Like comedian Rodney Dangerfield, West Virginia gets no respect. But that may be starting to change, as S&P this week upgraded the Mountain State’s outlook from stable to positive and affirmed West Virginia’s AA general debt rating.
According to the rating agency, “our view of positively improving credit quality in West Virginia reflects the recent series of large budget surpluses, multiple ample reserve funds and management actions to control costs.”
This could be a message to voters in neighboring Virginia and nearby New Jersey as they head to the polls to elect new governors. While West Virginia was long thought to be a backwater, it is now thriving thanks to strong Republican leadership.
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Asian American voters will play a big role in New Jersey’s gubernatorial election as a DNC official warns the party must increase its AAPI outreach efforts in the upcoming election. (Victor J. Blue/Getty Images; Mark Kauzlarich/Getty Images)
And Justice isn’t the only congressman to cut his teeth in West Virginia state government during Appalachia’s recent renaissance; there is also freshman Republican Rep. Riley Moore.
According to Moore, “During my time as state treasurer, West Virginia has slowed state budget growth, increased our reserves by more than $800 million, passed the largest personal income tax cut in history and attracted record-breaking private investment to create thousands of new jobs.
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Recently in New Jersey, I spoke to voters who almost universally told me that energy prices and taxes are the most important issues in the gubernatorial race. On both issues, West Virginia is a strong model to look at.
Republican candidate Jack Ciatarelli, like Justice a businessman before politics, is committed to increasing energy production in the Garden State and finding meaningful cuts to reduce residents’ tax burden, while his opponent, Mikie Sherrill, is promising more of the same stale Democratic policies.
Virginia Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears, a Republican, left, faces Democrat Abigail Spanberger, right, in the state’s 2025 race for governor. (Kristen Zeis/The Washington Post via Getty Images; Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)
Similarly, in Virginia, Republican candidate Winsome Earle-Sears is committed to continuing the work of current Governor Glenn Youngkin, which led CNBC to rank the Old Dominion as the best state for business in the country, while Democratic candidate Abigail Spanberger would reverse many of those policies.
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Before Youngkin, the attitude in West Virginia toward those who moved in from Virginia to take advantage of the low cost of living was something along the lines of, “Hello and welcome, but please don’t bring your politics with you.”
Today, under Republican leadership, Virginia could start taking care of its own.
Over the past forty years, states like West Virginia, Ohio, and Indiana have been the biggest losers in the game of geopolitical, neoliberal economic policies that have destroyed their factories and cities.
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Today, the Trump administration is bringing trillions of dollars of new investment to the United States, and states, like West Virginia, that adopt business-friendly policies will see extraordinary economic growth.
This makes the 2025 gubernatorial elections in Virginia and New Jersey extremely important. Will these states adopt sound policies to benefit from Trump’s investments, or will they, like California and New York, remain at war with the White House for the rest of the Trump administration?
In a statement on the S&P decision, current Republican Governor Patrick Morrisey said, “I am proud to oversee S&P’s first positive rating action on West Virginia’s creditworthiness in more than a decade.”
This kind of leadership is absolutely available to voters in Virginia and New Jersey if they want it, and why wouldn’t they?
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It may take some getting used to, but if you want an example of a strong, stable, thriving state, look no further than West “By God” Virginia.
