Ozark Recap Season 3 Episode 1: Wartime Stinger Universe

I just wanna put my thoughts in writing having just finished the second season.
Overall, great show, it kept me hooked at all times. I started it over a month ago, but it took me too long to finish both seasons considering I just started a new job and I work long hours, so I may not remember everything at this moment in time but I do have some thoughts I wanted to evaluate with the help of other people just so I don't go insane.
I wasn't expecting Breaking Bad or Narcos when I started this show, not in terms of quality or plot. I know a lot of people touted Ozark as the BrBa reincarnation fans would crave but to me Ozark is its own thing and the only similarities it has to these other shows is that they're all about drugs - that's it.
That being said, I had to ground myself in reality when watching Breaking Bad, despite the batshit crazy stuff that sometimes happened. Moreso with Better Call Saul which is the more realistic of the bunch. I also come from a devout Sopranos following so it's fair to say I always expect a certain degree of realism from shows I like (and if not then I just deem them not to be my cup of tea and move on. My only sin was Dexter).
I say all of that because with Ozark, I always felt a nagging need for a degree of suspension of disbelief while watching.
From the first episode when Wendy's fuck buddy gets thrown out the window to the fact the only thing she seemed to be worried about later on was a random old guy's sexism when Buddy asks her where her "decision maker" is. I was going through a very weird loop of confusion and then mild reassurance which was entirely voluntary on my part. I wasn't sure how normal I should think the flow of events was, and so just told myself it would all become clear later. It never did!
To me it always felt like the writers were building up to something that never came, like this slow preparation for an eventually disappointing climax. To add to this, most plotlines didn't have a satisfying conclusion at all. They were all left for later just for the sake of hooking the viewer and adding that sense of mystery (which backfired because you end up forgetting about it and need an event as big as Mason kidnapping Wendy to remind you of its significance, e.g. the all-too-obvious "mystery" behind Grace's sudden disappearance), and those that concluded rapidly just felt like they ended too soon or ended with an act of God (Petty's total annihilation comes to mind).
Some examples of this, and this might not be correctly ordered because I'm writing this as I go

1. Cade is introduced as this ruthless, dark, grimy guy bordering on a peckerwood prison gang member, who is immediately obvious to have molested Ruth as a child when Russ mentions to Boyd "what Cade did to her." This is only outright confirmed in S2E10 when Ruth kisses his corpse, yikes from me. Multiple scenes show her visiting him in prison and simultaneously pissing herself because she's so afraid to disappoint him. But then he comes out and she doesn't seem all that scared of him at all? At certain points her fear of being a failure to him comes out, but most of the time she's telling him to go fuck himself and he honestly seems pretty harmless. We eventually find out Cade was a fucking stupid redneck and his character's retirement couldn't have come any sooner
2. The Snells blow up Wilkes' boat and there seem to be no repercussions for this other than him elbow nudging Wendy like "heheh so what about that boat they just blew up?" and she's just like "yeah well I guess you gotta deal with it," despite an entire sequence of events being dedicated to pointing out how consequential it would be if the Snells acted against Wilkes on their own when Jonah decides he wants to go hunting with Jacob and Marty and Buddy tags along. It's this gloomy scene when Jonah gets his "first kill" shooting a buck and Jacob warns Marty he has 48 hours to convince Wilkes to change his mind (I forget about what, there was a whole lot of convincing on this show and most characters just wound up convincing themselves to do whatever other characters wanted them to do, something telepathic was going on I guess). Marty doesn't meet that deadline and, well, not much harm is done in the end anyway other than a blown up boat
3. The whole relationship between Wyatt and Charlotte was just weird. I lost count of how many times Wendy and Marty tell her not to hang around him and make it seem like the end of the world if she does, then she quite literally goes and gets high with a guy who once tricked her into getting on a stolen boat then threw her off it during a police pursuit and got her arrested. Wyatt overall felt like an underwritten character. That's not to mention how entitled Charlotte is throughout (her family's under the threat of murder and giving up her phone is #1 on her list of priorities)
4. The Snells were introduced as ruthless, dark, gloomy, fucked up etc. etc. characters but they honestly turn out to be really dumb in the end. Killing off Del was a huge mistake on part of the writers because apart from shock value, it offered nothing but a renewed set of evil characters who were far more harmless than they seemed. Jacob is supposed to be this alpha boss man who doesn't mess around but we find out he's only worried about pleasing his former sexpot of a wife who now looks like a prop on the set of a horror movie (Lisa Emery nailed the part and she's beautiful but that just goes to show she nailed Darlene as a character). In my opinion the introduction of the Snells as the primary obstacle in Marty's way behind the cartel was dumb. Keeping Del around and a potential square-off between them would have been far more interesting but I guess Helen sufficed
5. Petty is another character who's supposed to be more fucked up beyond the viewer's comprehension. He jacks off to wiretaps of his former informant/lover, takes another informant out to the woods and mock executes her, shoots up a bar for no reason. His character follows this pattern the writers created which saw many characters' introduction getting all gritty and full of "you don't even know how fucked up this guy/gal is" insinuations, but then this entire build-up falls flat on its face when those characters make a really dumb mistake that sees them getting killed (Boyd, what the fuck were they thinking there?), or Marty pulls an ace out of his ass and sends them to another realm
6. Mason was the most pointless character on the show for me. Man, what was that all about? I'll admit Grace's murder haunted me throughout the show but how casual everybody is about her forced birth and subsequent murder was just brutally confusing to me. Yeah, they mentioned it a few times and it was this Voldemort kind of presence nobody would dare name, but it still felt pretty awkward to me how we were supposed to kinda like the Snells later having found out they cut a baby out of that innocent lady's stomach then killed her, just because Darlene wants to be a mommy and Jacob is outed to be a high school Chad eternally chasing his crush. Mason's introduction was also supposed to be dark and mysterious, but he turns out to be a sick and unstable idiot who gets his wife killed and then blames everyone around him but himself. It just felt underwhelming to me, this whole plotline

Now to my main frustration. Marty. Fuck me I had high hopes for this character when I watched the pilot. I was so engaged and found him so relatable. Add to that that it's Jason Bateman playing him and I was in a state of euphoria having found me a new favorite TV character now that Tony Soprano's gone. The moment I felt most connected to him was that monologue he had with himself in his car, while fantasizing it was actually a dialogue with a blonde prostitute. "Marty fucking Byrde, putting presents under the tree since 2002."
