By Steven Allen Adams for The Intelligencer
FAIRMONT, W.Va. — The two major party candidates for governor of West Virginia faced off Tuesday night in their first, and likely last, debate before the close of early voting this week and election day next week.
Republican Attorney General Patrick Morrisey and Democratic Huntington Mayor Steve Williams went head-to-head Tuesday evening in a debate moderated by WV MetroNews “Talkline” host Hoppy Kercheval at Fairmont State University.
Morrisey, a three-term attorney general, won the GOP nomination for governor in a six-person primary. Williams, wrapping up his third term at the helm of West Virginia’s second largest city, was unopposed in the Democratic primary.
Kercheval asked Morrisey about calls from Williams for the Legislature to put before voters constitutional amendments providing citizens the freedom to make reproductive health care decisions and to legalize recreational cannabis.
West Virginians already voted in 2018 to add language to the Constitution stating that “Nothing in this Constitution secures or protects a right to abortion or requires the funding of abortion.” Kercheval asked Williams why voters in the state need to address the issue of abortion and reproductive rights again.
