I’ll be blunt: I’m not a fan of Patrick Morrisey.
I have not been a fan of his socially conservative positions, of his low-ball opioid settlements, his agenda against transgender individuals, and his insistence on inserting West Virginia and its resources into other states’ (culture war) business.
However, I was willing to see if his governorship would be better.
His inauguration speech didn’t give me much hope.
It was full of contradictions: a promise to be “committed to serving every single” West Virginian while attacking transgender individuals and DEI (diversity, equity, and inclusion) programs; a promise that “our teachers will be able to spend more time teaching and less time tangled in red tape” while promising to fight the “woke virus”; a promise that “West Virginia’s teachers, they’re gonna get paid competitively” while continuing to expand the Hope Scholarship, which defunds public schools; a promise to “launch an aggressive effort to root out waste in every corner of government” while our state struggles to fund our most essential functions. (Leann Ray at West Virginia Watch had a good commentary along these lines.)
He ended his speech: “Today, I’m calling on all of us to put aside our differences and unite for the greater good. Every person here or every person watching, has a role to play in building the future that we in our entire state deserves. Together we’re gonna make West Virginia, a beacon of opportunity, of hope, and prosperity for all.”
And then, on his first full day in office, he signed a slew of executive orders that proved his idea of “all of us” excludes LGBTQ+ individuals — particularly transgender people — and people of color. His idea of “the future … our entire state deserves” is one in which preventable childhood diseases run rampant, in which industries run roughshod over West Virginians even more than they already do, and in which our ongoing drug crisis is handled with increased criminalization.
Morrisey’s 10 executive orders, as summarized by the governor’s office:
● EO establishing economic Backyard Brawl
● EO setting School choice as a priority of the administration
● EO ordering cessation of DEI
● EO reviewing past, present, and projected spending decisions
● EO directing agencies to develop a plan for more efficient government
● EO plan to reduce rules, regulatory review
● EO allowing religious exemptions for school vaccines
● EO reviewing outdated Executive Orders
● Intent to partner with the legislature to define men and women clearly
● Letter to the congressional delegation to designate Fentanyl as a weapon of mass destruction
Most of these are self-explanatory:
The “cessation of DEI” is part of conservatives’ “war on woke” that rolls back basic protections for people of color, women, and LGBTQ+ people.
The order to “define men and women clearly” is part of Morrisey’s ongoing attack on transgender individuals, particularly school-aged transgender athletes.
West Virginia has already put an emphasis educational vouchers, and Morrisey’s “school choice” order doubles-down on the state’s transfer of tax dollars from public schools to private institutions.
The allowing of religious exemptions for vaccines is a direct rebuke of former Gov. Jim Justice, who vetoed a bill that would have allowed religious and other exemptions to the state’s law requiring certain childhood vaccines before entering school. (Childhood vaccinations — and the subsequent absence of childhood diseases like measles and polio — are one of the few health metrics in which West Virginia excels.)
The letter to have fentanyl designated as a “weapon of mass destruction” is part of a trend in West Virginia politics toward criminalizing addiction while taking away funding or over-regulating treatment; harm reduction programs have been shut down, and the Legislature has introduced measures to make needle exchanges stricter and increase penalties for drug possession. The shuttering of the needle exchange program in Charleston led to a massive HIV outbreak spread through dirty needles.
Morrisey’s economic executive orders aren’t as easily parsed:
The “economic Backyard Brawl” order is essentially a directive for government to compare West Virginia’s taxes, fees, and regulations to those of our neighboring states and find the least common denominator so that West Virginia will have the lowest taxes and fees and least regulations of all states in our area.
The order to review past, present, and future spending decisions requires agencies to identify and then justify any expenditure over $100,000. Normally, I would say that $100,000 is a large amount to spend on any one thing. However, governments make purchases that the average individual does not: heavy construction equipment, raw or refined materials, buildings, etc. With that perspective, requiring government agencies to justify every expense over $100,000 seems like a lot of unnecessary paperwork — and overtime pay for the poor staffers who do all the paperwork.
The government efficiency order requires agencies to audit themselves and identify any inefficiencies or “wasteful spending.” Not a bad idea, but I do have some concern given that so many of our most critical agencies are severely underfunded (jails, foster care and state hospitals come to mind as being in the worst shape). In theory, plans to correct any inefficiencies could involve shifting money around, but Morrisey said in his inauguration speech that he wants to create his own “Department of Government Efficiency” (DOGE, á la Elon Musk) to cut spending. Where exactly is there spending to cut when there isn’t enough funding to begin with?
Finally, his order to reduce rules and regulatory review directs state agencies to streamline or eliminate rules and regulations to make life easier — theoretically for West Virginians, but, in practice, for businesses. The part that concerns me most is the directive to make recommendations for reducing “any federal regulations that complicate the operations of their department, impair the interest of West Virginians, or may exceed the federal agency’s statutory or constitutional authority.” Federal regulations are meant to be a floor, not a ceiling: the minimum requirements for safeguarding Americans against private interests. In the past decade or so, West Virginia has fought hard against those minimum regulations, especially in regards to environmental protection.
The governor sets the tone for his entire administration, including for the legislature he/she will be working with. With the messages Morrisey has sent in his first two days, he has set a tone that the next four years will be about othering non-white, non-cisgender, non-heterosexual people; undermining public education; prioritizing conservative ideals over public health and safety; elevating business interests over people’s interests; and forcing an already austere government into further austerity measures.
I hope I’m wrong — that this is an overly cynical analysis colored by my dislike for Morrisey’s positions and actions while in other offices — but I doubt I am.
J. Nelson - Writer 