West Virginia Can't Wait-- Meet Cathy Kunkel

There isn't a blue congressional district in West Virginia. But if there was one, it would be WV-02, which goes from the DC exuburbs in the east-- Jefferson, Berkeley, Morgan and Hampshire counties, through the middle of the state to the border with Ohio. The PVI is R+17-- a bit better than WV-01 in the north (R+19) and WV-03 in the south (R+23). The biggest source of votes is Kanawha county (Charleston) which is a blue county.

Bernie did well in the West Virginia primary in 2016. There are 17 counties-- or part of counties-- in the districts. Bernie beat Hillary in every single county and in the general election Hillary lost every single county. The list is by number of voters at it shows Bernie's and Hillary's percentage of the vote:

• Kanawha- Bernie- 48.0%, Hillary- 45.0%
• Berkeley- Bernie- 49.2%, Hillary- 44.0%
• Putnam- Bernie- 51.3%, Hillary- 40.1%
• Jefferson- Bernie- 50.1%, Hillary- 45.0%
• Jackson- Bernie- 49.9%, Hillary- 40.0%
• Randolph- Bernie- 52.3%, Hillary- 31.8%
• Upshur- Bernie- 52.9%, Hillary- 36.5%
• Hamsphire- Bernie- 50.5%, Hillary- 33.0%
• Morgan- Bernie- 55.1%, Hillary 39.3%
• Lewis- Bernie- 54.9%, Hillary- 31.8%
• Hardy- Bernie- 46.1%, Hillary- 34.2%
• Roane- Bernie- 52.9%, Hillary- 39.1%
• Braxton- Bernie- 51.3%, Hillary- 34.9%
• Pendelton- Bernie- 48.6%, Hillary- 38.6%
• Clay- Bernie- 51.0%, Hillary- 29.4%
• Calhoun- Bernie- 60.6%, Hillary- 23.6%
• Wirt- Bernie- 56.0%, Hillary- 29.2%

Last year, moderate Democrat Talley Sergent, a former Hillary campaign official, didn't have much to offer anyone, but she did better than Hillary had anyway, suggesting some voters were already beginning to fall out of love with Trump. Kanawha County performed at a D+10 level and Sergent significantly outperformed Hillary in Jefferson and Randolph counties as well.

Next cycle, Democrats are going to run a full-fledged progressive, Cathy Kunkel, running on unabashedly progressive issues-- Medicare for All, Green New Deal, $15 minimum wage, assault weapons sales ban, etc.

Kunkel is running on a slate with progressives all over the state, starting with gubernatorial candidate, Stephen Smith. In Cathy's own words, "I am running for Congress in West Virginia’s second Congressional district, but I am not running alone. I am running as part of a slate of candidates aligned with the WV Can’t Wait movement. WV Can’t Wait is a populist organizing project launched by the campaign team of gubernatorial candidate Stephen Smith to build the infrastructure for ongoing political organizing, independent of either party, beyond 2020. Like the way that sounds? You can contribute to Cathy's campaign here. This is what she told us about her campaign:

WV Can’t Wait has taken on much of the work that is typically done by a political party-- building local political infrastructure, supporting down-ballot candidates, constructing a basic political analysis to cohere his supporters and constructing a platform that is not constrained by the influence of corporate donors (which he doesn’t have). County teams exist now in most of West Virginia’s 55 counties, as well as various constituency-based organizing groups (Students Can’t Wait, Labor Can’t Wait, Veterans Can’t Wait, etc). Leadership in these teams include Democrats, Republicans and people who have not previously been active in politics. Smith himself is running as a Democrat, as am I.

The organizing strategy reflects a populist political analysis that points its finger directly at West Virginia’s political elites and their historic and ongoing collusion with outside industry as the source of many of West Virginia’s economic and social ills. It is an analysis that the West Virginia Democratic Party is institutionally incapable of providing because many of the Party’s top leadership are those elites. (For example, our current governor, Jim Justice, is a billionaire coal CEO who ran for office in 2016 as a Democrat and then switched parties shortly thereafter).

Strains of this analysis were heard during West Virginia’s historic school employee teacher strike last year, during which teachers and school service personnel flooded the state capital chanting “tax our gas!”-- demanding an increase in the natural gas severance tax to fund the public employee health insurance plan. It was also seen in the state’s strong showing for Bernie Sanders, who won every single county in the 2016 Democratic primary.

The strategy of building an organizing base outside of either party apparatus is to reach those voters who feel-- rightly-- that they have been abandoned by the leadership of both political parties. Over the last couple of decades, an increasing number of West Virginia voters have chosen not to affiliate with either political party. In 1998, West Virginia’s registered voters were 63% Democrat and 29% Republican. By 2019, the fraction of voters registered as Democrats had dropped to 41%, but the defectors had largely switched to “no party” (22%), with the Republican party at 33%.

WV Can’t Wait is recruiting candidates to run up and down the ballot. The WV Can’t Wait candidates are united by a pledge, which includes not taking corporate money, never crossing a picket line, and holding regular public meetings. In a state that has been dominated by extractive industries for more than a century, a pledge to not take corporate money is arguably the WV Can’t Wait movement’s strongest claim to be building something different. Nearly 60 candidates have signed the pledge so far.

In my case, I am running for Congress on a populist platform that includes Medicare for All, strong federal support for public education, closing corporate tax loopholes and raising taxes on the wealthiest, and-- crucially in West Virginia-- tackling the climate crisis without leaving behind workers and communities in Appalachia. But I know that I cannot deliver on these ideas without strong social movements fighting for them. For me, that is the fundamental reason to align with WV Can’t Wait-- because it is building an uncompromised organizing infrastructure that will last beyond the election.