MORGANTOWN – Wheeling attorney and former mayor Glenn Elliott is going up against Gov. Jim Justice and Libertarian David Moran to succeed U.S.
Sen. Joe Manchin. We sat down to talk with Elliott during a recent campaign stop in Morgantown.
Before getting into the whats and whys, Elliott pointed out that his second term as Wheeling mayor ended June 30 – so his campaign website is a little behind. Asked why he chose to take on the Justice juggernaut, he said he didn’t give any real thought to entering the race until Manchin announced he wasn’t seeking reelection. He then talked with mayors around the state, who urged him to think about it.
Elliott considered his achievements during his two terms as mayor and his early experience working for Manchin’s predecessor, Sen. Robert Byrd, for five years right out of college. “I developed an appreciation for the way you can use that particular seat to bring back resources to a state like West Virginia.
” So he decided by mid-January to enter the race. We talked about a few of the issues Elliott highlights on his campaign site. One is abortion law, post-Dobbs, which sent such lawmaking back to the states.
He said he’d like to see Congress pass a national law built on Roe v Wade, with some tweaks “I’ve always believed that women need to have their reproductive rights protected,” he said. Roe v Wade offered the right balance, though it needs some tweaking. West Virginia enacted “one of the most regressive abortion ban.