WEST VIRGINIA (LOOTPRESS) – The much anticipated 2024 General Election is currently underway, with the gubernatorial race in particular standing to substantially impact the trajectory of the Mountain State depending upon which candidate claims victory.
While candidates representing the Democrat and Republican parties have been the subject of much attention throughout the election cycle, Libertarian candidate Erika Kolenich looks to offer voters an alternative to the traditional two-party candidate system.
Kolenich dialed in with LOOTPRESS ahead of the results of the gubernatorial race to discuss policy, regulation, and the future of West Virginia.
We’ve been building up to the general election for what seems like forever to some. It’s finally here. How are you feeling overall?
I feel good! I feel excited; I feel energized; I feel great; I feel amazing.
A lot of folks have very strong feelings about this election, particularly on the national level. How significant will this evening be for the direction not only of the state but for the country as a whole?
Well, I think it’s really significant. My hope, of course, is that regardless of the result of the election, that folks can set things aside and learn to move forward. I think that’s part of the problem that we’ve had that led me to run is the polarization, right? I don’t think it serves anybody if we continue along that path. So I’m hopeful about my race; certainly traveling around and talking to people made me really hopeful that folks are ready for something maybe a little bit different than this just continued dig your heels in and fight [mindset.] But I think it’s pretty important. I mean, we have a lot of problems. We have a lot of problems in our state. We certainly have a lot of problems nationally. So I think it’s a really important election. The joke is, ‘if you had a dollar for every time someone says it’s the most important election of a lifetime;’ it seems like every election, everybody says that. But it’s definitely important. We have a lot of serious issues that we’re facing, but they’re not, they’re not going to get solved if everyone throws their hands up if their candidate doesn’t win. That’s not the way to approach it, right?
It seems like your campaign specifically has been about, on some level, stepping outside of the norm; doing things a little differently to hopefully get a different result. You’re running obviously as a Libertarian, and many have found fault with the traditional two-party system. With regard to your own gubernatorial campaign, what motivated you to run as a Libertarian?
What motivated me to run and what motivated me to run as a Libertarian are maybe a little bit different. I think what motivated me to run is just seeing so much potential in West Virginia – so much potential. My daughter is 23; I’m 45. If I look back to when I was her age, all of my friends left. All my friends left West Virginia and they went to different places and they said, ‘I have to leave for a job. I can’t stay in West Virginia, there’s nothing for me here,’ and I feel like her friends did that. Even her, it’s like there’s this subconscious thing that’s telling her, ‘you should be leaving. There’s something there’s something better for you.’
Children that grow up in areas that have a reputation for being economically and emotionally depressed, that creates all these other problems. It creates the substance abuse problem, which then creates the foster care problem, which then creates the ‘we don’t have a workforce’ problem. It’s all these circular problems and I felt like I could sit around and I can say, ‘well, this is terrible. Look at what’s happening around us,’ or I can do something about it.
The reason that I ran as a Libertarian, other than the fact that I happen to agree 100% with the philosophy, is just that you can’t get anything done as a Democrat or Republican other than what your party tells you, right? Everybody can throw an R in front of their name and get elected in West Virginia. Then if you don’t do exactly what your party tells you to, they’re going to recruit and fund somebody to run against you. So even if you’re a good person who has good ideas as a Republican, if you don’t fall in line, they’re gonna kick you out. So you just can’t get anything done. I felt like if West Virginia is going to actually make any progress, it’s going to take some real radical and crazy ideas. So that’s why I decided to run as a libertarian. I recognize it’s a long shot. I’m not a crazy person, and I would tell people when I’m out there running, I’m not one of these people who says, ‘I know I’m going to win.’ Am I running to win? Yes. Do I hope I win? Yes. But if I don’t win, my success comes from the fact that I’m spreading the message that there are other candidates. There are different ideas. Maybe we need to try something new and radical. So I just thought, if I’m not going to win the election; if I’m not going to get the most votes; then I’m going to win by spreading a message that we don’t have to continue this polarization. We don’t have to continue to fight, and there is this theory called libertarianism that is just a different way of solving problems. They say you eat an elephant one bite at a time, right? So if I can take this huge thing that is convincing people that they need to break out of the two-party system, and if I can just eat away at it slowly, then maybe in a few years the next maybe the next candidate does a little bit better than me. Then maybe the next one does a little bit better, and a little bit better, and a little bit better, and a little bit better until eventually maybe we have a Libertarian governor in West Virginia.
I like that! I hadn’t heard that before – “one bite at a time.” That’s neat. Which leads to my next question: Should you secure victory, you’ll be dealing with a lot of Republicans obviously, and some Democrats as well. As a candidate unaffiliated with either side, what are some ways you might try to work with both sides of the aisle to try to facilitate change?
I think I have a good start in that I’m not anti either one of them.I think I get a good jump start in that, the Republicans come in and they’re raising an eye at the Democrats and they, they don’t like a lot of their ideas. Then the same thing with the Democrats. I come in and they’re just intrigued. So I think I think I have a good start and I think that the fact that the Libertarian philosophy is mixed with ideas from both [parties,] I think it gives me a really good start. I think a good example of it is, I can be on the campaign trail and I’ve been able to talk to Trump voters who are some of the most ideological, staunch people that you can run across on the campaign trail. I’ve been able to look at them and say there are some things I like that Donald Trump does, and there are some things that I don’t like. At first they wanna turn off to me completely because they’re used to Democrats or Harris supporters saying something anti-Trump. So I think that that’s how I would do it, just by opening a conversation and having conversations with them that nobody has been willing to have. Because most people that have been on the other side of the room have just been anti whatever they are. They haven’t been open to hearing any of their ideas. Not to call on Joe Manchin – he’s not my favorite person – but he always talks about compromise and he always talks about middle of the road. Right now everybody’s so used to ‘us or them’, they’re not used to having a conversation with somebody.
