{"id":3366,"date":"2018-04-24T14:56:51","date_gmt":"2018-04-24T18:56:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/morgancountyusa.org\/?p=3366"},"modified":"2018-04-24T18:57:50","modified_gmt":"2018-04-24T22:57:50","slug":"jason-armentrout-and-the-campaign-against-charles-trump","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/morgancountyusa.org\/?p=3366","title":{"rendered":"Jason Armentrout and the Campaign Against Charles Trump"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Jason Armentrout grew up in a conservative evangelical Christian household.<\/p>\n<p>His father Butch Armentrout helped establish the town of Carpendale, West Virginia \u2013 and is now Carpendale&#8217;s mayor.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/17midGjxxHE\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Jason Armentrout says that\u2019s where he got his interest in politics.<\/p>\n<p>For the last 22 years, Armentrout has been a school teacher \u2013 first in Hampshire County public schools, then at a small Christian school in Cumberland, Maryland and for the past 14 years at Frankfort High School in Short Gap \u2013 where he teaches social studies and coaches the wrestling team.<\/p>\n<p>Armentrout will be on the November ballot as an Independent and will oppose State Senator Charles Trump (R-Morgan) in the 15th Senatorial District \u2013 which includes parts of Mineral, all of Hampshire, all of Morgan and parts of Berkeley counties. There is no Democrat in the race.<\/p>\n<p>Why did you decide to run?<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI don\u2019t believe that anyone should have a free pass to any office,\u201d Armentrout told <em>This Week in Morgan County with Russell Mokhiber.<\/em> \u201cThere have been times in West Virginia where we\u2019ve had members of Congress running unopposed. I don\u2019t believe that should ever be the case.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Was it the teachers\u2019 strike that pushed you into running?<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt was. The teachers\u2019 strike was part of it. Teachers have always been dealt with as collateral damage. Both parties are guilty of it. A few years ago, when the Democrats had solid control of both houses and the Governors mansion, we pushed for teacher raises, better benefits. And back then they said the money wasn\u2019t there.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>How did the teachers get the five percent raise?<\/p>\n<p>\u201cA lot of it was the work stoppage. We put them in a position where something had to be done. Over time you can only take so much. Years and years of asking for cost of living adjustments \u2013 we are not looking to be super rich. We are just looking for cost adjustment that would allow us to enjoy a decent middle class standard of living.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe are not asking for the world. When you have politicians year upon year who say \u2013 the money is not there, the money is not there, the money is not there \u2013 there is only so much of that that you can take.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAnd then you have several politicians who get up and they grandstand. And they make statements about teachers being whiners and being greedy.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>What was it about Charles Trump during the work stoppage?<\/p>\n<p>\u201cCharles works in the banking industry. He\u2019s a money and numbers guy. He\u2019s very intelligent. The numbers he was using were driven by the unity of the Republican Party saying \u2013 the money is not here. But after the stoppage, somehow, the money was there.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Armentrout says the teachers were wary about going out on strike.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe all were,\u201d Armentrout. \u201cThe first two days of it were during the state wrestling tournament. I had wrestlers I had to take down to Huntington. I came out for the first day for about the first few hours of it, then I went back and picked up my wrestlers and drove them down to Huntington so that they could compete.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe teachers unions did say that if you were a coach, you wouldn\u2019t be considered crossing the picket line if you continued to coach in the state tournaments and post-season.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhen you have to take such a big step, it\u2019s never comfortable. Sure you are going to be nervous. Sure you are going to be scared. And all of us were. Absolutely.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Armentrout is in favor of an increase of severance tax on oil and gas.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019ve heard time and time again that this is going to make us less competitive with other states. I disagree. I like what Senator Richard Ojeda (D-Logan) said. It may drive the first two bidders out. But there is a line of people waiting to get that natural gas. As much natural gas as West Virginia has beneath us, someone is going to come after it, someone wants it, someone is going to pay for it. And we need to bargain in a way to take care of our people.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWest Virginia has a history of giving away so many natural resources \u2013 timber, coal \u2013 to out of state interests. And we have never truly benefited from the extraction of those natural resources.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere has been so much dirty pool in the past that makes West Virginians untrusting of the natural resource companies. You look at the history of dirty tactics by out of state corporations \u2013 taking over county governments, taking over town governments.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOjeda is more of a straight shooter. He is a Democrat. But he doesn\u2019t seem to be dictated by a party platform. When it came to taking up for teachers, he had our backs. He seemed authentic in his demeanor. He said the right things that we needed to hear.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cTime will tell. But I get the sense with him that he really did mean what he said and he would back it up if he was put in a position of greater leadership where he could be more influential. He did what he could do in the Senate to fight for us. He was as big part in bringing the Senate back. The Senate was the main body holding out. The House was way more cooperative. But in the end, I credit Senator Ojeda with bringing some sense to the state Senate.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m hoping this race can be a civics lesson for me and for my students,\u201d Armentrout says. \u201cBut I\u2019m in it to win it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s an election where people are going to listen more. Just being a D or an R isn\u2019t going to do it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Armentrout says that teachers are running for legislature around the state \u2013 including another wrestling coach.<\/p>\n<p>Any lessons from wrestling that apply to politics?<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNever give up. I struggled in my first two years in wrestling. By the time I was in 11th grade, I decided that I was going to do what it takes to make it to the state tournament. I\u2019m going to do what it takes. I\u2019m going to wrestling camp in the summer. And in my junior year, I qualified for the state tournament. And in my senior year, I finished in the top eight in my weight class at the state tournament. I was going from little to no knowledge of the sport to being a two time state qualifier. It comes from hard work, perseverance, and never giving up.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Jason Armentrout grew up in a conservative evangelical Christian household. His father Butch Armentrout helped establish the town of Carpendale, West Virginia \u2013 and is now Carpendale&#8217;s mayor. Jason Armentrout says that\u2019s where he got his interest in politics. For &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/morgancountyusa.org\/?p=3366\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3366","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/morgancountyusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3366","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/morgancountyusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/morgancountyusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/morgancountyusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/morgancountyusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3366"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/morgancountyusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3366\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3374,"href":"https:\/\/morgancountyusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3366\/revisions\/3374"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/morgancountyusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3366"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/morgancountyusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3366"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/morgancountyusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3366"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}