Libertarian candidate Erika Kolenich discusses her bid to be West Virginia’s first female Governor
By Matthew Young, RealWV
Libertarian nominee Erika Kolenich collected 22,527 votes in her 2020 bid to be West Virginia’s governor. While certainly a respectable showing for a third-party candidate, with less than three-percent of the total vote, Kolenich was never a legitimate threat to the re-elected Republican Jim Justice, or his Democratic opponent Ben Salango.
But that was then. In the four years since the 2020 election, the political landscape has changed drastically, and Erika Kolenich is taking another swing at making history by becoming West Virginia’s first female governor.
“People are more receptive to hearing from and talking to a third-party (candidate),” Kolenich said while speaking with RealWV on Wednesday. “It’s not always easy. I have to work twice as hard as anybody else. I don’t have millions of dollars coming in from special interest groups, so I have to go out there to fairs and festivals, and walk up and down Main Streets in small towns and talk to people.”
“I can probably count on less than two hands the amount of people who have not been willing to hear me out,” Kolenich added. “That’s very different from my experience in 2020. I really think it’s because people are getting sick of the system.”
The current system, Kolenich explained, forces voters to be against a particular party, rather than being in favor of an individual candidate. When a system is structured in that fashion, Kolenich added, it fails to prioritize the needs of its citizens.
“There is a sentiment in West Virginia – that is sometimes spoken, but most of the time unspoken – that we indoctrinate our kids to feel like they have to leave to be successful,” Kolenich said. “That’s tragic to me, and it’s not true. We have everything we need for West Virginia to be successful.”
“The Democrats were in control of West Virginia for a very long time,” Kolenich continued. “Then the Republicans took over and they’ve been in control. And what has been consistent no matter which party has been king in West Virginia, is when you look at a ranking of all the states – obesity, drug overdoses – West Virginia is always at the top.”
“If you take a look at all of the good lists – education, economy, opportunity – West Virginia is always at the bottom,” Kolenich added. “What I need to do is put myself out there and try to change West Virginia.”
Born and raised in the Mountain State, Kolenich is a 1997 graduate of Buckhannon-Upshur High School. Attorneys by trade, Kolenich, and her husband Karl, manage Klie Law Offices, PLLC, which has three locations and employs some 40 people. Kolenich and her husband have an adult daughter, Iris, who is a graduate of West Virginia Wesleyan College, and resides in the Clarksburg area.
“I’m just a normal West Virginia gal, trying to make a difference,” Kolenich notes.
While Kolenich is campaigning hard, she is well aware of the daunting task she faces as a third-party candidate in a statewide election.
“I’m in this race to win, but I always have a secondary goal in mind,” Kolenich said. “I intend to beat Patrick Morrisey, and I intend to beat Steve Williams. But if I don’t beat them, how do the people of West Virginia win?”
“As West Virginians understand that there is another voice for them – as those people who, like me, feel that they got lost in the process – as they start to feel like they have a voice, we can really start to effectuate change,” Kolenich added. “I believe that has to happen on a big scale, and the governor’s race is as big as you can get in West Virginia. So many people don’t identify with the Republican or Democrat labels anymore.”
As a Libertarian, Kolenich is committed to the idea of getting government out of the way of its citizens, and removing unnecessary impediments to societal success. Eliminating burdensome bureaucracies, improving infrastructure, and making West Virginia more welcoming to business are chief among her priorities.
“The answer is that you eliminate all of the regulations that don’t serve anyone except the government,” Kolenich said. “You create a tax-friendly situation where West Virginia is the most business-friendly state in the Union, in terms of regulatory framework and tax framework, so that businesses want to come here.”
“Just like years ago when credit card companies were opening, they went to Delaware,” Kolenich continued. “Delaware didn’t have to offer them things. It’s just the legal framework there was such that that’s where they wanted to be. Tech companies went to Silicon Valley. West Virginia can position itself with the regulatory and tax framework that those businesses want to come here.”
“When they do come here, we will be able to get them to invest in our infrastructure,” Kolenich added. “The reason they’re looking for infrastructure now is because they’re looking for freebies and handouts. But if we can reverse that, then we can change who needs who, and for what.”
Another area where Kolenich would like to see less government involvement is with regard to the current prohibition on cannabis, and other narcotics.
“I don’t find at all that people view decriminalization of marijuana as a sensitive subject anymore, which is probably an indication that we need to move there,” Kolenich said, adding that if elected, she would work toward such decriminalization.
“We were just talking last year in the Republican Supermajority about instituting the death penalty for drug dealers,” Kolenich noted. “I don’t think that a state government that is talking about that is close to decriminalizing marijuana. But what I do think is that it shows a significant disconnect between what West Virginia views as culturally acceptable, and what the politicians in Charleston are doing.”
To learn more about Erika Kolenich’s campaign for governor, visit her website, at kolenichforwv.com, or find her on Facebook at Erika Kolenich, Libertarian for Governor of West Virginia.
General Election Day in West Virginia is Tuesday, November 5. To register to vote, or to confirm your registration, visit apps.sos.wv.gov.