I can tell you, I’ve talked about Patrick Morrissey and Steve Williams on this campaign trail. I am convinced that both of them would vote for me if they were not in this race, and to me that says something.
There is such a black-or-whiteness mentality on either side. It seems that, even if there are a few things you don’t necessarily agree with [regarding a specific candidate,] you have to sort of assimilate and embrace every aspect of the candidate. You kind of have to fall in line, it seems like.
Yeah, and I think it’s just getting out of that mindset, right. I think it would be refreshing to them to just be able to be honest with somebody. I think it would be refreshing to them that I am somebody that they could come to and have a genuine conversation.
Your campaign is focused in no small part on business regulations and criminal justice reform. What are some of your thoughts on how we could better go about addressing those types of issues as they pertain to the state?
With business regulation, it’s really couched in two things. The first thing is we just have to make the playing field even. That’s all it is. If every business in West Virginia was able to get the same type of the same type of help and the same type of deals that the state gives places like Form Energy, my goodness, everybody would be able to do well. We just don’t treat businesses equal and we have this mindset that, ;’well, we have to give special sweetheart deals to businesses to get them here,’ when we really don’t. If we just created a playing field where we made it easy for businesses to operate, then businesses would want to come here naturally and we wouldn’t have to give them these favors. For a state that struggles the way we do, we are too heavily regulated. When I say that I know people get this image in their mind of coal mines blowing up and companies not being held accountable. That’s not what I’m talking about. I’m talking about things like how occupational licensing in West Virginia is really, really restrictive compared to other states. You have to have a license in West Virginia to be a chimney sweep apprentice. With the lack of health care and mental health services that we have in West Virginia, you have to have more training hours to be a therapist than you do in the surrounding states. So if you live on the border and you have the option of practicing in Maryland, and West Virginia requires that you have significantly more hours, why would you be here? If you were going to run a mental health facility and all of your practitioners had to have extra hours of continuing education, why wouldn’t you just put it across the border? We don’t think about things like that.
You mentioned criminal justice reform. We’ve had the problems right in the Southern Regional Jail with the lawsuits. The federal court sanctioned the State of West Virginia for covering up evidence regarding what happened to what happened to some of those inmates, and what happened to Quantez Burks. That is not a problem that starts with those correctional officers. That is a systemic problem. That is a problem that goes all the way up the chain, and that is a problem that the governor’s office is not helping to solve. The office has not been transparent about that, and it puts the lives of correctional officers who are trying to do their job at risk. It makes good correctional officers look bad, and you can have a nonviolent offender who’s in one of these facilities awaiting their first hearing and their life is at risk. That’s not okay. The government should be held accountable for when they hurt people. I don’t think we should be putting people in jail for making voluntary decisions with their own body. So I’m 100% an advocate for decriminalizing the use of substances and focusing on getting people recovery assistance when they need it. Because you put an addict in jail and you release them and they’re still an addict. We’ve not accomplished anything, and it’s a problem. I’m not saying it’s not a societal problem, but nobody wakes up and thinks, ‘the penalties today for heroin are worse, so today’s the day I’m gonna stop using,’
With issues like addiction, they’re so specific to each individual and there’s so much psychology in it that if you’re not addressing the root [problem,] it’s just a temporary solution. A lot of a lot of folks are frustrated with that, it seems like as well.
You’re absolutely right, and I think it’s dangerous. I think it over simplifies the problem when politicians wanna come and say, ‘harsher penalties; arrest everybody; put them in jail; get them off the streets; eliminate the problem.’ I actually think it’s dangerous for us to do that because it allows us to pretend that we’re solving the problem when the real problem is, why do we have so many addicts? Why do people want to use drugs? Why aren’t we having real conversations about that? Why aren’t we having conversations about the lack of recovery services? I’ve talked to plenty of people. Nobody wants to have recovery service on the main streets of their downtowns. I get it. But there’s plenty of places off the Interstate, out in the middle of nowhere where recovery centers can be because we need them.
I certainly appreciate you taking the time. Any final thoughts as the final voters head out to cast their votes in the gubernatorial race?
I know that sometimes voting for a third party seems crazy. I’ve certainly heard the, ‘people feel like they’re wasting their vote’ argument. I’ll tell you what I said to somebody the other day. Patrick Morrissey is already openly planning his win and he’s already openly telling people that no one can beat him, that the red wave has come to West Virginia. If you believe that, then a vote for anybody is wasted because Patrick Morrissey already has such a lead that nobody can beat him. But a vote for me can do something. A vote for me can help the third party movement in West Virginia. It can help show the other two major parties that the Libertarian movement is growing in West Virginia and it can help us really start to accomplish something. It can help the party grow, it can help the party maintain ballot access, and it can help so that the next person is that much closer to being able to win. A third of voters in this state are Independent and/or third party registered and they’re that way for a reason. They’re that way because they don’t like the Democrats or the Republicans. So don’t believe anybody who tells you your vote is wasted. It’s not – a vote for somebody that is your conscience is never wasted. If everybody who was told that they’re wasting their vote, voted the way that they felt, Patrick Morrissey or Steve Williams would not win this race.
Thank you so much for taking the time! We’ll let you get back to it, and best of luck to you.
Alright, thank you! Have a good night, Cameron.
You do the same!
