Democratic Candidates for Governor Highlight Different Issues in Debate

For the first — and likely only — time, the three Democratic candidates in West Virginia’s open governor’s race have sparred on the same debate stage. Businessman Jim Justice, ex-U.S. Attorney Booth Goodwin and state Senate Minority Leader Jeff Kessler were part of the debate over the weekend. Justice, who passed on previous forums, asked voters to trust his job-creation abilities. Kessler called for higher tobacco taxes to refuel infrastructure and other needs. Goodwin called for a retraining of coal miners and a push to put them to work on infrastructure projects. Senate President Bill Cole is uncontested in the Republican primary.