Gov. Jim Justice is a big no on debating his Democratic opponent for U.S. Senate, former Wheeling Mayor Glenn Elliott.
“I don’t say this in an egotistical way. I mean, in the primary I didn’t put a sign out. I didn’t put one single sign up and I won by 35-plus points. The people of this state know me. They know me and they know me really well. I’ve done almost zero campaigning,” Justice said today during an administration briefing in response to a question by West Virginia MetroNews.
“At the end of the day, from a Senate race standpoint and everything, the race is over. We’re going to win the race, and we’re going to win the race going away. You know, just having a debate so we can say we have a debate and everything — yay, yay.”
The two major party candidates to succeed Justice as governor, Patrick Morrisey and Steve Williams, say they are forming plans to debate in the coming weeks.
Justice twice debated Republican Bill Cole in 2016 and then debated Democrat Ben Salango in 2020 in his races for governor. He did not debate Congressman Alex Mooney, his opponent in the Republican primary election for U.S. Senate. Justice participated in a recent editorial board meeting via teleconferencing with Elliott at the Dominion Post newspaper in Morgantown, but those are closed sessions and less of a back-and-forth between candidates.
But Justice said he would not debate Elliott.
“People know me. At the end of the day, Glenn needs to get the people to know him,” Justice said. “At the end of the day if the people decide they’d rather have Glenn, well, that’s OK. But how I feel about it: They know me. They know me. I say over and over, judge me by my deeds. We don’t need one debate; we don’t need 5,000 debates.”
The most recent MetroNews West Virginia Poll released last month showed Justice leading Elliott, 62% to 28%, in the race for U.S. Senate. The remainder preferred another candidate or were not sure.
A question about favorability showed that Justice is one of the most popular, well-known political figures in the state with 57% regarding him favorably and 32% unfavorably. The poll showed Justice’s job approval, registering at 65%, at its highest level ever.
Elliott was regarded favorably by 27% of respondents and unfavorably by 17% — but 57% said they are not sure.
Elliott, in a response provided to MetroNews by his campaign, said Justice’s disinterest in debating illustrates his lack of interest in public discourse.
“It doesn’t surprise me that Jim Justice has no interest in debating me. Frankly, he has shown very little interest in actually being governor giving me no reason to believe his tenure as senator would be much different. His top priority seems to be dodging creditors,” Elliott stated.
“Debates provide critical information for voters to make informed decisions. If Governor Justice doesn’t want voters to have that opportunity, it begs the question, what is he afraid of? If West Virginians want a Senator who’s just not that interested in the job, they can vote for Jim Justice. But if they want a fighter who will show up to work and whose top priority is them, they can vote for Glenn Elliott.”
Justice’s remarks shutting down the debate possibility said he wants to win the support of average West Virginians, who he calls Toby and Edith. During those remarks, he described spending time in Washington D.C. earlier this week.
“I love Toby and Edith, and that’s what I call our voters all the time, and I love them with all my soul. And they know it. So we’ll see, if they want me to go and represent them in the U.S. Senate, I’ll do a heck of a job,” Justice said.
“And I was there, I was in D.C. day before yesterday, spent the whole day with a lot of the senators and everything, and you know I think we’ll really bring something to the table.”
In response to those remarks, Elliott posted on social media a photo of an invitation to a Justice fundraiser on Tuesday afternoon with the National Republican Senatorial Committee with access available for levels of $1,000 to $5,000. The special guest was Senator John Thune, a Republican from South Dakota.
Elliott commented that it’s interesting that Justice “doesn’t have time for a debate but had time to go to DC this week and schmooze with lobbyists at a private event requiring at least $1,000 to get in the door.”