On the cover of the brochure is a picture of the President of the United States.
The President is sitting thoughtfully, hand on face.
And there beneath the picture is the tag line:
“He’s Trying to Destroy West Virginia Jobs.”
No, this is not an ad for Shelley Moore Capito, the Republican candidate for U.S. Senate.
No, this is not an ad for Alex Mooney, the Republican candidate for the U.S. House of Representatives in West Virginia’s Second Congressional district.
In West Virginia, the President of the United States is front and center, even at the local level.
In a tight race for a West Virginia Senate seat (District 15, Morgan, Berkeley, Hampshire and Mineral counties), the Republican candidate, Charles Trump is not going after the incumbent, the Democrat, Donald Cookman.
He’s going after the President of the United States, Barack Obama.
According to Trump, it’s not low natural gas prices or competition from cheap foreign coal or pressure from conservation and the renewable energy industry that is destroying West Virginia coal jobs.
No, it’s President Obama who is destroying West Virginia jobs.
And it’s Charles Trump who is “fighting to save them,” according to the brochure, which arrived in voters’ mailboxes today.
“Jobs are leaving West Virginia,” Trump says in his brochure. “Liberals in Washington and even some local Democrats are pushing them out with crushing government regulations and higher taxes.”
“We can fix this. Charles Trump is a strong, conservative leader we need to bring West Virginia back,” Trump says.
At least in Morgan County, Trump has a reputation as a moderate centrist.
But in recent weeks he’s been tacking rightward.
Last month, he spoke to a right leaning crowd at a Tea Party meeting in Romney.
And now in his newest brochure going head on against liberals and President Obama.
Trump has apparently made a calculation that the way to beat Cookman is to take a right turn.
And right turn he has taken.