I was so. Fucking. Hooked. I love a self-aware character with an all-out conflict going on in their head. The scene that felt up and personal was also when he was on his way to Wendy's lover's apartment but ends up being a witness to his body getting splattered on the curb.
Marty's then as unrecognizable from that first episode to other characters as he is to us. He just becomes robotic from then on, and I'll admit it was for a reason. He's supposed to be a no-bullshit kind of guy who, compounded to that, is conjuring up a gold mine for the Mexican cartel that's due in 3 months. So he has to be going down a linear path. But it was drawn out. We never become introduced to Episode One Marty again until that scene with Rachel at the bar when she kisses him (another character whose evolution from minding her own business to being a bank robber on the run was all kinds of forced). I so wanted to connect to Marty Byrde. But my connection to Jonah wound up being stronger.
I guess more is going to come to my mind, and I've already written enough, more than anybody will bother to read. I guess I'm just writing this for safekeeping. I'll lose my train of thought as soon as I get to bed and I wanted to write these thoughts down while they're fresh in my head because I never get to overanalyze shows I watch out loud, and possibly get some input from other viewers.
I loved Ozark, great watch for sure, I can't wait for season 3. But it just didn't leave me with that emptiness other shows leave me with when I finish their latest season, partly because it was exhausting keeping up with its over-complicated and stuffed plot more than anything.
Everything here is just my opinion. I could be wrong about all of it or none, but the cool thing is nobody's right anyway.

Welcome to our 43rd Better Know a State (BKAS), which will focus on WEST VIRGINIA. As I indicated before, the plan is to do these state-by-state, highlighting upcoming elections, progressive candidates in those states and major issues being fought (with an emphasis on Democratic, Independent and third party candidates). State residents can let me know if I’ve missed anything important or mistakenly described some of these issues.
Note: this description was crossposted to WestVirginia - link, MorgantownWV - link, SandersforPresident - link, Political_Revolution - link and Kossacks_for_Sanders - link. Additional discussion of the races and candidates may be found at one or more of those sites.
Reminder: The deadline to file as a candidate for the 2018 races in West Virginia is January 27, 2018. Here are the filing requirements – link. The date of the primary election in West Virginia is May 8, 2018. West Virginia has closed primaries, but you can change your party preference on election day.
Here’s what I’ve found about the various races:
United States Senators:. The Senators from West Virginia are Joe Manchin (D) and Shelley Capito (R). Manchin is up for re-election in 2018. There are two Democrats are primarying him - Chase Henderson and Paula Jean Swearengin. Paula Jean Swearengin is a Justice Democrat and BrandNew Congress Candidate. There are also six Republicans competing to challenge him – Don, Blankenship, Bo Copley, Scott Ernst, U.S. Rep Evan Jenkins, State Attorney General Patrick Morrisey and Jack Newbrough.
Democrats running for Senator in 2018:
Joe Manchin the incumbent running for re-election describes himself as a pragmatist who can work with both people of both parties. He was first elected to the Senate in a special election to replace the late U.S. Sen. Robert Byrd and then was re-elected in 2012 to a six-year term. Manchin is a very conservative Democrat (Progressive Punch Crucial Lifetime Progressive Score =59%). He has not co-sponsored Bernie’s bill for Medicare-for-All (S.1804). He voted to confirm Ajit Pai to the FCC, voted to confirm Neil Gorsuch to the Supreme Court and recently implied he would have supported the Republican Tax bill. On the other hand, Manchin did oppose the Republican proposals to repeal the Affordable Care Act that would remove thousands of West Virginians from expanded Medicaid. Here is an article with more information about Manchin.
Chase Henderson does not have a website or endorsement. Very little information on the web and he may not be a serious candidate.
Paula Jean Swearengin is a very active and outspoken candidate.
Swearengin has the support of a number of new progressive groups, including Brand New Congress and Justice Democrats. She is running on a platform that includes single-payer healthcare, trillions of dollars of investment into infrastructure and industry, and a plan for an economy based on renewable energy. She also runs for free higher education. Such a liberal platform may be a tough sell in West Virginia under Joe Manchin, who as a Democrat has a voting record that resembles a Republican. She also runs on campaign finance transparency and has about a decade of experience as environmental activist – link.
Here is the funds raised by the candidates as of the last filing date (09/30/17). Swearengin remains far behind Manchin in fundraising. But then money is not everything… Here is her website with a link to donate or volunteer, if you’d like to help out.
Here the link to her Reddit AMA
Republicans running for Senate in 2018:
Don Blankenship: The disgraced former CEO of Massey Energy who had to serve a one-year sentence in federal prison for conspiring to commit mine-safety violations in the run-up to the deadliest mining disaster in decades is running for the Senate. He considers himself an outside candidate and one cornerstone of his campaign will be “corruption in government”! The articles below are worth a read.
http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2017/11/disgraced-coal-baron-don-blankenship-is-running-for-senate-in-west-virginia/
https://thinkprogress.org/don-blankenship-senate-run-7b1da187e2bf/
https://www.opensecrets.org/news/2017/12/controversial-west-virginia-coal-magnate-jumps-in-senate-race/
Bo Copley represents himself as the little guy who knows the coal miner state. He is running to stop “Washington bureaucrats” who like to “control” the state and aims to promote coal, oil, and gas as the common sense solutions to America’s energy needs. Not much else to find on him, no fundraising or election fund information available on open secret. http://www.boforwv.com/
Scott Ernst can’t be a serious candidate. All I could find was a Facebook page set to private, no articles or a campaign website.
