Posted on 10/23/2017 3:02:09 PM PDT by COBOL2Java
POUND, Va. (AP) — People in Virginia’s coal country still love President Donald Trump, but not his pick to be their next governor.
Ed Gillespie is a Washington insider and Trump’s choice as Virginians prepare to go to the polls. The president promised southwest Virginia voters in a tweet, “Ed Gillespie will never let you down!”
Trump, who promised to revive the coal industry, had some of his biggest victory margins in Appalachia’s coal region last year. But those same voters said they know little about Gillespie, a former Republican National Committee chairman, corporate lobbyist and multimillionaire who was raised in New Jersey and now lives in Northern Virginia.
The town of Pound, nestled near the Kentucky line, was once a booming coal center where the main drag got so busy with shoppers that people couldn’t find a parking spot. Now, many shops are boarded up with dusty “For Sale” signs. Some buildings are collapsing, overgrown with weeds. Jobs are scarce. Prescription pain pills are a major problem. The high school closed in 2011.
Eight out of 10 voters in Pound backed Trump, and some of the town’s remaining business owners and patrons say their faith has already been rewarded.
“I’ve seen more coal trucks in the last six months than I have in the past eight years,” said David Williams, who owns a TV repair and fishing gear store.
But Gillespie is about as un-Trumplike as a candidate can be, and generates much less interest.
(Excerpt) Read more at wtop.com ...
Gillespie is not Trump’s pick for Governor of VA.
He is the VA GOP’s pick.
They like them some cheap labor importers.
Totally opposite of Trump.
Very true. This is the AP after all. However, the fact rings true, that Gilmore’s got a bit of an enthusiasm gap among Virginians, despite what the GOPe and Cheap Labor Express cheerleaders may try to say.
This is what happens when the Uniparty is in charge of state and local parties. Voters who want conservatives will have to go over and/or through state and local party apparatchiks.
GOPe all the way, is Gillespie. That he doesn’t seem to want Trump there supporting him says a lot.
Still, better him than the Democrat....
We have to keep chipping away, one office and state at a time.
That’s because he’s not Trump’s guy, he’s pure GOP Inc.
That attitude over the last 30 years is what got us where we are now.
Welcome to the UniParty.
Nobody I know is talking about this race, it’s as if we were not even having an election.
The conservatives I know are split between resignation at voting for the squish and refusal to be corralled into voting for a Cheap Labor Express stooge.
I don’t really know what I’ll do about Gov., I am going to vote for Vogel, Adams and Whitlock, my delegate candidate.
Some days I think I will hold my nose and some days I can’t imagine doing it.
Both Parties are playing ‘not to lose’.
Here in SW Va the few Dems have their signs out, not so much from Republicans.
Nobody cares... which is too bad, we really need to purge the Dem Party from the reigns.
Was about to correct you, but then had to stop and ask myself: Is there really a dime's worth of difference between Gillespie and Gilmore? They are both dull as dishwater bush/rove uniparty establishment shills.
The names are totally interchangeable.
Carry on.
LOL! You got me there. You’re right - no difference whatsoever.
What’s the alternative?
#FakeNews
This is classic leftist rhetoric. Offend the Left by calling Gillespie "Trump's choice". Offend conservatives by calling him a "corporate lobbyist". Offend everyone in Virginia by calling him a carpetbagger. Whether or not Gillespie is your dream candidate, it's helpful to have a republican in the governor's seat of this swing state for the 2020 census.
Virginia is going to have a Democrap because that is all that is running. One just happens to call himself a Republican.
Real question, not stirring controversy.
If it’s between McAwful clone and a Ryan (or whatever) clone, what shouod we do, in your way of thinking?
yup- Cucinnelli should’ve had that seat were it not for the GOPe
.
Carpet Bagger to the max!
.
“That attitude over the last 30 years is what got us where we are now.”
Trump in the White House.
Democrats in the minority in both houses.
No liberal majority on the Supreme Court.
Almost 2/3 of the State houses across the country.
“Gillespie is not Trump’s pick for Governor of VA.”
Who is Trump’s pick?
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