Citing need for jobs, family support and elected officials without political agendas, Greenbrier Resort owner says now is his time to run
WHITE SULPHUR SPRINGS, W.Va. — Jim Justice, a successful West Virginia businessman in several industries who rescued The Greenbrier from bankruptcy, officially announced his campaign for Governor of West Virginia Monday during a packed rally in the White Sulphur Springs Civic Center.
Jim Justice, center, a successful West Virginia businessman in several industries who rescued The Greenbrier from bankruptcy, officially announced his campaign for Governor of West Virginia Monday during a packed rally in the White Sulphur Springs Civic Center. Photo by the West Virginia Press Association
Justice said he’s tired of the excuses about how you can’t create jobs in West Virginia. Justice said he will bring his skills balancing budgets and creating jobs to state government, adding that he has an action plan to change the way state government works, so government will work better for more West Virginia families.
“It’s time for someone to serve with no hidden agenda for themselves,” Justice said in announcing his campaign for governor. “It’s time for our political leaders to quit being preoccupied with trying to preserve themselves in their political office. It’s time to move our State forward and create thousands of good paying family supporting jobs. Our forefathers served for nothing other than to help this great country. For all these reasons, today I am officially announcing my candidacy to be the next Governor of the great State of West Virginia.”
As Governor, Justice will support an all-of-the-above energy approach which promotes growth in coal, natural gas, and renewable energy to create jobs and prepare West Virginia for the future, a campaign spokesperson said, noting that Justice has already created thousands of jobs in West Virginia’s energy and tourism industries.
Documenting his business and job-creation record, Justice’s campaign noted the following:
— With Justice’s coal mining operations, while other mining companies are cutting jobs and eliminating pensions, Justice is creating coal and energy jobs and working with the United Mine Workers to save workers’ pensions. He recently bought a coal mine that had been shut down by its Russian owners and reopened it. That operation is expected to create more than 150 jobs.
— At the Greenbrier, in 2009 Justice purchased the resort, which was near bankruptcy, and hired back 650 employees who had been laid off, giving them benefits such as healthcare and paid vacation. Justice said a successful businessman must respect and value his workers, noting that today, there are more than nineteen hundred employees at the Greenbrier, including more than a thousand in union jobs.
— Justice Family Farms, which Justice started in 1977, was a modest farm in Monroe County. Today, Justice Family Farms employs more than 200 people working 63,000 acres of corn, wheat, and grain on farms in West Virginia and four other states.
Speaking to a rally of several hundred, Justice said he lives the West Virginia values he learned as a boy growing up as the son of a coal miner, adding that he is a man of faith who believes that we know the difference between right and wrong. Justice noted that he’s a family man, an avid hunter and fisherman, adding that he spends his money carefully and chooses to live simply, noting that he and Cathy, his wife of 39 years, live in a modest one-story home in Lewisburg.
MEDIA NOTE:
TUESDAY JUSTICE TO HOLD EVENTS ACROSS THE STATE
Justice will file papers for Governor in Charleston and hold media availabilities in Clarksburg, Wheeling, Martinsburg
On Tuesday May 12th, Jim Justice will file papers to run for governor of West Virginia at the Office of Secretary of State in Charleston and then hold media availabilities in Clarksburg, Wheeling, and Martinsburg.
