DELEGATE MIKE PUSHKIN, D-KANAWHA
CHARLESTON — With just two days left in the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, West Virginia’s delegation is excited to celebrate Vice President Kamala Harris as the nominee for president in November.
The DNC kicked off Monday, featuring a keynote speech from President Joe Biden, who suspended his re-election campaign in July following pressure from party leaders over concerns about his age and physical ability to do the job going forward.
Within 24 hours of Biden dropping out of the race, Harris had quickly shored up support from a majority of convention delegates. When she formally accepts her party’s nomination Thursday night, she will be the first black woman and first Indian-American woman to be a major party nominee for president.
Tonight’s speaker schedule includes former two-term President Bill Clinton and former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif. Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz also will formally accept his party’s nomination for vice president.
Delegate Mike Pushkin, D-Kanawha, a member of the House of Delegates and chairman of the West Virginia Democratic Party is part of the state’s DNC delegation which last month quickly threw its support behind Harris for president.
Speaking by phone from Chicago Tuesday, Pushkin said the energy and unity at the convention is refreshing.
“The energy and the excitement level is just sky-high,” Pushkin said. “More than that, what I’m seeing now that I’ve never seen is just the level of unity in this party. The enthusiasm is on our side, but we are also as Democrats more united than ever behind the candidacy of Kamala Harris and Tim Walz.”
Pushkin said the record of the Biden-Harris is far better than the record of Trump, who secured the Republican Party nomination for a second term last month at its party convention in Milwaukee. Biden-Harris’ handling of the COVID-19 pandemic and federal funding, the bipartisan infrastructure bill and the Inflation Reduction Act have resulted in economic development and other projects in the state, Pushkin said.
“All this positive news we’ve had in West Virginia was in large part to the infrastructure bill and to the Inflation Reduction Act which incentivized these types of companies to make these large investments,” Pushkin said. “Talk to anybody right now in the construction business, electricians, and all the work that has been created uh with the help of this legislation from the Biden and Harris administration.”
In contrast, Pushkin said Trump has returned to negative campaigning, accusing Harris of not really being Black and making other ad hominem attacks.
“The alternative is to go backward to somebody who would rather stand up on the stage and air his grievances,” Pushkin said. “A Trump speech sounds more like Frank Costanza at a Festivus dinner. He gets up and lists his grievances. He never says anything positive.
“I know the Harris campaign has been all about positivity and joy and looking to the future and bringing America together,” Pushkin continued. “I don’t think anybody – no matter what your political ideology is – would argue with the fact that America needs to come together right now, not be divided.”
A Democratic presidential nominee hasn’t won West Virginia’s electoral college votes since Clinton in 1996. Trump carried West Virginia in both 2016 and 2020, receiving 68.6% of the vote compared to Biden, who received 29.7%, a near 39-point lead.