U.S. Rep. Evan Jenkin is one of two very conservative Republican candidates. He is planning to reverse environmental policies that were enacted under President Obama. Voted for the repeal of Affordable Care Act.
His voting record in Congress: https://evanjenkins.house.gov/
Campaign Contributions: https://www.opensecrets.org/members-of-congress/summary?cid=N00035531
His call for an opponent, Morrisey, to disavow Steve Bannon: https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2018/jan/3/evan-jenkins-calls-patrick-morrisey-disavow-bannon/
Patrick Morrisey: is the West Virginia Attorney General and is endorsed by a multitude of Republican State Senators and State Delegates but also by Steve Bannon, former White House Chief Strategist and executive chairman of Breitbart News.
During his announcement he stated that West Virginia needs someone who is going to take on Washington corruption and advance conservative values. He promised that if elected he will stand with Donald Trump and help drain the swamp.
Here are some articles about him:
http://www.timeswv.com/news/morrisey-announces-run-for-u-s-senate-seat/article_95767906-6607-11e7-b350-a35aa4b036bb.html
Fundraising news: https://www.usnews.com/news/best-states/west-virginia/articles/2017-08-03/manchin-jenkins-super-pac-raising-funds-in-senate-race
Work in lobbying (revolving doors): https://www.opensecrets.org/revolving/rev_summary.php?id=30959
West Virginia and social programs that play a role during the election: https://ballotpedia.org/Medicaid_spending_in_West_Virginia
https://www.benefits.gov/benefits/browse-by-state/state/190
https://www.healthinsurance.org/west-virginia-medicaid/
Jack Newbrough a Navy Veteran and truckdriver admits he’s probably a long shot to get elected, but said he still will make sure his concerns — and the concerns of West Virginians — are heard during the 2018 election. He is focused on Veterans Affairs, term limits for elected officials and to bring conservative values back to West Virginia. No endorsements or financial information is available. http://www.weirtondailytimes.com/news/local-news/2017/09/weirton-resident-seeking-senate-seat/
United States House of Representatives: West Virginia has 3 United States House Representatives, David McKinley, Alex Mooney and Evan Jenkins, all Republicans.
WV-01: The incumbent is David McKinley, a quite conservative Tea Party Republican. There are three Democrats are competing to challenge him - Ralph Baxter, Kendra Fershee and Michael Manypenny.
Ralph Baxter: He presents himself as jobs creator who has brought many jobs to the region as CEO of a Legal Services Firm. His website does not have the usual platform issues and it is hard to find where he positions himself on healthcare or environmental issues that seem to be on the top of the list with most other candidates. http://www.theintelligencer.net/news/top-headlines/2017/09/ralph-baxter-to-announce-run-for-congress-seat-in-west-virginia/
https://www.opensecrets.org/races/contributors?cycle=2018&id=WV01&spec=N
Kendra Fershee: A law professor and mother of two, she has a refreshing website and actually talks about issues in a way that a reader can feel she is talking to them. Her issues are foremost the drug addiction crisis in the state, the lack of opportunity and employment diversity for current and future residents and medical care for all. On her Facebook page she is outspoken about her support for Medical Marijuana and that it be removed from the controlled substances index and to finally give the states the power to help themselves when it comes to this issue. Here is her campaign website and here is a video introducing her.
Michael Manypenny: is currently an agricultural/environmental consultant served as representative in the House of Delegates District 49 from 2008-2014. In 2013, Manypenny introduced a bill to legalize marijuana in limited and medical cases. Here he talks about his positions on major issues: http://www.herald-dispatch.com/elections/wv_candidates/u-s-house-w-va-district-candidate-mike-manypenny-d/article_bbef0fd2-f9fa-11e5-9acb-5355a33d527c.html. Here is his Facebook page, but I couldn’t find a campaign website.
WV-02: The incumbent is Alex Mooney, another quite conservative Republican, who is a member of the House Freedom Caucus. There are three Democrats are competing to challenge him – Tom Payne, Aaron Scheinberg and Talley Sergeant.
Tom Payne: a Lawyer and former Soldier who attended West Point is running against Republican Alex Mooney whom he calls a “carpetbagger” who came to West Virginia and after only living there one year, ran for office and surprisingly won. Payne believes that higher wages and full employment is the main driver for a healthy economy. The lack of technical infrastructure like broadband is preventing companies from coming to the state. He wrote an article about the state of the State West Virginia, but other than that there is not much to be found on him. https://www.wvgazettemail.com/opinion/gazette_opinion/op_ed_commentaries/tom-payne-something-must-be-done-about-wv-s-low/article_86071dae-1eca-58a2-947a-de9a08b14227.html
Aaron Scheinberg is veteran and West Point graduate. He works for a nonprofit called ‘The Mission Continues’, which helps veterans. Here is his campaign website. It does not have detailed policy positions, but says that he supports the right to affordable healthcare, strong public school education and early childhood education, creating good-paying jobs and building an innovative economy, combatting the opioid crisis, bringing new investment for improvements in infrastructure and putting patriotism over partisanship to get things done.
Talley Sergeant served as state director for Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign. She is running because she wants to protect the Affordable Care Act. She does not seem to have a campaign website, but here is an article describing a bit about her.
