EP 89 2026 WV Primary elections

Summary

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Mountain State Libertycast: Episode 89

Topic: 2026 WV Primary Elections
Host: Tye Ward
Guest: Taylor “Pack Money” Richmond
Date: May 25, 2026

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Episode Overview

In this episode, host Tye Ward and recurring guest Taylor Richmond discuss the results and implications of the 2026 West Virginia primary elections from a Libertarian perspective. They break down the state of politics in WV, the shifting party landscape, voter turnout, campaign shenanigans, the role of PAC money, and ongoing concerns regarding government-driven “economic development.” The conversation offers an insider Libertarian view on party infighting, electoral strategies, and the challenges facing both major parties in the state.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Libertarian Campaign Updates

• Tye Ward (House, District 15: Roan & part of Wirt Counties)

  • Running for House of Delegates; mostly using Facebook for outreach.
  • Yard signs are ready, but it feels “a little bit early” to distribute.
  • “I’m already exhausted and I’ve done nothing.” (02:34)
  • Noted positive reception from voters, who seem “hungry for change,” especially from disaffected Republicans and independents.

• Taylor Richmond (Senate, District 13: Morgantown & Fairmont)

  • Website: richmondfirstcentate.com; active on Facebook (with blue check) and TikTok.
  • Shirts and other campaign materials are in progress.
  • Early campaign experiences show “no pushback,” and some donations have come in.

2. WV Primaries: Money, Mudslinging, and Party Dynamics

• Record Spending and Negative Ads

  • 2026 primaries the “most expensive” in WV’s history, largely due to “out of state PAC money.” (05:28)
  • Notable increase in negative intra-party advertising, with some viewing this as “dirtier” than recent cycles.

• Republican Party Infighting

  • The GOP supermajority led to “inward” fighting between the MAGA/Social Conservative faction and the more moderate, ex-Democrat Republicans.
  • “What you’ve seen now is a [factional] infighting in terms of positions on certain key issues, whether they be social or economic… trying to purify their stance in the state.” (06:32 – Richmond)

• Democratic Decline

  • In many counties (e.g., Roan), the Democratic ballot featured “zero primary contenders for anything.” (07:46)
  • Party registration in many areas has shifted dramatically toward Republicans—e.g., in Roan County, Dems dropped from parity to about 1,000 out of 9,000 voters.

• Quote:

  • “The Democratic Party has somewhat been eviscerated… so the Republicans have turned their concerns inward to rebuild their coalition.” (06:04 – Richmond)

3. Changing Political Landscape & “Woke” Politics

• The “woke” influence associated with national Democrats is driving rural WV voters away, further accelerating the Republican realignment.

• Attack ads in the GOP primary targeted members for being soft on social issues. Example: A mailer allegedly showed a Republican lawmaker next to a drag queen, painting him as “so far liberal.” (12:00)

• “That's the attack… heaven forbid you defer slightly out of line with the rest of the social conservative movement in the state…” (12:57 – Richmond)

• Memorable Exchange:

  • Ward: “If you're… there's plenty of things that Chris Pritt differed in with Tom Takubo as far as liberty issues and medical freedom, for one. How about that? How about the economic stuff?” (13:19)
  • Critique: Core liberty issues are sidelined for divisive social wedge topics.

4. PACs, Power, and Legislative Control

• Discussion of the Chamber of Commerce’s traditional influence and the rise of competing (often governor-aligned) PACs changing the game.

• “Everybody acts like they’re suddenly a pure soul and they don’t participate in this stuff. It’s like, no, you just... like to have control and now you don’t.” (14:44 – Ward)

• Attorney General Patrick Morrissey’s endorsements and PAC activity noted; ousted several established incumbents—including the influential House Finance Chair Vernon Criss.

• Legislative leadership (esp. Hanshaw) and committee chairs have significant gatekeeping power over what policy advances.

• Quote:

  • “It's not always just about numbers. It’s also about the who's who in leadership of various parts of the legislature.” (18:09 – Richmond)

5. Legislative Session Intrigue Ahead

• Tension ahead: Hanshaw (Speaker) suggests possible “retaliation” for governor’s intervention—“Basically insinuating there's going to be retaliation. What are you gonna do? You gonna hurt the people of West Virginia and affect our lives because of your political nonsense?” (18:32 – Ward)
• Ongoing battle between governor and legislative leadership will shape what gets done next year, especially on issues like income tax elimination and school choice.

6. Voter Turnout, Party Strategies, and What’s Next

• Low Primary Turnout

  • Roan County had a relatively high 23% turnout, above state average, but still anemic. Statewide, many voters (esp. Republicans) sat out the primary due to lack of competitive races.

• Democrats’ False Hope?

  • Some Democrats are buoyed by higher primary turnout; panelists predict this won’t translate into wins come November due to default partisan voting for Republicans.
  • “I believe there’s still a significant percentage of Republicans who come November are going to come out and help Trump, or... take care of business, for lack of a better phrase, in terms of the Democrats.” (25:26 – Richmond)

• Headlines: Few truly competitive races are expected in November; most will stick with traditional party-line voting.

• Memorable Moment:

  • “It's almost worse... they're just coming to vote for whatever party they're in, and that's almost worse than just not coming, honestly.” (30:54 – Ward)

7. Economic Development & Federal Grant Dependency

• Extensive criticism of local Economic Development Authorities (EDAs) for operating as pass-throughs for state/federal grant money.

  • Example: Roane County EDA now owns miles of broadband fiber infrastructure—a “pseudo-governmental agency owning all these properties.”
  • Federal funding drives everything: “...our hope is to take other people’s money and increase inflation to be able to get economic development here.” (41:45 – Ward)

• New plan for “biological processing” based on regional wood fiber, but the only way forward is more federal grants (i.e., more debt spending).

• Quote:

  • “That's what all this spending does, is increases inflation. Because this isn't real money. This is printed money.” (41:54 – Ward)

• Richmond’s Take:

  • “A lot of these government agencies… are usually only in place... because this stuff comes down the pike in the form of block grants from the federal government down to the state, and the state does the same thing with the counties.” (42:10)
  • The answer is to elect people who “will stand up at appropriations votes and… say we’re almost $40 trillion in debt.”

