CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) – West Virginia Governor Jim Justice signed a number of socially conservative bills into law during his two terms in office. But he rarely insisted on it.
The Democrat-turned-Republican now ran for the U.S. Senate to take over former independent U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin’s seat, but instead promoted tax cuts and economic development, passing policies like the state’s abortion ban in 2022 with little approved public fanfare.
West Virginia has been a conservative stronghold for more than a decade, but it could see an even further shift to the right on social policy as one GOP governor replaces another.
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Patrick Morrisey, who will be sworn in as Justice’s successor on Monday, is in stark contrast. As attorney general since 2013, when he became the first Republican to serve in the role in 80 years, Morrisey has emphasized his staunch defense of not only abortion restrictions but also laws that create a school voucher-like savings account program and ban transgender athletes from participating . in sports.
Morrisey will likely take a more hands-on approach with the state Legislature than with the judge, who has sometimes been accused of being an absentee governor because of his lack of presence in the Capitol.
At a press conference earlier this month, Morrisey said he planned to “immediately eliminate all vestiges of DEI (diversity, equity and inclusion) from state government” and continue the push to “wake up.”
“The politically correct agenda we have seen from the left over the years has no place in West Virginia,” he said.
During his administration, Justice occasionally expressed frustration with the Republican Party-controlled Legislature for being too extreme, including when he vetoed a bill last year to restrict vaccination requirements for non-traditional public school students . By contrast, Morrisey said in a gubernatorial debate last year that he would support adding a religious exemption to West Virginia’s vaccine requirements. The state currently does not allow non-medical exemptions.
Democratic Party Chairman Mike Pushkin said he believes Morrisey’s political philosophy is very different from Justice’s.
“I think he is more of an ideologue – he is a true believer,” Pushkin said. “And so you’re more likely to see a very aggressive conservative agenda.”
Morrisey takes over as Republicans in West Virginia have won one of the largest legislative supermajorities in the country, with 123 of the 134 seats and all seats in the Board of Public Works and Congress. Justice flipped a U.S. Senate seat after Manchin decided not to seek re-election, easily defeating a Manchin-backed Democrat.
State GOP Party Chairman Matt Herridge described West Virginia as the “most dominant Republican state in the country” and a blueprint for the national party.
“What the people of West Virginia have given the Republican Party, in my opinion, is a mandate to continue to promote conservative values: less government, more individual autonomy, less government autonomy,” he said.
He described Morrisey as a unifying force for a “new Republican Party,” with a more populist, working-class bent where there is room for disagreement, while adding that Justice also fits that model.
Democrats have long ruled the state with a strong union presence and a strong identity as the party of working people, and in 2008 still held supermajorities in both chambers. But in the 2014 general election, voters in the coal-dependent state turned their distaste toward Democratic President Barack. Obama’s efforts to reduce carbon emissions from coal-fired power plants.
Obama was so unpopular in West Virginia that a federal prisoner in Texas received 41% of the vote in the 2012 Democratic presidential primaries.
Republicans took control of both legislative chambers after the 2014 elections. West Virginia and Oklahoma were the only states where voters in each county voted to elect Donald Trump president in 2016, 2020 and 2024. Trump won West Virginia with 70% of the vote in 2024, the highest percentage in the country.
During a farewell address last week, Justice touted successes in lowering the state’s personal income and other taxes and increasing tourism revenue and infrastructure programs. Towards the end of his remarks, he mentioned the abortion issue in passing.
“We were rock solid for life, weren’t we?” he said. “And anyone on the outside wondering about West Virginia, better know: Rock solid, we stand for West Virginia life.”
Justice, a girls basketball coach, said he “proudly” signed the 2021 law banning transgender athletes from competing in the state, but has not advocated as loudly as Morrisey, who repeatedly defended it in court as attorney general.
“We are not going to allow swamp elites to impose their values on the citizens of West Virginia,” Morrisey said last year when he announced he would take the case to the U.S. Supreme Court.
Morrisey also announced his intention last summer to ask the U.S. Supreme Court to review rulings that found that the state’s refusal to cover certain health care for transgender people with government-sponsored insurance was discriminatory.