WV-03: The incumbent is Evan Jenkins, also a very conservative Republican. He is not running for re-election, because he is competing for Manchin’s Senate seat. There are 3 Democrats - Paul Davis, State Sen. Richard Ojeda and Steve Williams – and six Republicans - Ayne Amjad, Marty Gearheart, Former state Republican Party chairman Conrad Lucas, State Rep. Carol Miller, Rick Snuffer and Rupie Phillips – competing for his seat.
Paul Davis: the CEO of Huntington's bus system, Tri-State Transit Authority, is also filing to run as a Democrat. He is hoping to bring jobs and help to the Mountain State. He’s had few donations, does not have a campaign website but a Facebook page. Not much else to find on him. https://www.wvgazettemail.com/news/politics/bus-company-ceo-to-run-for-jenkins-seat/article_4bb0dc16-3d36-520b-a8d7-3dc062424096.html
https://www.opensecrets.org/races/candidates?cycle=2018&id=WV03&spec=N
State Sen. Richard Ojeda: has a very energetic layout of his campaign website and touches all of the important issues in a progressive direction. http://voteojeda.com/. He supports a public option for the Affordable Care Act (but doesn’t mention Medicare-for-All). He also supports net neutrality, medical cannabis and increasing Pell Grants to make college more affordable.
Ojeda sponsored the bill in the state senate to legalize medical marijuana. https://youtu.be/pqsa0c8lHv0
Steve Williams: currently Mayor of Huntington a city that was awarded one of “America’s Best Communities” beating 350 competing cities. That project also included efforts to jumpstart the local economy and improve the quality of life. He was also nationally recognized for his endeavor to combat drug abuse and opioid addiction through his Office of Drug Control Policy. This all sounds promising, but there is not much to find on his platform; he does not have it posted on his website. http://www.register-herald.com/news/mayor-steve-williams-to-run-for-congress/article_5cca2844-0bce-5412-84cd-fff4ff1e2b92.html
In the interests of space, we will not describe all the Republicans running in this race, but here are their website links if you want to check them out:
Ayne Amjad
Marty Gearheart
Conrad Lucas
Carol Miller
Rick Snuffer – Facebook page only
Rupie Phillips
Governor: The current governor of West Virginia is Jim Justice (R). He was just elected, so he won’t be up for re-election for quite some time.
Let me know in the comments if I’ve missed any important candidates or issues.
In case you missed the previous BKAS posts, here they are:
Alabama
Utah
Alaska
Arkansas
California Part 1
California Part 2
California Part 3
California Part 4
California State Democratic Chair Race
Colorado
Arizona
Connecticut
Delaware
Florida Part 1
Florida Part 2
New Jersey
Virginia Governor and Senate Races
Hawaii
Wyoming
Idaho
Medicare-4-All Fundraiser
North Dakota
Georgia
Minnesota
New York
Michigan Part 1
Michigan Part 2
Tennessee
Texas Part 1
Texas Part 2
Texas Part 3
Massachusetts
Illinois Part 1
Illinois Part 2
Kentucky
Kansas
Mississippi
Ohio Part 1
Ohio Part 2
South Carolina
Montana
Indiana
Oregon
Maryland Part 1
Maryland Part 2
NEXT STATE UP – North Carolina

SPOILERS
So it seems that thorough the season it is apparent that she wants to take good care of her siblings. She does laundry for them, gives them money for school, and is all around a good cousin. When you think why she killed her uncles, and that it might seem a questionable character decision, it makes perfect sense. She's thinking ahead of the game.
Has she maybe developed a sort of father-daughter relationship with Marty? Yes. But I think what's important to her is that her two cousins can have a good future, she knew her uncles were going to do something stupid and might of even gotten the young boys into trouble in the future. By killing them she cemented a loyalty from Marty Byrde and she knows that he's the only person in her life who can take care of her financially in the times to come.
It's very interesting to see what will happen once Cade gets out of prison, and I know that when it comes to Ruth loyalties might even shift, but I think in the end she will choose the Byrdes over her father.
Man she's such a great character. Can't wait for season 2.

Welcome to our 43rd Better Know a State (BKAS), which will focus on WEST VIRGINIA. Thanks to hulagirrrl for writing this detailed post. It includes a bit more about the Republican candidates running for governor than our typical BKAS post does. As I indicated before, the plan is to do these state-by-state, highlighting upcoming elections, progressive candidates in those states and major issues being fought (with an emphasis on Democratic, Independent and third party candidates). State residents can let me know if I’ve missed anything important or mistakenly described some of these issues.
Reminder: The deadline to file as a candidate for the 2018 races in West Virginia is January 27, 2018. Here are the filing requirements – link. The date of the primary election in West Virginia is May 8, 2018. West Virginia has closed primaries, but you can change your party preference on election day.
Here’s what I’ve found about the various races:
United States Senators:. The Senators from West Virginia are Joe Manchin (D) and Shelley Capito (R). Manchin is up for re-election in 2018. There are two Democrats are primarying him - Chase Henderson and Paula Jean Swearengin. Paula Jean Swearengin is a Justice Democrat and BrandNew Congress Candidate. There are also six Republicans competing to challenge him – Don, Blankenship, Bo Copley, Scott Ernst, U.S. Rep Evan Jenkins, State Attorney General Patrick Morrisey and Jack Newbrough.
Democrats running for Senator in 2018:
Joe Manchin the incumbent running for re-election describes himself as a pragmatist who can work with both people of both parties. He was first elected to the Senate in a special election to replace the late U.S. Sen. Robert Byrd and then was re-elected in 2012 to a six-year term. Manchin is a very conservative Democrat (Progressive Punch Crucial Lifetime Progressive Score =59%). He has not co-sponsored Bernie’s bill for Medicare-for-All (S.1804). He voted to confirm Ajit Pai to the FCC, voted to confirm Neil Gorsuch to the Supreme Court and recently implied he would have supported the Republican Tax bill. On the other hand, Manchin did oppose the Republican proposals to repeal the Affordable Care Act that would remove thousands of West Virginians from expanded Medicaid. Here is an article with more information about Manchin.