• Economic Development Dilemma:

  • It's “hard to argue against” accepting grants, but the panel adamantly opposes the expansion of government as “the only provider of roads, broadband, or even wood product development.”

8. Final Thoughts & Libertarian Perspective

• Panelists worry about the long-term consequences of dependency on government spending:

  • “It's hard to sell pain that doesn't exist yet.” (49:31 – Ward)
  • The public can't connect government debt/inflation to rising prices and weaker economic prospects.
  • “Most people don’t realize that [debt spending] does impact them… in the terms of they print more money… which means you’re basically being taxed as a certain percentage every year… But most people don’t understand that key important fact.” (50:22 – Richmond)

• Metaphor of the Day:

  • Government spending compared to “endless shrimp at Red Lobster”—seems great, but eventually the restaurant (government/economy) pays the price. (49:37 – 50:22)

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Notable Quotes & Moments by Timestamp

• Early campaign fatigue:
  “I’m already exhausted and I’ve done nothing.” (02:34 – Ward)
• On negative campaigning:
  “People are real upset about the mudslinging in the Republican primary.” (04:45 – Ward)
• Primary power shift:
  “Democratic Party has somewhat been eviscerated... so the Republicans have turned their concerns inward...” (06:04 – Richmond)
• On registering Libertarian:
  “Your name and number in the voter registration list means something, because it shows that the state is moving a certain direction, that the Libertarian Party is gaining traction and so on.” (32:19 – Richmond)
• On economic development grants:
  “Our hope is to take other people’s money and increase inflation to be able to get economic development here. That's what you're saying.” (41:45 – Ward)
• Red Lobster analogy:
  “We've given away so much free shrimp... but to your point, the problem is that people, there's a cognitive dissonance between... how businesses run, how you run your household, versus the federal government.” (49:44 – Richmond)
• Closing Libertarian principle:
  “Don't hurt people and don't take their stuff.” (53:33 – Ward)

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Timestamps for Important Segments

• [02:03] – Campaign intros, how to get involved/support
• [04:07] – Negative campaigning, PAC money, Republican/Democratic in-fighting
• [07:46] – Local decline of Democratic Party registration/candidates
• [12:00] – Social issues in GOP primaries, “woke” attack ads
• [15:50] – Morrissey’s political influence; committee chairs and legislative dynamics
• [18:32] – Anticipation of session drama: Hanshaw’s “retaliation” and legislative tensions
• [22:10] – Why governor invests in primaries: GOP vs. GOP the dominant fight
• [25:26] – Voter turnout, partisan voting, general election predictions
• [35:11] – Deep dive: County Economic Development Authorities and federal grants
• [41:45] – Economic development as debt spending, inflation explained
• [49:37] – Red Lobster/“endless shrimp” analogy for government largesse
• [53:12] – Volunteer calls and closing messages

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Audience Takeaways

• Political insiders and local activists will find this episode a thorough, opinionated breakdown of how the 2026 primaries unfolded and what they signal for November and beyond.
• The hosts thoughtfully dissect the interplay of party control, campaign finance, and the unintended consequences of government intervention in the economy.
• Consistent with Libertarian values, the panel never shies away from critiquing government overreach—even when it delivers short-term “successes.”
• For listeners weary of duopoly politics or curious about WV’s unique state party realignment, this episode offers both context and candor.

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Contact:
Email: [e-mail]
Web: lpwv.org
Find the hosts on Facebook and Taylor Richmond at richmondfirstcentate.com

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Transcript

[A]

Ward, I am joined as always by Taylor Pack Money Richmond. Hello, Taylor.

[B]

Man, that one gonna stick. I think that was my nickname last time.

[A]

Oh, is it? Sorry, that's the only one I can think of this morning. So from the top here, Taylor, we want to talk about our primaries, but I also. Are.

[B]

Are.

[A]

Guys, it's. It's early in the morning. I. It's. I'm having a rough time. So give me. Give me some grace here. Talk about our campaigns, but there you go.

[B]

We don't have primaries. We did not use your taxpayer dollars to decide to run.

[A]

Correct. But to get this out of the way, please like comment and subscribe to this podcast. Wherever you're listening to it, don't just stream it. Hit the subscribe button. Helps get the podcast out to more people. Leave a five star review or whatever your specific application review requires to do. So get us out there. If you would like to donate to the podcast, go to lpwv.org hit that donate button and leave a little comment saying you're. You listen to the podcast. Wanted to give us a couple bucks or something. Everything helps. This is a value for value podcast. Whatever value you get out of it, go ahead and give us some back. So this is a volunteer effort from Taylor and I. So get us, hit us up on Facebook, Instagram and X and you can find both of us on our personal and our campaign Facebook pages and Taylor's website. Taylor, tell us about your campaign where people can get ahold of you.

[B]

Yeah. So website is richmondfirstcentate.com the same for TikTok. I am on the talks. And for Facebook. For Facebook, there's both my personal account and then there's the campaign account. Both under Taylor Richmond. The campaign has the official blue check mark, so find me there.

[A]

Awesome. Yeah. And I am running. You're running for the 13th Senate district. Did you already say that?

[B]

I did not, but that is correct.

[A]

Okay.

[B]

Morgantown and Fairmont.

[A]

Yep. Okay. And I'm running for the West Virginia House of delegates in the 15th district, which represents Roan and most of work county. You find me on Facebook. Ty Ward for WV House on Facebook. I don't have a website. I don't know if I will. I'm. I'm past that too. You know. We're past that.

[B]

Are we? It's only May.

[A]

Yeah, no, I'm already exhausted and I've done nothing. So. Yeah. House of Delegates.

[B]

You have signs?

