nine counties.
Eastern Panhandle politics and state issues
District 15, where the Senate president will be on the ballot is a swath that includes all of Hampshire and Morgan counties plus big parts of Mineral and Berkeley counties. Communities there, in the exurbs of Washington, D.C., are among the only growing areas of West Virginia.
Folk and Willis say residents there need new representation.
Folk served in the House of Delegates from 2012 to 2018, where he participated in the farther-to-the-right Liberty Caucus. He is a commercial airline pilot, a father of five and has a farm. He prides himself on blunt assessments: “I tell the truth,” he said in his opening remarks at the debate.
Willis describes himself as “a constitutional Christian conservative.” He also notes, “I’m the only military veteran in this race.” He’s was a U.S. Army Special Forces Green Beret and is a current member of the West Virginia National Guard. He’s a partner at a Martinsburg law firm and previously served as an international business attorney in Washington, D.C.
“I really didn’t intend to run, but my friends called me and explained to me what the Senate president is doing — including voting for allowing ‘chemical castration’ for minors and giving $290 million of our West Virginia taxpayer dollars to a Green New Deal, DEI Form Energy company run by anti-gun Bill Gates,” Willis said.
“When I heard that I realized I needed to run to make a replacement because the Legislature is running far left of where the politics are in the Eastern Panhandle.”
Blair said that entire premise was based on misinterpretation. “He’s just wrong on that.”
Last year, senators passed a ban on gender surgery for minors, which medical professionals agreed was not occurring anyway. But senators allowed narrow exceptions meant to allow minors going through gender dysphoria to be treated with minimum dosages of medication if they are at risk of hurting themselves or others.
“He’s stretching the truth,” Blair said.
On Form Energy, last year the state put up $290 million to buy buildings and land at the site of the old Weirton Steel mill, which needs signficiant remediation. Form Energy will lease it back. The property would transfer to Form no sooner than five years and only if the company employs 750 workers. The deal calls for workers making at least $63,000 a year in average salary.
Bill Gates, the tech giant who has taken a big interest in energy initiatives, is among the billionaire investors in Breakthrough Energy Ventures, which a financial backer of Form Energy. The battery manufacturer is lined up to benefit from incentives in the federal Inflation Reduction Act.
“Form Energy is an attractive magnet to be able to bring other businesses in,” Blair said, “like Procter & Gamble, like LG, like Nucor, like Commercial Metals.
Folk followed up later by suggesting the economic impact of Form Energy has been greatly exaggerated. “It’s a fraud.”
Solar energy fields
The candidates debated the proper role of solar energy facilities in eastern panhandle locations that had previously been farmlands. The question was actually about expansion of agritourism, and Folk said solar projects are a threat.
“One thing that’s disappearing the quickest around here is farmland,” Folk said. “Right now, it’s disappearing through solar projects — solar projects that wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for some of the actions of the Legislature in the past and also the Inflation Reduction Act.”
Willis said he supports agritourism, wineries and breweries — and he, too, called expansion of solar facilities a danger. “This threat of the invasion of solar farms, I think we need to take a hard look at this,” he said, questioning the shelf life of the technology.
Blair said he lives on an apple orchard, and he supports agriculture industries. “This is also property rights,” he said, “and a farmer has the right to do with their property what they choose to. If they want to sell their land or use their land to put solar panels on, then that’s their prerogative.
“If they want to actually grow the vineyards and have wine, we passed a piece of legislation this year that helped facilitate doing that as well.”
Diversity, equity and inclusion
The topic turned to diversity, equity and inclusion for full treatment of all groups, particularly those that historically have been underrepresented or subject to discrimination. Moderators said the question was posed by the local NAACP chapter: Do you think programs designed to promote diversity equity and inclusion in public schools and agencies is a legitimate use of government funds?
Folk quoted, in part, Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.’s aspiration for people to be judged not by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.“And I think we were actually getting there until we went down this road,” Folk said. He continued by saying some of his best friends are, “let’s just say, different flavors.”
Folk said his travels to other countries have led him to conclude there is not a similar focus in Europe or South American countries. “They just treat people like you would want to be treated,” he said.
Willis said his experiences in the Army taught him to treat people of different backgrounds as equals. “We really didn’t see the level of melanin in our friends’ skin. We just saw a brother in arms, and I’d like to see that in West Virginia,” said Willis, who later briefly acknowledged the existence of racism.
Without mentioning the history of slavery or Jim Crow laws — or the effects and legacy of systemic racism — Willis said diversity, equity and inclusion stems from critical race theory, which he said “comes from the failure of economic communism in our country.
“So what happened was, our free market capitalism produced too much wealth, and the communists could not get us to fight each other and go at each other’s throats because we were too prosperous. So the Frankfurt School in Germany switched tactics, spread to the Ivy Leagues and came back in the form — not of economic communism, class warfare — but in racial communism.
“So now we have the races pitted against each other, and this CRT racial communism is working much more effectively than economic communism ever did. It’s a real threat to our country. I would like to see the mention of race completely eliminated in West Virginia.”
Blair said he disagrees with the use of diversity, equity and inclusion practices. “It’s unnecessary. Talk about woke. That’s woke, and it needs to be gone.”
Closing arguments
In closing remarks, Blair’s two challengers restated their cases that the eastern panhandle needs someone new. Blair countered that the district and the state have engaged representation, saying he should continue the job.
Folk said he will deliver for the region: “I’m not a career politician. I’ve never been a career politician.”
Willis concluded by saying, “we need a leader in the Senate who actually cares about the interests of the eastern panhandle.” He again knocked Blair’s legislative compensation. And he again made reference to “chemical castration” and catering to “Green New Deal” companies. He said, “I’ve been tested. I’ve been proven as a leader.”
Blair said he’s running for re-election to make the eastern panhandle and West Virginia better.
“I’m in the business of fixing West Virginia,” he said, “being able to make a difference.”