LEWISBURG, WV (WOAY) – Local Democrats held a small rally at the West Virginia State Fair grounds.
Political campaign events have been a somewhat rare sight since the start of the pandemic, and this one by the Blue Skies organization was conducted as safely as possible with social distancing and crowd regulations.
Bill Laird, a State Senate candidate from Fayette County says he was excited to be there and speak about what he believes in. He’s running on a platform focused on education.
“The future of the State of West Virginia lies in excellence of public education. I’m also deeply concerned with our substance abuse and addiction issues. We must learn to come up with community based solutions,” Laird said.
Some big names were also present at the event. Gubernatorial candidate Ben Selango made an appearance, as well as Natalie Tennant, the former Secretary of State who’s now running again for the same position. Tennant says she’s disappointed with the current Secretary of State Mac Warner for a variety of reasons.
“The current Secretary of State has failed to implement some key issues and ideas that would help businesses like getting agencies on board in a one-stop-shop or implementing automatic voter registration. He has not done this. He’s had four years to do it and he hasn’t done it,” Tennant said.
Tennant served as Secretary of State from 2009 to 2017, and lost reelection in 2016 by a margin of less than 2%. She says Warner has not done a great job thus far and hopes the voters will see that come November.
“People need to recognize that he’s the Secretary of State who on the first day on the job illegally fired 16 people which then cost the state $4M. And we don’t need someone who treats people so disrespectfully and doesn’t even interview them, yet criticizes them. So that’s why I’m running again for Secretary of State.”
This campaign event featured roughly half a dozen local candidates, and comes just one day after Governor Jim Justice had Vice President Mike Pence attend a campaign fundraising event in Greenbrier County. As November approaches, more campaign events are likely to happen, but safety precautions will likely continue to take a priority.
