I am a West Virginia Democrat and cannot bring myself to vote for Hillary Clinton or Bernie Sanders. There are no good choices for President of the United States.
So, a West Virginian will now appear on the Presidential ballot for the West Virginia Democratic Primary. Me. Paul T. Farrell.
My goal is to win. Winning will be measured by whether enough West Virginians vote for me to send at least one pledged delegate to the Democratic National Convention. It is a matter of survival for all of us in West Virginia to be heard. Here’s why.
West Virginia votes are meaningless without supporting delegates. Four years ago, 73,000 WV Democrats (over 40% of the primary ballots) voted for a felon in a Texas prison rather than Obama. Our state party pledged the entire West Virginia delegation to Obama. We surrendered our voice. The results devastated our economy.
Voting for Hillary or Bernie will be another waste of your vote. They don’t need your vote to win the nomination. In fact, most of the national delegation will already be decided by the time we hold our primary and the nominee will be a foregone conclusion. That is why none of the national candidates are campaigning here. That is why our economy is an afterthought in their campaigns.
So why vote at all? Because we have a short window of time to make our voice heard. Voting for a Texas felon is a protest vote that nobody takes seriously. Voting for a West Virginian sends at least one delegate to the national convention who will stand up for West Virginia. We have an important message to send.
The war on coal crushed the West Virginia economy without any consideration of rebuilding our infrastructure. Conversely, we waged a war on terror and then spent $160 billion rebuilding Iraq and Afghanistan.
We built them power plants, roads, bridges, electrical grids and pipelines. We provided clean water and sewer treatment centers. We trained their workforce. We provided free healthcare to millions. We built schools for their children.
Meanwhile, West Virginia has a $354 million hole in the annual budget as a result of the decrease in coal severance tax revenue. West Virginia coal companies are filing bankruptcy. We are laying off coal miners and teachers. We are cutting school budgets across the state. PEIA is cutting benefits. Law enforcement and firefighters are understaffed, underfunded, and their pension funds are staggering toward default. We have real problems that are being ignored.
Surrendering our delegates to Hillary or Bernie is a bad idea for West Virginia. They will march forward with Obama’s Clean Power Plan and leave West Virginia behind. We must ensure that any transition to clean energy takes into consideration its impact on the West Virginia economy. They do not have our endorsement on this important issue. We should not give them permission to speak on our behalf.
With enough votes in the primary (15%), I will send delegates to the national convention pledged to reconstructing West Virginia. We may not be able to impact the nomination of Hillary or Bernie. But we can impact the party platform by simply using our voice.
West Virginia Democrats have an important choice to make. You can vote for Hillary or the socialist from New Hampshire and surrender your voice, again. Or, you can vote for a native son who will remind the national party that West Virginia still matters.
Speak now, West Virginia, or forever hold your peace.
Paul T. Farrell, Jr. is a lawyer from Huntington, WV. You can follow his campaign on Facebook: Paul T. Farrell, Jr. for President.
