With no door to knock on or a hand to shake, Stephen Smith is leading his crusade for governor of West Virginia in another direction.
The 40-year-old Democrat has already shattered U. S. Sen. Joe Manchin’s 2005 record for maximum individual donations in a mountain state crusade for the corner workplace in Charleston, and that in October.
Today, Smith is channeling that grassroots power through his box operations into a “Coronavirus Crisis Response Team. “
He still has one run for number one to enter, as voting day was pushed back to June 9, but Smith told Insider that making his campaign resources available to those battling the coronavirus is the current priority.
“It’s pretty incredible, radical and beautiful. I think we figured out what was going on pretty early and acted boldly and quickly,” Smith said in a phone interview Monday. “And it looked like a whole webpage of coronavirus resources that was on our online crusade page before the state of West Virginia had its own online page. “
His campaign has 305 “neighborhood captains” across the state who intend to visit about 100 neighbors a week to check on what they need: food, masks, transportation, unemployment insurance assistance, and even assistance with registering to vote absentee.
Five days after Smith’s crusade unveiled its coronavirus site, West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice told the electorate to “go to Bob Evans and eat,” while downplaying the severity of the pandemic.
The justice office did not respond to a request for comment.
Smith grew up in the capital, Charleston, before moving to Texas to spend his best school years and graduate from Harvard University. She then moved to Chicago to begin her career before returning to the Mountain State to raise her family.
While he probably doesn’t have the region accessory or the brilliance of his Democratic colleague Richard Ojeda’s campaign videos, Smith is running on an anti-establishment platform, turning down PAC cash or corporate donations.
“Right now, and I think this is true across the country, West Virginia is neither a red state nor a blue state,” Smith told Insider. “We are a state that is tired of the status quo of two parties. “
Although there have been few polls on the race, Smith has outperformed his two closest competitors, according to the most recent documents, and has been the subject of national politics at the New Yorker, Yahoo!News and Interception.
It also has the support of more than 90 negative poll applicants participating in West Virginia Can’t Wait, a pro-union reform organization that asks applicants to pledge to reject corporate money, refuse to cross picket lines, and never debate their opponents.
“2018 is the best example of that,” Smith said. It was evident that there were 3 seats in Congress up for election, and there were viable rivals in each and every contest and there was no debate – there was no debate for the general election – in none of the 3 races did the other two people end up in the same position. and answer questions.
“Unbelievable, right?
Smith had pledged in the past to donate 10% of his total fundraiser to local charities and nonprofits, but said coronavirus awareness would far exceed that amount.
“What matters most is that other people have heard all the words a politician can say, that’s what we do. “
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