10th District Senate candidates debate education, economy, and gun laws at Maxwelton forum
By Dakota Baker, The Real WV
MAXWELTON, W.Va — District 10 candidates for the West Virginia Senate addressed questions before a full audience at Tuesday night’s candidate forum.
In attendance were Sen. Vince Deeds, a Republican, and Kent Gilkerson, a Democrat. Republican candidate Jonathan Comer was also invited but did not attend.
Scott Womack, a retired military officer and teacher from Monroe County, served as a moderator for the event.
Starting with introductions, Vince Deeds began by saying, “I have been fortunate enough to represent this district for the last four years. I was born and raised over in Summers County on a dairy farm over in the Jumping Branch area, and went to Hinton High School, and then went and got a Bachelor’s Degree in psychology and political science and history. Went on and joined the state police. I’ve always been a vocational state police, and I’ve always done pastoral work in Baptist churches. During that tenure in the state police, I was fortunate enough to meet my wife over a bank robbery, I literally met her at a bank robbery right down the road here. We’ve been fortunate enough, we raised two sons, one that’s been in law enforcement and in the sheriff’s office here and also in the DNR, and then our youngest son is in the military, at West Point.”
Next to introduce himself was Kent Gilkerson, who said, “I’m originally from Fayette County, graduated from Midland Trail High School 1994. I went on to college and got a Bachelor’s degree in criminal justice, then got a job at Anthony Correctional Center, which is what brought me up to the Greenbrier Valley here. I worked there for a year and then got a job at the Federal Prison Camp in Alderson. I was in corrections there for four years and then got a job in the maintenance department working on steam boilers, and retired from general maintenance after 25 years. I retired last July, it was a good job, and it helped me support my strawberry farm (Sunset Berry Farm). In the prison, I became active in the union right away. I’m still as active as I can be with what union we have left. I’ve been backed by The United Mine Workers, AFL- CIO, The West Virginia Teachers Union, The Communication Workers, and WV Can’t Wait. I’ve been fighting for the correctional staff for the last 25 years, send me to Charleston and I’ll be fighting for you.”
Question: Would you be willing to repeal or reform bad laws before making new ones?
Candidate Gilkerson went first, saying, “A law that might be bad to me may not be bad to you. It would take a lot of research, but if there is something that I think is bad of course I would try to get rid of it if I thought it was harming the citizens of West Virginia.”
Sen. Deeds followed by saying, “I actually proposed a bill, it was an education bill, because if you know our public education system, it is overburdened with regulation. I proposed a bill that would take away some of the unneeded regulation in the education system this year. We always have to look at whether it’s the education system, human services, or the judiciary system, we have to look at it and evaluate it. Ultimately, some of the best bills we have are repealing some of the code. We did minor sections of the education code this year.”
Question: How can population loss in the 10th District be reversed to attract people and families?
Sen. Deeds answered first, saying, “I think it always starts with us working with our local communities and the education system, and getting an effective education to our young people so they can stay here and develop new jobs here. Now, 98% of our jobs are small businesses. So, small business is super important, but also we need to make sure that if a young person wants to stay here, they have an effective job, something that they can earn a good income from. So, we always need to be aware of recruiting economic development in this area, and it can be small, but we also need to talk about big businesses.I think sometimes we leave some things on the table.”
Candidate Gilkerson followed, saying, “I’m sure a part of the boom in Fayette County has a lot to do with the New River Gorge being listed as a national park, and it’s brought in a lot of tourist dollars and a lot of jobs. Tourism jobs do bring a lot into our community, and I’d like to see a little bit more of agritourism. I think there is a lot of room for growth, especially in Greenbrier County. We have beautiful fields along our roads. We could put in all kinds of attractions and bring folks in. But, we need a lot of good paying jobs, I agree, with benefits and pensions. Vince (Sen. Deeds) and I were both lucky to have jobs that had pensions working for the state government. We need to get some factories that have good jobs and benefits, ideally, in my opinion, union jobs that normally carry better pay and benefits.”
Question: How is the concealed carry bill for 18-year-olds considered common-sense legislation?
