“We deserve representatives that are beholden to the people instead of corporations and lobbyists,” says Paula Jean Swearengin, a coal miner’s daughter from WV who is running for US Senate for the second time. “Let’s send a message to Shelley Moore Capito [Paula’s opponent], Mitch McConnell and every other corporate puppet in Washington D.C., and let them know that the needs of the people come first,” she says.
“My issues haven’t changed since 2018. They include economic diversity, long term solutions to the addiction epidemic, Medicare for all, and living wage, and we’re getting incredible support. I’m really proud that in West Virginia, a state stigmatized and labeled a ‘red state’, we have a 100% people funded campaign. This week our amazing team is kicking off phone banking in the coal fields again. In the age of Covid, we have to be inventive to insure the campaign reaches voters in our hills and hollers, and my campaign has done really well with digital marketing.”
“The whole narrative in West Virginia has changed since 2018. We have a movement of 93 candidates, mostly Democrats and independents, even some Republicans, who do not take corporate PAC dollars, and 43 of those candidates won their races and the primaries. And this is the first time in West Virginia’s history — its been 100 years since women have been voting — that every Democratic nominee for Congress in the first, second and third congressional districts in WV are all women — and we’re all progressive women. And every campaign is people funded. So not a single one of the Democratic nominees is taking corporate PAC dollars. So that’s really, really nice. We’ve made history. It would be amazing to have four strong Appalachian women in Congress. We’re coordinating with each other and we’re also coordinating with the down ballot candidates that got through the primary. It really solidifies that ordinary people can do extraordinary things. I’m incredibly proud of my state.”
Donate to the Paula Jean Swearengin campaign on Facebook and on twitter at @paulajean2020.
Sandra Reid is co-editor of the People’s Tribune.
