Posted on 11/16/2014 9:56:35 PM PST by Vince Ferrer
So who the hell is Jill Upson? She is from California and 11 years ago, her husband's job had the family relocate to Jefferson County, West Virginia.
“When we got to this area, I just fell in love with it, and I just decided I’m done, that’s it, I’m going to stay here," Jill Upson told Liz McCormick of West Virginia Public Radio. "And so he continued to receive orders, and move every two years, and I still stayed put. He’s been all over the place, but I stayed and raised my children in Jefferson County.”
She was apolitical until 2009. Then she began getting into politics as a conservative and a Republican. Two years ago, she took on incumbent Democratic Delegate Tiffany Lawrence and fell 286 votes short. This year, in their rematch. Upson won by 488 votes, the Herald-Mail in Maryland reported. It was a 10-point win.
Jefferson County is 0.6% black, according to the Census Bureau. The state itself is 3.4% black.
The content of her beliefs -- her good, rock-bed conservative values -- got her elected, not the color of her skin.
The county also has 12,300 registered Democrats and 9,897 Republicans. However, independents and other parties make up about one-third of the electorate.
Upson told West Virginia Public Radio: “The first thing I want to look at is, the West Virginia Chamber of Commerce came out with several policies that they put forth during the last legislative session that they felt would help spur economic growth, so I’d like to work with my colleagues in the legislature to really look at ways that we can start to implement some of those policies.”
West Virginia also is the least Hispanic/Latino state in the country. We also elected Republican Alex X. Mooney of Jefferson County as West Virginia's first Hispanic congressman this year.
Someday, race and ethnic orientation won't matter. I'd say West Virginia in general and Jefferson County in particular are well on to that day.
Previous posts on the West Virginia election include: EPA alone didn't lose "coal country" and DUI ended 82 years of Democratic rule in West Virginia and The Sun finally shines on West Virginia.
Republicans, however, are ideology based, and so blacks can over represent their racial population if they offer the candidates to do so. With an increasing latino population which the democrats are courting, blacks will lose the quota game, being forced to give up their power in the democrat party to latinos. If they want to expand, their only choice is to expand into conservatives and republicans.
I absolutley SHOCKED that the good people of West Virginia would vote in someone of her Demographic. SHOCKED.
I don’t mean a woman.
I don’t mean black.
I don’t even mean a Republican.
But how could they vote in an ex-Californian??????? ;-)
LOL, that is funny, right there..
I agree with you, but it will be a while for reality to sink in for the blacks. Too bad for them while they continue to vote against their interests. The Mexicans appear to be smarter.
Save for forwarding to liberal relatives.
What it will take is for the old civil rights generation, Jesse, Al, etc., to die off. They have a very hardened view of how politics work in this country, and they can't see beyond what worked 50 years ago. We need to focus on the 30 year old minority leaders.
Same as the people of South Carolina voting for Conservative Republican Senator (who happens to have African Ancestry), but not a peep out of the national media..!
It’s a fluke that Jefferson County belongs to WV instead of VA. I think some folks on the other side of the mountains are drinking the same water they do in Washington.
I’m originally from Virginia. We call the it two things; NOVA for Northern VA, and ROVA for the rest of VA. It’s like two different states.
The whole state was stolen from Virginia..
IIRC, the only Blacks ever elected to a STATEWIDE office in Texas are Black REPUBLICANS.
Who the hell is Don Surber?
” But how could they vote in an ex-Californian??????? ;-)”
She’s an escapee.
Actually Virginia was repaid 1/3 of its original debt incurred by expenditures in the state before succession.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virginia_v._West_Virginia_%281911%29
http://www.wvculture.org/history/government/vawvdebt03.html
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