[A]

Yeah, I got signs. If you would like a sign if you're in Roan or Werk. County or if you think you would like to help me put some out somewhere, just let me know. And I think it's a little bit early to put out signs, but I'm. They're in my truck and in my wife's van mostly, so trying to get them out there. I've had a few people ask for them and I've volun. Told them to take five or six and put them out wherever they live. And they've all been graciously accepting to do that. So. Yeah, I. It's weird, man. I got shirts ordered. I know you got shirts made. Um, I've had some donations which will help pay for some of that stuff. So it's. It's going well. So far. I've gotten, I don't think, talking to people. I've talked to quite a few people out in my lawn business, and I've not gotten any, you know, pushback on much of anything. I mean, I think people are kind of hungry for change and I think a lot of Republicans and independents are mad about them closing the primary and, you know, kind of. They're exhausted by the. Just the constant words you used earlier, reneging on the things that they've promised. And so I think it's a good time for Libertarians in West Virginia.

[B]

Yeah, I'm excited. It's gonna be an interesting five or so months.

[A]

Yeah. So, speaking of shenanigans, we want to talk about the primaries that happened last Tuesday. Well, this Tuesday. Last Tuesday. Tuesday 12 May, the Republicans and Democrats had their primaries for all of their partisan elections, and this campaign was. I don't. I guess I never really paid much attention to the. In state primaries for Republicans that much because I. I was seeing a lot of negative ads back and forth, but I don't. I don't remember that not being a thing before. Maybe I just am thinking of the general elections. But there's been a big uproar and a hoopl, and your buddy TJ Meadows has been wetting his pants over it all primary season that there's a lot of pack money and the governor decided that he was going to put his two cents in on endorsing candidates. And people are real upset about the mudslinging in the Republican primary. I think we talked about a little bit on the last podcast, but really got him a lot of attention from the media and, and people being kind of disgusted by what was going on. It. Do you think it's any different than. Than usual.

[B]

In terms of media attention over the past six years? I would say that it is, it was, it was dirtier. But you know, I don't know in times before that that it was worse or better. That's kind of when I really first started paying attention. Ty. But I will, I will say dollar wise they did some comparisons and obviously with the out of state PAC money, it was the most, it's not one of the most expensive primary seasons in history for West Virginia. So in that regard, yes, but you know, as we talked about, the Democratic Party has somewhat been eviscerated in terms of their ability to compete and really concerned by the Republicans. So they, the Republicans have turned their concerns inward to rebuild their quote unquote coalition. I think you have to keep in mind that to gain the super majority they basically flipped a lot of Democrats, a lot of moderates and you know, middle of the road folks to be Republican so they could take over, which wasn't probably very hard for them to do. I think a lot of those folks probably were more conservative and right leaning anyways. But since then, and since they've solidified the supermajority over the past 10 years, what you've seen now is a infighting in terms of positions on certain key issues, whether they be social or economic. And parts of the party are trying to, I guess, for lack of a better phrase, purify their stance in the state and where they are as a party, move their own overturn window a certain direction. And it's caused some infighting between the more socially conservative column MAGA Republicans in the state and those more moderate, you know, former Democrat Republicans. And that's kind of where the state of politics are right now. And that's where the fight is. I mean, I think there's going to be a handful of races in the general, but for the most part, I think we saw a lot of things decided this past Tuesday.

[A]

Yeah, in, in Roane county, the Democrat ballot had zero primary contenders for anything. They didn't even run anybody unopposed.

[B]

Do you have any Democrats in Rome County?

[A]

Yeah, yeah, we do. And they, they always run well and just for House of Delegates, they, they always run someone, I guess the Senate. Did the Senate even have one? I have to go back and look at that. I don't think they actually did. I have to remember, I don't remember. It's too hard to keep track of. But the, the definitely in the House they always have a, at least they run somebody and they didn't even, they couldn't find anybody to be their sacrificial lamb, which is kind of Funny, because that's normally what we do. But the I talked to, I have a friend that ran for House of Delegates as a Democrat here probably it was three election cycles ago. And he, he, it's funny because he says he brags that he's my age. He was a year ahead of me in high school. But he brags, he said he's got record, he set the record of votes which he got the, the lowest historical votes in the primary. Nice delegates. And then he said, but it was immediately broken by the person that ran after him and then it was immediately broken by the person that ran after that person. So, yeah, in counties like this. I was looking at the, I think I sent you from 2018, the registration for voters in 2018. And I was, I didn't, I guess I didn't anticipate how much it had changed since then here, but I was looking at the Republican versus Democrat registrations and it was almost split right down the middle evenly. And then I looked at the last one. I GUESS it was 25 that I found or maybe it's 24. But it was, they had taken, it was like 4,500 to 4,500 and it went all to Republicans. I mean, there's like a thousand Democrats registered in Roane county now and it went from 21 libertarians to 51 libertarians. So that was a significant increase. Yeah. And the Independence stayed about the same. So I don't know, I mean, maybe some of those. It's hard to tell what the split was, but it's very interesting that you had such a huge change. And I think it has a lot to do with, you know, Democrats here, just as we've talked about repeatedly on here, just completely changing nationally. I think it's been reflected a lot by national politics here because as we've stated and as this primary kind of pointed out, there are still a lot of Republicans that are basically just the, the Democrats that switch parties, as we've said. And but that's, well, that's the weird thing is that they're not really, they haven't been Democrats for a long time. It's not like it was a new thing. I mean, I think nationally for probably since Obama there were the Democrat Party hasn't been what it was before that they're not built Bill Clinton, you know, work across the aisle, low deficit Democrats. They're just getting more and I don't even like using this word, but the whole woke influence has kind of shifted the party into more, you know, progressivism and West Virginia Democrats aren't about that. So they're not. We say they're not Republicans. And I don't even like saying that because what does that even mean? But that's, that's the shift. I mean, it's. They've just kind of seen that the Democrat Party left them for whatever that's worth, good or bad. And well, they're Republicans now.

