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It is an interesting thing that despite Gov. Patrick Morrisey announcing the potential of $81 billion in investments in West Virginia for major economic development projects, a quick answer to a question on WV MetroNews Talkline by U.S. Sen. Jim Justice stole Morrisey’s thunder.
Yes, from his lips to God’s ears, Justice told Talkline hosts Dave Wilson and T.J. Meadows last Thursday, broadcasting live from the Greenbrier for the West Virginia Chamber of Commerce’s 90th Annual Meeting and Business Summit, that he was considering a run for governor in 2028 and that he would "make a decision real soon."
"One hundred percent," Justice said after being coaxed into answering the question by Meadows. "I love this state; I owe everything in the world to this unbelievable state and its great people. I’m going to try to do anything and everything I can to help. That can be in the Senate. That could be running again for governor. It could be just trying to do anything I can do to help wherever I can."
Rumors had been swirling that Justice was going to full-on announce his gubernatorial reelection campaign at the Business Summit. People in the Justice camp were pretty quick to confirm to me that wasn’t remotely happening. It would be a bad look and, frankly, put the business community in a bad spot.
Also, it just wouldn’t be good for Justice to announce he was jumping ship from the Senate prior to the November general election. There are pretty high-profile U.S. Senate races across the country that could determine whether Republicans keep their narrow majority, have a tied 50-50 Senate or allow the Democratic caucus to regain the majority. Justice announcing a run now could spook donors and put close Senate races across the country in jeopardy.
But I do think it says a lot about the excitement levels that both Justice and Morrisey bring that there was more interest in Justice being goaded into saying he was 100% considering a return to the governor’s office (which still means he’s not a firm yes) on a 10-minute statewide talk radio segment than there was for Morrisey’s nearly 50-minute long speech that went well past the noon cutoff for the potential for economic development projects.
In short, Morrisey said there has been about $96 billion in private investments since October of last year. Highlights include the $69.2 billion by Nscale and Anthropic for phase one of a data center project for its artificial intelligence program at the Monarch Compute Campus in Mason County. That announcement was first made nearly two weeks ago (and the second time Morrisey couldn’t wait until the Business Summit to make an announcement, so in essence, this announcement was made twice).
One new announcement made Thursday by Morrisey was a $12 billion project by Starwood Digital Ventures to develop a data center, also in Mason County. Both data center projects represent an $81.2 billion potential investment. Most of the economic development announcements since last October revolve around energy and data center infrastructure.
So panicked that these announcements would be lost in the news cycle, the governor’s office freaked out when I didn’t go to the press gaggle following Morrisey’s speech at the Greenbrier. This was taken as me choosing to not write about their announcements at all. Since we were already behind schedule, I chose to get lunch, then go write my story, which was in your newspapers. Also, apparently Justice had an impromptu gaggle following his Business Summit speech I was unaware of and I didn't want to cover one gaggle and not the other.
My friend, West Virginia Watch reporter Amelia Knisely, did go to Morrisey’s gaggle and asked Morrisey about Justice’s comments on considering a 2028 run for governor, which would make Justice Morrisey’s GOP primary opponent.
"It's literally, what, 20 months into my first term. That's the last thing I want to focus on," Morrisey told Knisely.
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After last week’s hot war of words on social media between Justice and Morrisey regarding the finalization of the transfer of the Greenbrier to the new holding company led by Kennedy Lewis Investment Management (with the Justice family maintaining a minority stake), it appears Justice and Morrisey have returned to veiled slaps.
"I would tell you that today, in this country, one thing that we should not forget is we got a lot of people out there that are hurting right now," Justice said at the beginning of his Business Summit speech last Thursday. "That’s all there is to it; lot of people that really don’t know how they’re going to make it. A lot of people that are upside down because their power bills are high or their gas bills are unbelievable or whatever it may be, they really are hurting. And we can’t forget that."
That same morning, Morrisey tweeted out the following after Justice’s speech:
"Improving the standard of living for all West Virginia families is at the heart and soul of our efforts to create the best place in America to live, work, and play,” Morrisey said. “We must lift our state up and help West Virginians who are struggling with the high price of goods and services. No better way to do that than through good, high paying jobs!”
And it wasn’t long after that that Justice went on Talkline at the Greenbrier. Justice didn't take the bait from Meadows to directly attack Morrisey. But he did give a reason for why he was considering challenging Morrisey.
"The considering (of running for governor) all centers around just one thing. If we were to ask those people in that room (at the Business Summit) ‘have we lost our spark,’ a lot of those people in that room would have said they are concerned or yes we have," Justice said.