You don’t have to choose between jobs and safety. Just ask West Virginia
From The Guardian Living in West Virginia means getting used to crisis – mine explosions, chemical spills, floods. Today we are faced with a new crisis, a virus killing our people and threatening their livelihoods. But the story is the same. We’re stuck with politicians…
This West Virginia Democrat turned his campaign for governor into a COVID response team
Five days after Smith’s campaign launched its coronavirus site, West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice told constituents to “go to Bob Evans and eat” as he downplayed the severity of the pandemic.
Smith Breaks Records with Best Fundraising Quarter Yet, After Strong Coronavirus Response
The Smith campaign, propelled by 3,189 donations, raised over $200,000 in the last three months, making Smith the top fundraiser for the quarter.
Campaign for West Virginia Governor Has Become a Covid-19 Response Program
Smith’s anti-establishment campaign, known as West Virginia Can’t Wait, had a coronavirus response website up before the state government did and recently released an 11-point policy plan calling for drive-through coronavirus testing in every county, vote-by-mail legislation, and moratoria on evictions and utility shutoffs….
The “Inequality of Pain”
From The New Yorker: “It’s not just inequality of wealth or income; it’s also the inequality of pain,” Smith said. “The people who have the most bear the least, and the people who have the least bear the most. During a crisis, that is especially true.”
“We Have a Moral Responsibility”
“We’ve built an unprecedented volunteer operation in this campaign, and we have a moral duty to put it to good use,” said Smith.
Candidate for WV Governor Stephen Smith on the Coronavirus
“In West Virginia, it’s in our blood to fight for each other, to come together in crisis. There’s no place I’d rather be right now than in this state, in this movement, with all of you.”
The People’s Platform Rises in West Virginia
Stephen Smith’s movement-based campaign has released the first of 32 bottom-up proposals to change the state. It includes a wealth tax. by David Dayen for The American Prospect December 30, 2019 What’s the most important election of 2020? Which one will have implications that endure…
How We Win
View our video: How we win is with 1000 leaders, not one.
The New Uprising on a Country Road
What unites [WV Can’t Wait volunteers and candidates] is a belief that West Virginia’s abundance has been stolen by a corporate and political oligarchy, which extracts from its people as surely as from its land. These activists seek to wake up the fighting spirit that looms over West Virginia’s history, from the Mine Wars a century ago to the #RedforEd teachers strikes last year. They think of West Virginia as a place where people take care of each other, and they want to bring that impulse back to its government, by taking it over.