[B]

And, and to that, Ty, I was just, you know, talking about the quote, unquote, woke influence. Right. I mean, I think that's in West Virginia and I'm sure probably in some other Bible Belt, you know, red state, Ruby red states in the Indian Union. It's, it's this way that the tying Democrats to trans issues and, you know, some of that, you know, further left parts of the party is the common refrain. And we saw that in the Republican primary when, you know, with a lot of the social issues. There's a one mailer that went out, I'm 99% sure it was against Tacubo, that because he voted against one of the boys and girls sports bills or amendments that, you know, there was a mailer that went out that basically had him standing next to a very lack, for lack of a better phrase, flamboyant drag queen. And that was like the attack is that he's so far liberal, he's with, you know, and it's like, I don't know how necessarily effective that was. It'd be interesting to see some type of voter data or anything. But that's where the attack is. I mean, it is the kind of the red meat attack option for both Republicans against Democrats in this state. But heaven forbid you defer slightly out of line with the rest of the social conservative movement in the state, then that's going to be the attack against you as a fellow Republican.

[A]

Yeah, and that's kind of why, you know, one of the reasons I think you feel the same, that's one of the reasons I just don't want to be a Republican because I just don't think that's a real issue in West Virginia and it's not something I think they should be focusing on. And that's what you decide to pick. I mean, if you're. There's plenty of things that Chris Pritt diff differed in with Tom Tacubo as far as liberty issues and medical freedom, for one. How about that? How about the economic stuff? Chris as a delegate voted many times against some of this economic development spending, and Tacubo is a guaranteed yes on all that stuff. So that Stuff, you know, that should be the meat and potatoes of what a conservative really has an issue with. They don't really care that much, which is kind of ironic. You know, if that stuff kind of works on the. The former Democrats. I don't. It's very strange. West Virginia is a very strange place to try to, you know, suss out politics. But I would like to say I don't. It almost makes me support Morrissey and some of these actions just because of the boohooing I saw from, you know, Metro News and all these people pretending and we talked about in the last podcast. But the more I looked at it because I had kind of insinuated that the, the Chamber of Commerce. Is that what I. The. Yeah. The state Chamber of Commerce hadn't really spent much money, but from what I've said that they always spend money on all these ads and, and people were posting in. In Metro News's comments, all of these negative ads that the Chamber of Commerce had funded. And they're just as dirty and they're one of the people that, you know, they wrote op EDS about it and West Virginians aren't like this and they're participating in it. They're just mad that they got outspent. And that made me. I'm like, okay, you're going to share editorials from the Chamber of Commerce. Okay. Clearly this isn't an unbiased commentary. Is you. You're upset that the status quo is getting, you know, whooped, playing their own game. And that's the thing that bothers me is everybody acts like they're suddenly a, you know, a pure soul and they don't participate in this stuff. It's like, no, you just, you are the people that like to have control and now you don't. So. Yeah. And I think what did. Morrissey had a pretty good record for the people he endorsed. I don't know. I think I saw that 14 Republican delegates got. Incumbents got ousted in the primary. Is that what you saw?

[B]

Yeah, I didn't pay. I mean, I saw some of the infographics and things that were parsed out. I'll be honest. I don't want to comment on them because I know one of the counters to it was he didn't cons, like in a lot of his percentage, like his batting average or whatever, and his other numbers, like how many of them were unopposed Republicans. So I don't want to speak to that. I mean, here's the thing. I will say that he, from what I saw, it was quote Unquote, pretty much awash in terms of numbers. However, he did get two pretty big as they were calling them scalps in the process. One being the Senate, I'm sorry, the House finance chair and Vernon Criss, who had a significant role in the fight with the HOPE Scholarship and how he utilized his position as the committee chair to move things in, around or not move things in and around that committee's agenda. So I think it's the blanking on the delegates from Harrison County's name now who was the vice chair and will likely be the chair. So when those things happen, yeah, you might have lost a House seat or a Senate seat here or there, but if they, but if you get a city sitting committee member or a chair, excuse me, you know, that can have some significant impact on what pieces of legislation actually get up and around because people don't realize the sausage making process for a lot of this is. And there was a lot of talk about certain things at the end of the session. It's like, oh, well, this just didn't get up to the floor in time. Oh, this didn't make it through the process. Well, those things didn't make it to the floor because you have committee chairmen who know how to utilize their agenda and delay and filibuster, for lack of a better phrase, items that are coming up by members that have to be voted on and moved through their committees. And if they don't want that thing to come through, then it won't. We saw this a lot with former chairman of the committee, Judiciary Committee, Trump with a lot of Second Amendment stuff. That was a big, he was a big headache for the West Virginia Citizens Defense League and a lot of the things that they were trying to do. So while the numbers may balance out or they, you know, plus one or plus two in all the votes or sorry, all the races that Morrissey and his PACs went to. You know, I think if you can keep it pretty even. But you get a big name like a Vernon Chris out and then you get one of your guys in as committee chair next go around, that will be a significant win. So it's not always just about numbers. It's also about the who's who in leadership of various parts of the legislature.

[A]

Yeah. And to that I think it's going to be very interesting next legislative session because again, Metro News had a, an article that was quoting Roger Hanshaw and again they have to, you know, fluff him up. You know, the normally poised and, and stoic Handshaw said that he, that the governor did what he did and we won't forget this. And it'll, it'll be whatever, basically insinuating that there's going to be retaliation. And I'm like, what? Like, what are you talking about? Like, somebody. It's just, I'm like, what are you going to do? Like, I mean, it's just nonsense. Like what, what, what agenda, what items? Like what, what are you gonna do? You gonna hurt the people of West Virginia and affect our lives because of your political nonsense? Like, the people voted. That's who the people chose. That's what you have to deal with. It's not about Governor Morrissey. And like, okay, so the governor, is it illegal for him to do what he did? Nobody's suggesting that, but it's not, it's not illegal.

[B]

I would, I will just point out that at least in West Virginia, and I don't know how it is in other states, it's somewhat unprecedented, but obviously he's quite a, wants to be a little Trump. Yeah. And we talk about how Trump has, does this regularly now, more so than maybe other presidents have in the past. So.

