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Salango campaigns in Parkersburg

By Evan Bevins 3 min read

PARKERSBURG -- West Virginia Democratic gubernatorial candidate Ben Salango made multiple campaign stops in Parkersburg Tuesday.

"Today we're going out and meeting as many people as we can," Salango said outside the Parkersburg-Marietta Building and Construction Trades Council office on Dudley Avenue. "It's great to see so many people excited about our race ... who want a governor that's about public service rather than self service."

An attorney and first-term Kanawha County commissioner, Salango won the Democratic nomination in the delayed June primary and is running against incumbent Gov. Jim Justice, who was elected as a Democrat in 2016 and changed his affiliation to Republican less than a year later.

A spokesman for Justice's re-election campaign hit back later in the day against the implication that Justice is a self-serving politician.

"Gov. Justice gets nothing from his service as governor. He drives his own car, buys his own gas and donates his salary to charity," Clay Sutton, communications director for Justice's re-election campaign, said.

Wearing a mask as he chatted with local supporters and candidates, Salango acknowledged how unusual the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has made this campaign.

"People like to see you face to face and shake your hand, but it's difficult to do that right now, so we're doing a lot of Zoom and telephone calls," he said.

In-person events like Tuesday's are limited to groups of 15 to 25 people, Salango said.

Parkersburg Area Labor Council President Andrew Stump said the group endorsed Salango with the state AFL-CIO earlier this year, but they wanted to bring him to town to show their support since the door-to-door campaigning of years past isn't an option right now.

"We look for candidates who represent the working families in West Virginia," Stump said. "At the end of the day, it's all about children ... securing a future for them."

Salango said he's proud to have been endorsed by the AFL-CIO and other labor groups, emphasizing their importance and expressing his opposition to right-to-work legislation passed in 2016 that allows union shop employees to opt out of having dues and fees taken from their paychecks and paid to unions in future union contracts.

"We know that in right-to-work states, everybody makes less," Salango said. "Study after study shows it."

Justice has long touted his relationship with President Donald Trump. Asked how he might work with the White House if he unseats Justice and Trump is re-elected, Salango said, "I'll work with whoever the president is.

"I don't care if it's a Democratic idea or a Republican idea. I only care about if it's a good idea," he said.

After speaking at the Trades Council office, Salango headed down Dudley Avenue to Das Rookhaus, the restaurant owned by Parkersburg Democratic mayoral candidate Sherry Dugan, and spoke with her about business during the pandemic. In the afternoon, he was slated to tour the recently renovated Wood County Technical Center and walk the neighborhood around Good Shepherd Episcopal Church on Charles Street.

Mike Sigler, a member of International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 968 in Parkersburg, told Salango he hopes he can get through to plant workers who support Justice and think of Salango as being too far to the left politically.

"He's a West Virginia boy. He understands coal," Sigler said. "He doesn't want to hurt coal miners."

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