By Steven Allen Adams for The Intelligencer
CHARLESTON, W.Va. — With just over a week until the general election ends on Tuesday, Nov. 5, two Democratic candidates have no intention of being ignored, and they want to raise up those who also feel ignored by those in Charleston and Capitol Hill.
Speaking last Tuesday before a group of people representing the Black community, those in poverty, women, and other marginalized groups, Democratic candidate for governor Steve Williams and Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Glenn Elliott understood there is an uphill battle to fight.
Williams, the three-term mayor of Huntington, and Elliott, the former two-term mayor of Wheeling, spoke Tuesday night — the day before the start of early voting — at a Meet the Candidates event put on by the West Virginia NAACP at the First Baptist Church on Shrewsbury Street near downtown Charleston.
A decade ago, Williams’ resume would have made him a top-tier candidate for a major political party. He is a native West Virginian; a graduate of both West Virginia University and Marshall University, where he played on the famous Young Thundering Herd football team; a successful businessman; and a former member of the House of Delegates.
Williams took office as mayor of Huntington in 2013, turning around a significant city budget deficit. A city once racked by the opioid crisis with 28 heroin overdoses recorded in a four-hour period in one day, Williams created teams to quickly respond to overdose issues, worked to implement treatment options, and then joined Cabell County in filing an ongoing lawsuit against major opioid manufacturers and distributors.