[A]

Right. And okay, so he's got a legislature that clearly is not going to run his agenda. And he hasn't, like we've said before, he hasn't been real vocal about that. But it's very clear from what he said he wanted done to. And this is, I'm going to do rose colored glasses on this, is that maybe what he was trying to do is play politics during session and, you know, keep a unified front and then maybe hopefully what we're going to see is him try to take the gloves off a little bit and say this is what I'm trying to do. They're trying to keep me from doing it. So I'm going to play this game and try to get people in that will work with me so that they can have enough votes to out maneuver these leadership people that are all working together. Because like you said, it's not just the, the chairs of these committees, they're all working in tandem with Hanshaw. And Hanshaw has run an iron, with an iron fist that whatever he wants is what's going to get to the floor and he'll throw some bone bones to the plebs in the, the lower seats to, you know, throw some things out that he doesn't really care about. But if he doesn't like it, it doesn't get to the floor. There is no, this isn't a democratic process. This is whatever he wants. And doesn't bother him, gets there. And some people could say that's his role, but that's, that's not, in my opinion. And I'm sure you agree that's not really the role of the chair. The role of the chair is to guide the process. And, you know, there's. Obviously, you have to make some decisions about what makes it to the floor because there's so many bills, but when it's all of your agenda and nobody else's. Yeah, the governor's gonna play some games that I don't really see why that's a. As far as every, as we've said, this has been going on with the Chamber of Commerce and all these other, you know, the coal lobbies and oil and gas lobby and all these different lobbies have played this game. And if, if Governor Morrissey wants to use his friends to fund PACs to do the same thing, you know, what's good for the goose is good for the gander, in my opinion. If that makes Hanshaw mad good, let's. Well, whatever.

[B]

And, and not only that time. It goes back to a previous comment in conversation regarding the fact that the Democrats, you know, for, despite being the duopoly, don't matter that much, if at all, in the end game of this. Right. So where generally, and you look at other states, especially more purpley states, where they're trying to fight to make sure they maintain and get just good Republicans who are going to beat the Democrats in the general, they don't have to worry about that in West Virginia. So what does he have to worry about? Where can he invest time and resources by getting Republicans?

[A]

Well, I think I just hung up on Taylor. I accidentally hung up on. You go back 10 seconds.

[B]

All right, so because the Democrats don't matter like they may in other states, you don't have to invest time and resources into getting just good candidates, good Republican candidates that will win in the general. You can invest time and resources and money and recruit PACs to help support Republicans that align with your philosophy, with your agenda and get those in and through the primary. That's just the state of politics in West Virginia now. So instead of just saying, oh, we want a good popular Republican, we want. Morsi wants a good popular Republican who also agrees that we need to cut the income tax, state income tax, and eliminate that, instead of just waiting for that revenue metric to kick in and decrease it slowly over time or insert policy here, whether it's teens, West Virginia or whatever it may be, he's gonna go and get people that are gonna back him. So whether you're fighting in the general or fight the Democrats in the general or fighting more moderate Republicans in the primary, I don't think it really matters. It's just moving the window and the timeframe up based on the state of affairs and state of politics in West Virginia. And like you said, a lot of it is just folks like Greg Thomas and the Chamber of Commerce crying because they don't no longer have the sway that they did for the past 10 years in the state because they, instead of just getting Republicans in office, now it's about getting certain Republicans and they're on the side of the Republican Party that isn't as popular as they thought it might have been.

[A]

Yeah. And it's as we've predicted on here. It's. I don't think the Republicans understand how annoyed people are by this stuff. I think a lot of the super, the super true Republican, you know, population here, they, they got a few wins this primary season because they came out and supported some of these candidates. You know, the before mentioned Chris and then that Heckard guy that.

[B]

Yeah, Chris, yeah.

[A]

And so you got some good candidates. That McCarty woman who is, seems like she's right along that line. It's, they, they're getting some wins, but I think they might be disenfranchising some of the more base Republicans than they think they are doing this kind of stuff. And the Democrats kind of had a field day with the PR on this.

[B]

And even though I do want, I do want to talk about that because that's something that I'm seeing especially in my race now. Right. Like John Williams is coming out and talking about the voter turnout and the percentage of Democrats that came out in Senate 13 and obviously in and around the Charleston area. And I think so basically they're getting this big boost, this big like, you know, energy and excitement about the numbers in terms of how many Republicans turned out versus how many Democrats. And here's the thing about it, Ty, is there was some infighting with, you know, selling more capita and a few Tom Willis and a few others for the Senate, but there really wasn't a big draw. I think personally maybe you disagree for Republicans to come out in the, in the primary unless they were in some of these really contentious House races and some of those were only, you know, like 1100 vote totals in those districts come out. Meanwhile, the Democrats actually did have some pretty for them competitive races for both the state Senate race that, you know, who was going to be their nominee to go against Shelley Moore, Capito. And then also in both the two House districts, they had some contentious races that probably drew out a good number of folks. I don't believe where I'm getting this is that I talked to folks like my grandma who is, you know, Bible believing, Bible belt living, going to go out and vote Ruby Red against any Democrat straight ticket, you know, come November. But she didn't go out and vote in the primary. She was like, oh, I don't follow close enough to care. I just don't want the Democrats getting in. I believe there's still a significant percentage of Republicans who come November are going to come out and help Trump or what's the word? You know, take care of business, for lack of a better phrase, in terms of the Democrats. Now, a couple of seats may be contentious. The Flu Hardy and Chapman race up in district one, obviously here in 13, maybe one down in Kanawha. The people are like that, Greg Thomas run the chamber pack or whatever they have what it's called. You know, he's like, oh, they're, they're going to get five or six or seven Senate seats this, this upcoming election. I'm like, there's no freaking way that that's going to happen just because of the general or the primary vote turnouts. I think you're trying to be hyperbolic and cry your alligator tears. I think the problem's going to come out in the general. They may pick up or two Senate seats, they may pick up, you know, three or four House seats. But I think it's a bunch of Chicken Little right now because the Republicans didn't have a super big reason to come out in the primary like they generally do when Trump is at the top of the ticket. People fight for what we believe.

[A]

Do you? Sean Fluharty won his primary value?

[B]

Yeah, I don't think he was even contested.

[A]

Oh, okay. I thought.

[B]

And, but, but the, the race in that district was Eddie, which was Morrissey's back candidate or whatever. Eddie Edie, I forget what his name was anyways. And, and the Tracy Lauren Chapman gal. So that's. So it's her. It's Chapman versus Flu Hardy in the first come November.