Candidate Gilkerson responded first by saying, “Well, in short, I don’t really believe it is. A lot of the argument I’ve heard is, ‘You can join the military and fight for our country at 18’. But they also have a lot of training in the military. They are a little more equipped than your typical teenager. We probably have a lot of 18-year-olds still in high school, and I don’t really think they should be carrying guns with them. The brain doesn’t fully develop until you are 25, and we also know there are a lot of school fights, and you’re more quick-tempered when you’re younger. I don’t think it’s a good idea whatsoever.”
Sen. Deeds disagreed, saying, “That bill did pass this past session. Ultimately, it comes down to the right to carry as far as an 18-year-old. As an 18-year-old you can serve in the military, and now you can be hired for the state police. A lot of jurisdictions are targeting that age group so they can develop them and train them as a law enforcement officer. It’s a right to carry. We felt like it was a constitutional right to carry as soon as you become an adult, you’re allowed to carry a gun as you see fit, as long as you are not a felon or have a domestic order. It passed overwhelmingly in both chambers and was signed into law.”
Question: Can West Virginia have both school choice and strong public schools?
Sen. Deeds began, “Ultimately, we do. We should have school choice. If a parent or guardian wants to send their child to public education or private, that’s fine, as long as everything is leveled out and the child gets a quality education. One issue that we noticed is there is a large influx of people applying for the Hope Scholarship. But we do not know if the child who takes that Hope Scholarship is getting a quality education. And we have to educate our children, that is a mandate of our government, it is a part of our constitution. With that being said, we need to level the playing field and make sure, whether homeschooled, private, or public, that children are getting a quality education.”
Candidate Gilkerson responded by saying, “As far as a level playing field, I don’t think there will ever be a level playing field in public vs. private because private schools can do something public schools can’t: they can exclude people. You’re excluding those that are special needs or disabilities.I’ve seen the questionnaires asking, ‘Has your child been kicked out of school?’ and ‘Do they have behavioral issues?’ Well, the public school has to take that child. So, from what I’ve seen about the Hope Scholarship, it’s predicted about 300 students will be granted the Hope Scholarship in Greenbrier County this coming year. I believe Greenbrier County school will lose about $6,700 per student. That’s a little over $1.9 million taken from the school system. On top of that, we are losing education jobs, about 50 education jobs from Greenbrier County this coming year, at an additional $2 million. That’s $4 million that we are losing from Greenbrier County alone. So it — the Hope Scholarship — is taking our tax dollars and destroying our education system. My belief is, if the parents care a lot, they are going to get a good education, whether it’s public or private school. I got a good education, my parents cared and made sure I did my homework.”
Question: Is there a way for local residents to have a say in data center placement, after HB 2014 removed that authority last year? Do you support data centers in the state?
Candidate Gilkerson answered first, “I absolutely believe they should look at it again, — HB 2014. If this was a good bill, they wouldn’t have taken power away from the communities regarding where these data centers are going to go. If it was a good thing, people would welcome it into their communities. They are not good jobs in the long run for our communities. There will be some short, decent-paying construction jobs. But after that, all you have left is a building with a few maintenance workers. I absolutely believe the power should go back to the people of our community.”
Sen. Vince Deeds supported HB 2014 in 2025, which took away local control when it comes to data center placement. Deeds responded, “Data centers are always a big topic, and it should be. There is a lot of unknown. Related back to the coal severance tax, if you mine coal here in Greenbrier County, that money goes back into the general fund, and it comes back out for roads and everything else. That’s really what the data center bill is modeled after. So, it would provide infrastructure money. Now, the county does receive a percentage of that if it’s based here. With that being said, we have to have community input. Ultimately, whenever we go to look at a data center site, we need to ask the local community if they want it there, have that input, and incorporate that with our county commissioners. Then ultimately, we can make a decision on whether or not the company fits here. Another thing is, we have to be open-minded to economic development in our region. But we need to research it and make sure it doesn’t have a negative environmental impact.”
Early voting has now begun and will proceed through Election Day for the primary on May 12.