Chase Henderson does not have a website or endorsement. Very little information on the web and he may not be a serious candidate.
Paula Jean Swearengin is a very active and outspoken candidate.
Swearengin has the support of a number of new progressive groups, including Brand New Congress and Justice Democrats. She is running on a platform that includes single-payer healthcare, trillions of dollars of investment into infrastructure and industry, and a plan for an economy based on renewable energy. She also runs for free higher education. Such a liberal platform may be a tough sell in West Virginia under Joe Manchin, who as a Democrat has a voting record that resembles a Republican. She also runs on campaign finance transparency and has about a decade of experience as environmental activist – link.
Here is the funds raised by the candidates as of the last filing date (09/30/17). Swearengin remains far behind Manchin in fundraising. But then money is not everything… Here is her website with a link to donate or volunteer, if you’d like to help out.
Here the link to her Reddit AMA
Republicans running for Senate in 2018:
Don Blankenship: The disgraced former CEO of Massey Energy who had to serve a one-year sentence in federal prison for conspiring to commit mine-safety violations in the run-up to the deadliest mining disaster in decades is running for the Senate. He considers himself an outside candidate and one cornerstone of his campaign will be “corruption in government”! The articles below are worth a read.
http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2017/11/disgraced-coal-baron-don-blankenship-is-running-for-senate-in-west-virginia/
https://thinkprogress.org/don-blankenship-senate-run-7b1da187e2bf/
https://www.opensecrets.org/news/2017/12/controversial-west-virginia-coal-magnate-jumps-in-senate-race/
Bo Copley represents himself as the little guy who knows the coal miner state. He is running to stop “Washington bureaucrats” who like to “control” the state and aims to promote coal, oil, and gas as the common sense solutions to America’s energy needs. Not much else to find on him, no fundraising or election fund information available on open secret. http://www.boforwv.com/
Scott Ernst can’t be a serious candidate. All I could find was a Facebook page set to private, no articles or a campaign website.
U.S. Rep. Evan Jenkin is one of two very conservative Republican candidates. He is planning to reverse environmental policies that were enacted under President Obama. Voted for the repeal of Affordable Care Act.
His voting record in Congress: https://evanjenkins.house.gov/
Campaign Contributions: https://www.opensecrets.org/members-of-congress/summary?cid=N00035531
His call for an opponent, Morrisey, to disavow Steve Bannon: https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2018/jan/3/evan-jenkins-calls-patrick-morrisey-disavow-bannon/
Patrick Morrisey: is the West Virginia Attorney General and is endorsed by a multitude of Republican State Senators and State Delegates but also by Steve Bannon, former White House Chief Strategist and executive chairman of Breitbart News.
During his announcement he stated that West Virginia needs someone who is going to take on Washington corruption and advance conservative values. He promised that if elected he will stand with Donald Trump and help drain the swamp.
Here are some articles about him:
http://www.timeswv.com/news/morrisey-announces-run-for-u-s-senate-seat/article_95767906-6607-11e7-b350-a35aa4b036bb.html
Fundraising news: https://www.usnews.com/news/best-states/west-virginia/articles/2017-08-03/manchin-jenkins-super-pac-raising-funds-in-senate-race
Work in lobbying (revolving doors): https://www.opensecrets.org/revolving/rev_summary.php?id=30959
West Virginia and social programs that play a role during the election: https://ballotpedia.org/Medicaid_spending_in_West_Virginia
https://www.benefits.gov/benefits/browse-by-state/state/190
https://www.healthinsurance.org/west-virginia-medicaid/
Jack Newbrough a Navy Veteran and truckdriver admits he’s probably a long shot to get elected, but said he still will make sure his concerns — and the concerns of West Virginians — are heard during the 2018 election. He is focused on Veterans Affairs, term limits for elected officials and to bring conservative values back to West Virginia. No endorsements or financial information is available. http://www.weirtondailytimes.com/news/local-news/2017/09/weirton-resident-seeking-senate-seat/
United States House of Representatives: West Virginia has 3 United States House Representatives, David McKinley, Alex Mooney and Evan Jenkins, all Republicans.
WV-01: The incumbent is David McKinley, a quite conservative Tea Party Republican. There are three Democrats are competing to challenge him - Ralph Baxter, Kendra Fershee and Michael Manypenny.
Ralph Baxter: He presents himself as jobs creator who has brought many jobs to the region as CEO of a Legal Services Firm. His website does not have the usual platform issues and it is hard to find where he positions himself on healthcare or environmental issues that seem to be on the top of the list with most other candidates. http://www.theintelligencer.net/news/top-headlines/2017/09/ralph-baxter-to-announce-run-for-congress-seat-in-west-virginia/
https://www.opensecrets.org/races/contributors?cycle=2018&id=WV01&spec=N
Kendra Fershee: A law professor and mother of two, she has a refreshing website and actually talks about issues in a way that a reader can feel she is talking to them. Her issues are foremost the drug addiction crisis in the state, the lack of opportunity and employment diversity for current and future residents and medical care for all. On her Facebook page, she is outspoken about her support for Medical Marijuana and that it be removed from the controlled substances index and to finally give the states the power to help themselves when it comes to this issue. Here is her campaign website and here is a video introducing her.
Michael Manypenny: is currently an agricultural/environmental consultant served as representative in the House of Delegates District 49 from 2008-2014. In 2013, Manypenny introduced a bill to legalize marijuana in limited and medical cases. Here he talks about his positions on major issues: http://www.herald-dispatch.com/elections/wv_candidates/u-s-house-w-va-district-candidate-mike-manypenny-d/article_bbef0fd2-f9fa-11e5-9acb-5355a33d527c.html. Here is his Facebook page, but I couldn’t find a campaign website.