[A]

Okay. Yeah. No, I think you're right. Here's the thing. And it just, it's annoying. That's the thing is the Republicans have to figure out, or Republicans, Democrats, whoever, they have to figure out a way to get, you know, this mindset a little bit shifted because it's worse than it ever has been. But to be fair, I mean, aside from you know, there's people like your grandmother, my stepfather, some people that have always been Republican that feel that way. Now, my stepdad votes in every election because he, you know, he feels like it's his duty to do so, and he does a little bit of research and pays attention, but. And I know he's not the kind of guy that likes that kind of behavior, so I would bet some of his votes probably were in spite of people running those kind of campaigns. Yeah, but the Democrats were the same way. And I'm sure they brought their. I know Democrats were almost as bad that, you know, blue. No matter who, we're going to vote for, the Democrat, no matter what, we just got to keep the Republicans out. And they brought that over to the. Their voting patterns with the Republicans. I mean, it's. We just got to keep those crazy Democrats out because they've become, you know, drag queen, story hour, whatever. And so that's. That's the problem is they've got to figure out a way to get people actually voting. I don't know. I don't think that's possible. Honestly. I don't even really think it's a. Maybe that's not even worth addressing. But it's. It was super low turnout. I mean, roane county had 23% voter turnout, which was higher than the state average. But we had a few races. Our school board, which I was really, in hindsight, I might have ran for school board, but we got a decent school board candidate here in my area in our district. He ran unopposed in our district. But there was one that, you know, there was a few really super, like, not reading the room candidates that did really well. And I just. It was a little bit. I was kind of hoping. And it's not. I'm not going to say it doesn't look good for my position, but I think there's enough people that think the state isn't doing anything about education. And, you know, our rep has been in there two sessions now, and the Republicans have had our district for eternity. So I think that that's kind of a little bit different. But it's just. It kind of annoys me that people just show up and vote the same way that they did, even though we've had nothing but, you know, people not doing their job and their positions and. And basically having the same kind of opinions as the one they elected. So I don't know. It's weird, but we had a decent. Better photo turnout than the state average, but 23% of the electorate, it's Just not. It's crazy. Like, I don't know. I mean, I don't get it. I don't know why people don't vote. I guess they just kind of are fat and happy. I don't know what the deal is. Like you said, I'm sure there'll be more in November because of what you're saying. And that's. It's almost worse, you know what I mean? Because they're just coming to vote for whatever party they. They're in. And that's almost worse than just not coming, honestly. But.

[B]

Well, I think it's. I think that's worse than voting in the primary because especially in some of the contested races, you haven't actual opportunity to shape your party and where it goes. And that's why, you know, I was talking to a gentleman Friday out of Greenberg county and, you know, Libertarians wanted to get more active and everything. And, you know, we're kind of just talking about this whole idea of, you know, why you switched to be a Libertarian is because. And why your name and number in the voter registration list means something, because it shows that the state is moving a certain direction, that the Libertarian Party is gaining traction and so on. And similarly, when you go out and you vote for one side or the other, whichever side you're on, if you're on the Tom Ta Kubo side or you're on the Randy Smith side, if you're on the Morrissey side or, you know, the Larry Pack side, that shows something to voters and the TJ Meadows and everybody else, you know, pays attention to that and they'll talk about it. And that kind of, again, moves the Overton window in certain directions. So I think, I think personally, especially in West Virginia and a lot of these races coming out in the primary actually is more significant than just showing up with a red jersey on in, in November to vote down the Democrats.

[A]

Yeah. And I, I mean, they did have some good wins, in my opinion. People that I don't agree with on everything were. But, you know, people that are for medical freedom and school choice and, and changing, you know, the system for at least breaking some stuff up. I mean, I don't know, it's hard to be, you know, blue pilled on, on our process here when you have this stuff going on. But Taylor, I think we've kind of talked about this enough. I mean, I don't know if you have any other conclusions you wanted to talk about about the primaries.

[B]

No, I think, you know, like I said, the big takeaway was that you know, a lot of money is spent, a lot of all tears were cried. It will be interesting to see what the outcomes are come next February or during the session and to see, you know, again, what pieces of legislation that the governor's administration puts forward and what the, you know, quote unquote factions within that, the House and Senate do to either move that forward or stymie it via the process. Obviously, one of the big shakeups that happened or is happening, I guess within the primary moving forward to the General is who is going to be running and then eventually win the Senate chairmanship. So Randy Smith out of Preston county currently is and he's kind of on that MAGA side of things, socially conservative wing. And he went against TAR and to Kubo in the last go around when they decided it. TAR kind of backed out early because of the obvious numbers and then it was those two. But you know, who's going to have enough, enough votes come November 12th or whatever the date is to either keep or gain the power of the Senate back. So that'll be the other takeaway. But that's six months from now, so we'll see.

[A]

Yeah. So I kind of want to talk about something that's been, been a little bit bothering me is you know, we kind of pay attention to it on the state level, but we don't really talk much about the counties. But that's economic development. And you know, I just read an article in our paper which kind of was a. Piled on top of another issue, but our economic Development Authority. So it seems to me that they've kind of become just a go through for grant money. I mean, I understand they're probably trying to do the best they can for, you know, our county and they have the best of intentions, but it, and so it's not like a nefarious thing and I'm not saying anything bad about the individuals who run it, but it seems constantly the only thing they actually get done is taking state and federal money and redistributing it and you know, wanting to improve the county. And the, the most recent. Well, I'll, I'll just start from the, the, the big issue we've talked about is broadband. And as I talk to people in the county, a lot of people don't know this, but our Roan County Economic Development Authority got, received the grant from the state which is basically federal money for broadband. And so they have contracted the, the work to be done on putting up all the, the fiber across the county and then negotiated the lease agreement for who was going to do the services. And the, the main issue that people are kind of surprised with is now the Rowan County Economic Development Authority owns those lines that, that, that organization owns the, the infrastructure for this broadband Internet. And that should bother people because these people aren't. These aren't people that own infrastructure like they, they. They're basically, their thing is to go around the county. This is the only thing I will say that is negative, which I don't know why anybody would think this is okay to do. But they've gone around the county and they do this almost in every county and they buy up all of these properties. And I guess the idea would be that they're in a position to talk to people that might want to come and use them for businesses and infrastructure, things like that. But they own all these properties, they go around buying them up and then they have this huge, you know, portfolio of all these properties that they don. Do a whole lot with. And that's. It's a pseudo governmental agency owning all these properties, which we know the state owns lots of property that they lease out for free to these companies, which is another problem. But it's just an extension of that. But then they. Now they're owning all of this broadband. And I think people do have a problem with that. But it's like a lot of people say, well then who's going to do it? I'm like, maybe they don't do it. Maybe a private company would do it if there was the need for it.

