For years, Senator Shelley Moore Capito would come to Morgan County and the eastern panhandle to meet voters, cut ribbons, garner press and move on.
In most instances, she refused to answer citizen questions that she perceived would make her political life in West Virginia more difficult.
In 2014, in Romney, she brushed aside a question from Morgan County USA about her opposition to raising the minimum wage to $10.10 an hour.
She now only visits the region where she can get a photo op away from the citizens she represents. Most recently in 2024, she visited the 522 bypass construction site in Morgan County.
Next year Capito is up for re-election. And if Zach Shrewsbury wins the Democratic primary, he will pose a stark working class anti-war contrast the corporatist foreign war funding Capito.
“For decades, Shelley Moore Capito and her family have ruled West Virginia like feudal lords passing power down like heirlooms while our towns crumbled and our people suffered,” Shrewsbury wrote on Twitter. “It’s time for it to end.”
“We’ve been sold out by the Moores, the Capitos, the Millers, and Patrick damn Morrisey generation after generation of backroom deals and big pharma handouts while our people overdose in the hollers and our young ones pack up and leave,” Shrewsbury wrote.
“They won’t save us. They never intended to.”
“If we want good-paying union jobs, if we want to raise wages, bring our neighbors home, and break the chains of this opioid stranglehold they sure as hell won’t do it for us.”
“We’ve got to fight for it ourselves. In the streets, in the ballot box, on the picket lines, and in our communities.”
“West Virginia isn’t theirs to ruin. It’s ours to rebuild.”
“It’s hard to fight in West Virginia. Not because we don’t care but because we’ve been used, abused, and left for dead by every system meant to serve us. Corporations came and ripped the wealth from our land, poisoned our water, crushed our unions, and told us to be grateful for the scraps. Politicians sold us out for a dollar and a photo op.”
“We are a people who’ve been told to stay quiet, stay poor, and stay out of the way. But still we fight. Still we organize. Still we believe in each other.”
“Because no matter how hard they try to break us. Our will to surive and resist only grows stronger. I love West Virginia. I love Appalachia. And I will always fight for our people.”
Shrewsbury is fed up with the corporate rip-off of Appalachia.
“How arrogant must the rich be to look at a starving, sick, and aging Appalachian people and say – let’s take more?”
“When is it enough? After tens of thousands are jobless? After kids go hungry? After elders die without care? Their greed has no ceiling, but our patience does.”
In the Democratic primary field, Shrewsbury stands out as a populist candidate with a clear record of community organizing, economic justice advocacy, and a no-nonsense approach to politics.