WV-02: The incumbent is Alex Mooney, another quite conservative Republican, who is a member of the House Freedom Caucus. There are three Democrats are competing to challenge him – Tom Payne, Aaron Scheinberg and Talley Sergeant.
Tom Payne: a Lawyer and former Soldier who attended West Point is running against Republican Alex Mooney whom he calls a “carpetbagger” who came to West Virginia and after only living there one year, ran for office and surprisingly won. Payne believes that higher wages and full employment is the main driver for a healthy economy. The lack of technical infrastructure like broadband is preventing companies from coming to the state. He wrote an article about the state of the State West Virginia, but other than that there is not much to be found on him. https://www.wvgazettemail.com/opinion/gazette_opinion/op_ed_commentaries/tom-payne-something-must-be-done-about-wv-s-low/article_86071dae-1eca-58a2-947a-de9a08b14227.html
Aaron Scheinberg is veteran and West Point graduate. He works for a nonprofit called ‘The Mission Continues’, which helps veterans. Here is his campaign website. It does not have detailed policy positions, but says that he supports the right to affordable healthcare, strong public school education and early childhood education, creating good-paying jobs and building an innovative economy, combatting the opioid crisis, bringing new investment for improvements in infrastructure and putting patriotism over partisanship to get things done.
Talley Sergeant served as state director for Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign. She is running because she wants to protect the Affordable Care Act. She does not seem to have a campaign website, but here is an article describing a bit about her.
WV-03: The incumbent is Evan Jenkins, also a very conservative Republican. He is not running for re-election, because he is competing for Manchin’s Senate seat. There are 3 Democrats - Paul Davis, State Sen. Richard Ojeda and Steve Williams – and six Republicans - Ayne Amjad, Marty Gearheart, Former state Republican Party chairman Conrad Lucas, State Rep. Carol Miller, Rick Snuffer and Rupie Phillips – competing for his seat.
Paul Davis: the CEO of Huntington's bus system, Tri-State Transit Authority, is also filing to run as a Democrat. He is hoping to bring jobs and help to the Mountain State. He’s had few donations, does not have a campaign website but a Facebook page. Not much else to find on him. https://www.wvgazettemail.com/news/politics/bus-company-ceo-to-run-for-jenkins-seat/article_4bb0dc16-3d36-520b-a8d7-3dc062424096.html
https://www.opensecrets.org/races/candidates?cycle=2018&id=WV03&spec=N
State Sen. Richard Ojeda: has a very energetic layout of his campaign website and touches all of the important issues in a progressive direction. http://voteojeda.com/. He supports a public option for the Affordable Care Act (but doesn’t mention Medicare-for-All). He also supports net neutrality, medical cannabis and increasing Pell Grants to make college more affordable.
Ojeda sponsored the bill in the state senate to legalize medical marijuana. https://youtu.be/pqsa0c8lHv0
Steve Williams: currently Mayor of Huntington a city that was awarded one of “America’s Best Communities” beating 350 competing cities. That project also included efforts to jumpstart the local economy and improve the quality of life. He was also nationally recognized for his endeavor to combat drug abuse and opioid addiction through his Office of Drug Control Policy. This all sounds promising, but there is not much to find on his platform; he does not have it posted on his website. http://www.register-herald.com/news/mayor-steve-williams-to-run-for-congress/article_5cca2844-0bce-5412-84cd-fff4ff1e2b92.html
In the interests of space, we will not describe all the Republicans running in this race, but here are their website links if you want to check them out:
Ayne Amjad
Marty Gearheart
Conrad Lucas
Carol Miller
Rick Snuffer – Facebook page only
Rupie Phillips
Governor: The current governor of West Virginia is Jim Justice (R). He was just elected, so he won’t be up for re-election for quite some time.
Let me know in the comments if I’ve missed any important candidates or issues.
In case you missed the previous BKAS posts, here they are:
Alabama
Utah
Alaska
Arkansas
California Part 1
California Part 2
California Part 3
California Part 4
California State Democratic Chair Race
Colorado
Arizona
Connecticut
Delaware
Florida Part 1
Florida Part 2
New Jersey
Virginia Governor and Senate Races
Hawaii
Wyoming
Idaho
Medicare-4-All Fundraiser
North Dakota
Georgia
Minnesota
New York
Michigan Part 1
Michigan Part 2
Tennessee
Texas Part 1
Texas Part 2
Texas Part 3
Massachusetts
Illinois Part 1
Illinois Part 2
Kentucky
Kansas
Mississippi
Ohio Part 1
Ohio Part 2
South Carolina
Montana
Indiana
Oregon
Maryland Part 1
Maryland Part 2
NEXT STATE UP – North Carolina

Welcome to our 43rd Better Know a State (BKAS), which will focus on WEST VIRGINIA. Thanks to hulagirrrl for writing this detailed post. It includes a bit more about Republican candidates than our typical BKAS post. As I indicated before, the plan is to do these state-by-state, highlighting upcoming elections, progressive candidates in those states and major issues being fought (with an emphasis on Democratic, Independent and third party candidates). State residents can let me know if I’ve missed anything important or mistakenly described some of these issues.
Reminder: The deadline to file as a candidate for the 2018 races in West Virginia is January 27, 2018. Here are the filing requirements – link. The date of the primary election in West Virginia is May 8, 2018. West Virginia has closed primaries, but you can change your party preference on election day.