[B]

It.

[A]

And that's the main, general, the thesis. But this, this next one, and we've talked about that part at nauseum, is that, you know, markets should drive what, what happens. And you know, it's hard for West Virginia because we don't have the, the population and the need for a private company to see the, the profit from it. But what, what I read in the paper is I guess there's. And I don't really understand it because the article was super vague, but I guess there's a growing need for some kind of biological processing that has a lot to do with wood fiber. And there's a, there's some kind of certification that you can get through this organization that goes through basically what they do. They come in and go and survey the area and figure out how much, you know, mass of forest you have and what the infrastructure is and the power sources and all this stuff. And they grade you based on that so you can get a certification. So some of these companies know whether or not it's advantageous for them to open up in your area. And people are saying, I guess our Economic Development Authority went to some meeting at the Central Ohio Valley Group of economic development authorities, for lack of a better remembrance of what the name actually is. But they said that our area, they call it the, you know, the Donut hole of West Virginia, the Roane county work county, I guess. Richie Calhoun, Some of these counties that don't haven't seen any of the benefits of the economic development is this, this is something that they could take advantage of. But the problem is they're wanting to apply for a federal Department of Agriculture grant to be able to pay for that certification process. And it doesn't say in the article how much that grant is from the federal government. And I have to imagine it's a substantial amount of money. And so that's my thing is they're touting that there's estimates of there being close to $18 billion across this area, across the United States, but in areas that are heavily forested, where this could be potential boon for economic development. And it's hard to sell that this is a bad thing, Taylor, because of the potential of it. But I want to make two points and then you can tell me what you think. But my, my thing is, is the first part is, is what you've brought up several times is that every time we see this stuff, they spend this money for research and advertising and, and all of these things, and then these things never work out. And this is kind of a pie in the sky thing that I've never even heard about. And maybe it's super real and super, you know, advantageous. But then the other part for me is you're getting a federal grant from the federal government. And what do we know about federal government spending is almost all of it these days is debt spending. I mean, our GDP to debt ratio is like 100% or something. Like we're spending way more money than we take in, in taxes. And so basically, like West Virginia does, where 71% of our state budget is federal money, we're going to take more on a county level for our economic development. So what we're saying is West Virginia's only hope is to take other people's money and increase inflation to be able to get economic development here. That's what you're saying is there's no way for us to do anything other than take other people's money and increase inflation, because that's what all this spending does, is increases inflation. Because this isn't real money. This is printed Money. And I don't know, it's hard to get people to grasp that concept based when somebody's promising them millions of dollars in economic development and jobs. So those are my two points. And I don't know, it's. To me, I don't, I haven't figured out a way to say it's bad. Worse than that, I mean, other than just the idea of this isn't the role of government. What do you think?

[B]

No, I mean, I agree. And obviously, as you said, it is kind of hard to argue against because the issue is that has already been appropriated, it's already been legislated, it's coming down the pike. And a lot of these government agencies and county level groups are usually only in place or predominantly in place because this stuff comes down the pike in the form of block grants from the federal government down to the state. And the state does the same thing from the, the state level to the county level because the federal government says, oh, we know that we need to do X, Y and Z, we need to increase broadband, we need to grow more deciduous trees or whatever. The thing is, at the time, we're too big to do it at our level, we'll give the money, we'll decide which states to get how much, and then the states can figure it out from there. And the state does the same thing with the counties. So, yes, it is hard to argue because a lot of the stuff is basically dictated down to us. So my first stance would be we should elect and vote for folks like Thomas Massie and Rand Paul who will stand up at appropriations votes and in those committees and say we're almost $40 trillion in debt. We don't need to be doing this. We need to be cutting spending and reducing the impact of the money printing machine and its inflationary outcomes. That way, maybe some, some of these things don't actually happen and we actually do those things in the meantime. You know, I don't want to say this is the pragmatic approach, but I do get it. It's like, well, we can't. If it's already been spent, it might as well West Virginia, take it and utilize it, I guess. But, yeah, so, but again, you're, I'm not disagreeing with your overall point that it's a drain on our economy's power, for lack of a better phrase, because of the inflationary spending. So, yeah, you just hope that you have people in there that, and maybe it's the responsibility of those who know what they're doing in these various areas. To help on public comments and things that they put out that you have the opportunity to weigh in to say, here's where it should best be spent. But otherwise, yeah, I mean, it's kind of like the. The die is cast and let's make the best use of it in the meantime, but walk and chew bubble gum. And while it's happening, also point out that a lot of this stuff would happen already. It's a classic libertarian meme of, well, who will pay for it? Right. It's like, well, is it very important? Yes or no? If no, then don't worry about it because it's not important in the first place. If yes, either some private company will fill in the void because it needs to get done and there's a demand for it in the marketplace. Or alternatively, it's a request or concern of the public to the extent where an already existing nonprofit will come in and step in and help in that area, or someone will create a nonprofit or charity to address that thing. We see it happening all the time and everything else, but unfortunately, things like this creep up. And I think the larger issue ty it gets us kind of further down that Stockholm syndrome road of more roads. It's like, well, well, you know, only the government can build and oversee road development. And eventually, if we allow this stuff to continue happening, then only the government can oversee wood product, you know, development or whatever it is, or broadband or et cetera. So, yeah, take the money because it's, you know, L.A. is going to get it if we don't take it. Or. But in the meantime, vote for individuals who are smart enough to understand that this is a drain on the economy. This is increasing inflationary SPE spending, which is a unseen tax on everybody else.

