Stephen Smith is a 40-year-old Harvard-trained community organizer who is running for governor of West Virginia as a progressive Democrat in the mold of Bernie Sanders.
CHARLESTON, W.Va. — A few days ago, the little-known political neophyte Stephen Smith got a huge break. Joe Manchin, the Democratic senator from West Virginia, declared that he was staying in Washington rather than making a run for the governor’s mansion in Charleston, which he had previously occupied from 2005 until 2010.
And that’s exactly how he wants it. Smith’s challenge is not just about Justice and his diminishing political capital, but rather a test of whether unapologetic Warren-style progressivism can find traction in states like West Virginia and Pennsylvania. Smith very much models himself on Sanders, especially in regard to how much influence corporations should command and what government should have the power to do . Also like Sanders, Smith has managed to generate considerable hype, not usually a feature of West Virginia politics. Last spring, he was profiled favorably in the Intercept, the progressive-leaning online publication that was an early endorser of Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. Far more surprising was a lengthy feature in the U.K.
In the video announcing his campaign, Smith talks of returning government to the people, and he pledges not to take corporate contributions . Plangent music plays. It is reminiscent of the viral video that launched the political campaign of Ocasio-Cortez, the young star of the 116th Congress from the Bronx. His story lacks the Horatio Alger quality of hers, but it makes a similarly soaring appeal, hoping to reach people who are immune to ordinary political pitches.
“Government isn’t the answer,” Smith told me. “A people’s government is the answer.” He talks about taking power away from corporations — which are especially powerful in West Virginia — and returning that power to unions. He envisions citizen councils that watch over state agencies, that inform those agencies’ work.
His vision of West Virginia couldn’t be more different from that of Justice, the scion of a wealthy family who is now the wealthiest person in West Virginia. According to a slew of recent allegations, he may also be the most corrupt. Democrats regard him as the most vulnerable Republican governor in the country, along with Matt Bevin of Kentucky. “Jim Justice is a lonely man on an island right now,” said David Turner, communications director for the Democratic Governors Association.
Much like Pete Buttigieg, the South Bend, Ind., mayor now running for president, Smith has put political narrative over policy proposals. But the story Buttigieg has been telling is highly personal, focusing on the compelling aspects of his own biography: Harvard, the military, South Bend, being young, coming out as gay. Smith, by contrast, is loath to talk about himself.
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