Here’s what I’ve found about the various races:
United States Senators:. The Senators from West Virginia are Joe Manchin (D) and Shelley Capito (R). Manchin is up for re-election in 2018. There are two Democrats are primarying him - Chase Henderson and Paula Jean Swearengin. Paula Jean Swearengin is a Justice Democrat and BrandNew Congress Candidate. There are also six Republicans competing to challenge him – Don, Blankenship, Bo Copley, Scott Ernst, U.S. Rep Evan Jenkins, State Attorney General Patrick Morrisey and Jack Newbrough.
Democrats running for Senator in 2018:
Joe Manchin the incumbent running for re-election describes himself as a pragmatist who can work with both people of both parties. He was first elected to the Senate in a special election to replace the late U.S. Sen. Robert Byrd and then was re-elected in 2012 to a six-year term. Manchin is a very conservative Democrat (Progressive Punch Crucial Lifetime Progressive Score =59%). He has not co-sponsored Bernie’s bill for Medicare-for-All (S.1804). He voted to confirm Ajit Pai to the FCC, voted to confirm Neil Gorsuch to the Supreme Court and recently implied he would have supported the Republican Tax bill. On the other hand, Manchin did oppose the Republican proposals to repeal the Affordable Care Act that would remove thousands of West Virginians from expanded Medicaid. Here is an article with more information about Manchin.
Chase Henderson does not have a website or endorsement. Very little information on the web and he may not be a serious candidate.
Paula Jean Swearengin is a very active and outspoken candidate.
Swearengin has the support of a number of new progressive groups, including Brand New Congress and Justice Democrats. She is running on a platform that includes single-payer healthcare, trillions of dollars of investment into infrastructure and industry, and a plan for an economy based on renewable energy. She also runs for free higher education. Such a liberal platform may be a tough sell in West Virginia under Joe Manchin, who as a Democrat has a voting record that resembles a Republican. She also runs on campaign finance transparency and has about a decade of experience as environmental activist – link.
Here is the funds raised by the candidates as of the last filing date (09/30/17). Swearengin remains far behind Manchin in fundraising. But then money is not everything… Here is her website with a link to donate or volunteer, if you’d like to help out.
Here the link to her Reddit AMA
Republicans running for Senate in 2018:
Don Blankenship: The disgraced former CEO of Massey Energy who had to serve a one-year sentence in federal prison for conspiring to commit mine-safety violations in the run-up to the deadliest mining disaster in decades is running for the Senate. He considers himself an outside candidate and one cornerstone of his campaign will be “corruption in government”! The articles below are worth a read.
http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2017/11/disgraced-coal-baron-don-blankenship-is-running-for-senate-in-west-virginia/
https://thinkprogress.org/don-blankenship-senate-run-7b1da187e2bf/
https://www.opensecrets.org/news/2017/12/controversial-west-virginia-coal-magnate-jumps-in-senate-race/
Bo Copley represents himself as the little guy who knows the coal miner state. He is running to stop “Washington bureaucrats” who like to “control” the state and aims to promote coal, oil, and gas as the common sense solutions to America’s energy needs. Not much else to find on him, no fundraising or election fund information available on open secret. http://www.boforwv.com/
Scott Ernst can’t be a serious candidate. All I could find was a Facebook page set to private, no articles or a campaign website.
U.S. Rep. Evan Jenkin is one of two very conservative Republican candidates. He is planning to reverse environmental policies that were enacted under President Obama. Voted for the repeal of Affordable Care Act.
His voting record in Congress: https://evanjenkins.house.gov/
Campaign Contributions: https://www.opensecrets.org/members-of-congress/summary?cid=N00035531
His call for an opponent, Morrisey, to disavow Steve Bannon: https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2018/jan/3/evan-jenkins-calls-patrick-morrisey-disavow-bannon/
Patrick Morrisey: is the West Virginia Attorney General and is endorsed by a multitude of Republican State Senators and State Delegates but also by Steve Bannon, former White House Chief Strategist and executive chairman of Breitbart News.
During his announcement he stated that West Virginia needs someone who is going to take on Washington corruption and advance conservative values. He promised that if elected he will stand with Donald Trump and help drain the swamp.
Here are some articles about him:
http://www.timeswv.com/news/morrisey-announces-run-for-u-s-senate-seat/article_95767906-6607-11e7-b350-a35aa4b036bb.html
Fundraising news: https://www.usnews.com/news/best-states/west-virginia/articles/2017-08-03/manchin-jenkins-super-pac-raising-funds-in-senate-race
Work in lobbying (revolving doors): https://www.opensecrets.org/revolving/rev_summary.php?id=30959
West Virginia and social programs that play a role during the election: https://ballotpedia.org/Medicaid_spending_in_West_Virginia
https://www.benefits.gov/benefits/browse-by-state/state/190
https://www.healthinsurance.org/west-virginia-medicaid/
Jack Newbrough a Navy Veteran and truckdriver admits he’s probably a long shot to get elected, but said he still will make sure his concerns — and the concerns of West Virginians — are heard during the 2018 election. He is focused on Veterans Affairs, term limits for elected officials and to bring conservative values back to West Virginia. No endorsements or financial information is available. http://www.weirtondailytimes.com/news/local-news/2017/09/weirton-resident-seeking-senate-seat/
United States House of Representatives: West Virginia has 3 United States House Representatives, David McKinley, Alex Mooney and Evan Jenkins, all Republicans.
WV-01: The incumbent is David McKinley, a quite conservative Tea Party Republican. There are three Democrats are competing to challenge him - Ralph Baxter, Kendra Fershee and Michael Manypenny.