[A]

Yeah. And you know, that's the thing is, it's, as we've said here before, is when does it stop? That's my thing. Is it the. The concept of, well, I pay taxes, so I should get some of it back and if we don't do it, somebody else is going to do it. Well, where does that stop? I mean, when does it end? And our big thing is, and like you said, it's going to happen anyway. So our focus is. And my focus is, okay, I mean, I can't do anything about it. I'm not going to promote it. I'm not going to say it's a good thing, but I'm going to celebrate jobs like Nucor. The way that was brought in shouldn't have happened, but I'm glad people are getting jobs and that we haven't have an employer here and we can point out, well, there's no guarantee there's going to be West Virginia jobs and you know that it's going to cause inflation and, and those things. But I'm glad people have jobs. So, you know, I'm not going to be a complete pessimist and just hate something just because it doesn't. I didn't get my way and like this. If it does, if they get this federal ag grant to get this and it does bring jobs here, I'm going to celebrate that and I'm going to be glad that people have jobs. But at the same time, I'm going to, I'm not going to stop saying the better way is to cut taxes, cut spending, cut regulation to entice people. You don't have to give someone a tax break if there's no tax to break. When we're, when the standard is, our negotiation is, hey, we're the freest and most open, business friendly state in the whole country because we don't have any of these things. We don't have to give you a break. Our competition is, we exist. And if we get to that point, then, then I can, then we can go focus on maybe whether or not we should be participating in this stuff and be, you know, set a standard. West Virginia, many times we've had the gall to say, no, we're going to do school choice, we're going to do these things because it's best for our people and set a trend across the country and say, no, this is the way it needs to be done. And all these businesses, they can take out of some of their profits, what these research, you know, these certifications, they can do it if they want to come here. And we can entice them and say that we're going to make it as easy as possible and we're going to rent a car to drive you around or whatever, you know what I mean? Like to be as open and inviting as possible and to maybe if they have questions, we answer those questions and make it as easy as possible. But we're not going to pay for it because we don't have the money. That's the thing is, if we were flush and we had all this money, that's one thing, but we don't have the money. This is other people's money. And guess what? The federal government doesn't have the money either. So that's the problem is you're spending money you don't have. Businesses don't Succeed that way you see bubbles and you see high failure rates. Why do you think Target or not Target, but Kmart, whatever the pet store was, all these different huge chains, Red Lobster, all these places, they have huge financial issues and they close and they shut down because they pay all their payroll with debt and they, they're over leveraged. And that's why they have a problem when you have an economic downturn. They don't have the, the cash cushion like businesses used to do, how things used to operate. They don't have that cash cushion to make it through. So we don't want to do, do that as a government or as a state or as a society. So that's the selling point for me is, you know, okay, yeah, jobs are good, but at what cost? And the cost is not immediate. And that's the biggest problem with selling it is it's hard to sell pain that doesn't exist yet.

[B]

Yeah, I was, I was really hoping you were going to use the Red Lobster analogy instead of the other companies with their basically free shrimp or endless shrimp.

[A]

Well, but that's, that's just a bad business move. That's just bad business.

[B]

But if you think about it, I mean that's kind of, I think, at least from my perspective, maybe I'm wrong. More analogous to what the federal government does, right, is we've, we've given away so much free shrimp or extremely cheap shrimp that you know, but to your point, the problem is that people, there's a cognitive dissonance between, like you said, how businesses run, how you keep run your household and versus the federal government. And I know, like Thomas Masseys and folks will make that claim, but people, at least the vast majority of the citizenry, do not or cannot make that connection because we've told them for decades now, oh yeah, we have X trillion dollars of debt and that, you know, back in the 90s it was, you know, 5 trillion or whatever. And then over the past 30 years it's gone up $30 trillion. And people see that, but then they see the government every year continue to spend, continue to operate and continue to increase its spending. So you know, at a certain point you're just like, you know, in the back of your mind subconsciously, you just go, well, I guess it doesn't matter because most folks don't realize that it does in the terms of they print more money, there are more dollars in circulation, which means the value of your currency goes down, which means its buying power has decreased, which means you're basically being taxed as A certain percentage every year when they do that. But most people don't understand that key important fact. So they just go about their day and think, okay, well we're just going to continue to keep it on and maybe eventually something will happen. We'll, you know, we'll default on our debt or whatever we do. But shucks, by golly, and the world keeps spinning. So then that trickles down to, oh, the federal government's giving West Virginia X million dollars to do tree pulp research or broadband. And like you said, it's, it's increased services, it's increased jobs, it's. Whatever it is, it's icing on the cake. But what they don't realize is inside the middle of the cake is, is basically either hollowed out or it's full of moldy dog crap.

[A]

Yeah, it's full, full of useless worthless fiat dollars. Yeah. So, yeah, I think that's a, a pretty good point. I mean, and if you have any other ideas, I mean, you can email us, Mountain State, libertycast, gmail.com or hit us up on one of our social media platforms and let us know what you think. But Taylor, I think that's a good place to wrap up. Again, I want to remind everyone to, I want to remind everyone that.

[B]

There you go.

[A]

They can hit us up on our campaign pages, your reps, your website. Yeah, just if you, if you want to support us in any way, let us know, give us a word of encouragement or something. It's going to be a long time till November and we're going to be out there. If you, I know, I don't know about you, Taylor, but if, if somebody wants to do door knocking, I'm going to be setting up a couple of probably weekends because that's kind of the only time I'm going to have off this summer. Closer to the election, I'm going to do one where I won't have as much going on because it's the dog days and I won't have as much mowing to do. But yeah, just keep us in mind and if you have, if you want to support us, let us know. Yeah. Anything else, Taylor?

[B]

No, I agree. And folks can reach out for me as well and I probably have more weekends in you since my job is not grass related or supported. So yeah, I'll probably be out doing a lot more of that up in Morgantown and Fairmont so folks can reach out. I'd love to have them out with me.

[A]

Cool. All right, well, I appreciate you listening and until next time, don't hurt people and don't take their stuff.