West Virginia’s Democratic Governor to Switch Parties

Gov. Jim Justice announces switch to GOP at West Virginia Trump rally Thursday night.

West Virginia’s Democratic Governor Jim Justice on Thursday announced at a rally with President Donald Trump that he is switching parties to join the Republicans.

“The Democrats walked away from me,” Mr. Justice said Thursday, after taking the stage in Huntington, W. Va., to shouts of “Trump! Trump! Trump!” He said, “I can’t help you anymore being a Democratic governor, so tomorrow I will be changing my registration to Republican.”

He said he had met with the president twice in recent weeks in the Oval Office to discuss his proposals regarding coal and manufacturing.

Mr. Justice drew a comparison between himself and the president. “This man and myself are not politicians. We ran to get something done,” he said. “We ran and gave up part of our lives. We ran because we want nothing.”

Mr. Justice was elected governor in November 2016, at the same time Mr. Trump won West Virginia by a landslide 69%-26% margin

Just a few months before he was elected governor, Mr. Justice switched his party registration to Democrat from Republican. His state was once a Democratic bastion but has grown more Republican over the last two decades. It is now represented by a congressional delegation that has just one Democrat, Sen. Joe Manchin, who is facing a tough reelection fight in 2018.

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