Ralph Baxter: He presents himself as jobs creator who has brought many jobs to the region as CEO of a Legal Services Firm. His website does not have the usual platform issues and it is hard to find where he positions himself on healthcare or environmental issues that seem to be on the top of the list with most other candidates. http://www.theintelligencer.net/news/top-headlines/2017/09/ralph-baxter-to-announce-run-for-congress-seat-in-west-virginia/
https://www.opensecrets.org/races/contributors?cycle=2018&id=WV01&spec=N
Kendra Fershee: A law professor and mother of two, she has a refreshing website and actually talks about issues in a way that a reader can feel she is talking to them. Her issues are foremost the drug addiction crisis in the state, the lack of opportunity and employment diversity for current and future residents and medical care for all. On her Facebook page, she is outspoken about her support for Medical Marijuana and that it be removed from the controlled substances index and to finally give the states the power to help themselves when it comes to this issue. Here is her campaign website and here is a video introducing her.
Michael Manypenny: is currently an agricultural/environmental consultant served as representative in the House of Delegates District 49 from 2008-2014. In 2013, Manypenny introduced a bill to legalize marijuana in limited and medical cases. Here he talks about his positions on major issues: http://www.herald-dispatch.com/elections/wv_candidates/u-s-house-w-va-district-candidate-mike-manypenny-d/article_bbef0fd2-f9fa-11e5-9acb-5355a33d527c.html. Here is his Facebook page, but I couldn’t find a campaign website.
WV-02: The incumbent is Alex Mooney, another quite conservative Republican, who is a member of the House Freedom Caucus. There are three Democrats are competing to challenge him – Tom Payne, Aaron Scheinberg and Talley Sergeant.
Tom Payne: a Lawyer and former Soldier who attended West Point is running against Republican Alex Mooney whom he calls a “carpetbagger” who came to West Virginia and after only living there one year, ran for office and surprisingly won. Payne believes that higher wages and full employment is the main driver for a healthy economy. The lack of technical infrastructure like broadband is preventing companies from coming to the state. He wrote an article about the state of the State West Virginia, but other than that there is not much to be found on him. https://www.wvgazettemail.com/opinion/gazette_opinion/op_ed_commentaries/tom-payne-something-must-be-done-about-wv-s-low/article_86071dae-1eca-58a2-947a-de9a08b14227.html
Aaron Scheinberg is veteran and West Point graduate. He works for a nonprofit called ‘The Mission Continues’, which helps veterans. Here is his campaign website. It does not have detailed policy positions, but says that he supports the right to affordable healthcare, strong public school education and early childhood education, creating good-paying jobs and building an innovative economy, combatting the opioid crisis, bringing new investment for improvements in infrastructure and putting patriotism over partisanship to get things done.
Talley Sergeant served as state director for Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign. She is running because she wants to protect the Affordable Care Act. She does not seem to have a campaign website, but here is an article describing a bit about her.
WV-03: The incumbent is Evan Jenkins, also a very conservative Republican. He is not running for re-election, because he is competing for Manchin’s Senate seat. There are 3 Democrats - Paul Davis, State Sen. Richard Ojeda and Steve Williams – and six Republicans - Ayne Amjad, Marty Gearheart, Former state Republican Party chairman Conrad Lucas, State Rep. Carol Miller, Rick Snuffer and Rupie Phillips – competing for his seat.
Paul Davis: the CEO of Huntington's bus system, Tri-State Transit Authority, is also filing to run as a Democrat. He is hoping to bring jobs and help to the Mountain State. He’s had few donations, does not have a campaign website but a Facebook page. Not much else to find on him. https://www.wvgazettemail.com/news/politics/bus-company-ceo-to-run-for-jenkins-seat/article_4bb0dc16-3d36-520b-a8d7-3dc062424096.html
https://www.opensecrets.org/races/candidates?cycle=2018&id=WV03&spec=N
State Sen. Richard Ojeda: has a very energetic layout of his campaign website and touches all of the important issues in a progressive direction. http://voteojeda.com/. He supports a public option for the Affordable Care Act (but doesn’t mention Medicare-for-All). He also supports net neutrality, medical cannabis and increasing Pell Grants to make college more affordable.
Ojeda sponsored the bill in the state senate to legalize medical marijuana. https://youtu.be/pqsa0c8lHv0
Steve Williams: currently Mayor of Huntington a city that was awarded one of “America’s Best Communities” beating 350 competing cities. That project also included efforts to jumpstart the local economy and improve the quality of life. He was also nationally recognized for his endeavor to combat drug abuse and opioid addiction through his Office of Drug Control Policy. This all sounds promising, but there is not much to find on his platform; he does not have it posted on his website. http://www.register-herald.com/news/mayor-steve-williams-to-run-for-congress/article_5cca2844-0bce-5412-84cd-fff4ff1e2b92.html
In the interests of space, we will not describe all the Republicans running in this race, but here are their website links if you want to check them out:
Ayne Amjad
Marty Gearheart
Conrad Lucas
Carol Miller
Rick Snuffer – Facebook page only
Rupie Phillips
Governor: The current governor of West Virginia is Jim Justice (R). He was just elected, so he won’t be up for re-election for quite some time.
Let me know in the comments if I’ve missed any important candidates or issues.
In case you missed the previous BKAS posts, here they are:
Alabama
Utah
Alaska
Arkansas
California Part 1
California Part 2
California Part 3
California Part 4
California State Democratic Chair Race
Colorado
Arizona
Connecticut
Delaware
Florida Part 1
Florida Part 2
New Jersey
Virginia Governor and Senate Races
Hawaii
Wyoming
Idaho
Medicare-4-All Fundraiser
North Dakota
Georgia
Minnesota
New York
Michigan Part 1
Michigan Part 2
Tennessee
Texas Part 1
Texas Part 2
Texas Part 3
Massachusetts
Illinois Part 1
Illinois Part 2
Kentucky
Kansas
Mississippi
Ohio Part 1
Ohio Part 2
South Carolina
Montana
Indiana
Oregon
Maryland Part 1
Maryland Part 2
NEXT STATE UP – North Carolina