Donald Trump Jr., gestures at a rally for his father, President Donald Trump in Montoursville, Pa., Monday, May 20, 2019. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)

CHARLESTON — Donald Trump, Jr., one of President Donald Trump’s sons, will be the special guest at a fundraiser for Gov. Jim Justice’s reelection campaign on West Virginia Day.

Justice, who won election in 2016 as a Democrat and switched to Republican at a Trump rally in Huntington in August 2017, is seeking reelection in the Republican primary for governor in May 2020.

The fundraiser will take place Thursday, June 20, at 6 p.m. in Charleston, though an exact location was not provided on the invitation that went out shortly after midnight today. The event is being promoted as a celebration of the state’s 156th birthday.

Justice has frequently touted his friendship with President Trump and his family, including Don Jr., whom the governor has gone hunting with. In a press release in May 2017, Justice shared details of a hunting and fishing trip they went on in Greenbrier and Monroe counties.

“Don Jr. is a real hunter and a great fisherman,” Justice said. “We share a real love of the outdoors and it was an honor to show him just a small part of the natural beauty of our state.”

“We talked about the enormous potential of West Virginia and how we have opportunities to create jobs,” Justice continued. “The Trumps care deeply about our people and I look forward to working with the White House to get federal resources here to help our state in a number of different areas.”

Several veterans of Trump’s 2016 campaign for president were named as leaders on Justice’s reelection effort. Trump 2020 staffers Bill Stepien and Justin Clark joined the campaign as advisers in April. They were joined soon after by Mike Lukach, a Trump campaign veteran who ran the 2018 campaign of Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey. Lukach serves as Justice’s campaign manager.

According to the invitation, West Virginia’s entire Republican congressional delegation will attend, including U.S. Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, and Reps. David McKinley, Alex Mooney, and Carol Miller. Don Jr. visited West Virginia during the 2018 midterm elections to campaign for Miller, who defeated former Logan County Democratic state senator Richard Ojeda for the open 3rd Congressional seat vacated by current state Supreme Court Justice Evan Jenkins. Also listed on the invitation is House Speaker Roger Hanshaw, R-Clay.

Noticeably absent from the invitation was Senate President Mitch Carmichael, R-Jackson.

“Senator Carmichael wasn’t invited because he isn’t aligned with the Governor AND the President on some critical issues,” Lukach said in a statement. “Those who’ll be packing the room, Don Jr. included, are supportive of the Justice/Trump policies that have helped finally turn West Virginia around.”

Speaking Thursday night by phone, Carmichael said he wasn’t bothered by being excluded from the list of special guests for Justice’s fundraiser.

“I wouldn’t even want on the list. I would not want to be included on a fundraiser for (Justice)” Carmichael said. “I’ve been more of an advocate of Republican positions than he has ever. It’s an embarrassment for the governor to stoop to that level of discourse when he’s absent from the job and he wasn’t engaged at all in the education debate.”

Justice and Carmichael have been at odds over education reform and the senate’s new omnibus bill, the Student Success Act, which passed Monday. Justice has expressed support in the past for a small three-school public charter school pilot program, while the Student Success Act includes an unlimited number of charters contingent on approval by county boards of education. The senate also passed a separate bill for unlimited education savings accounts, which Justice does not support.

“I’m very much supporting students, teachers, and parents with choices and options and flexibility that Republican governments across this nation have brought forth for their students,” Carmichael said. “In West Virginia, we have a governor who just wants to play to the union bosses.”

Justice has already been subject to votes of no confidence by the Republican executive committees in Kanawha and Harrison counties, as well as the West Virginia Federation of College Republicans.

The Wood County Republican Executive Committee in June 2018 unanimously called for Justice’s impeachment for his handling of the RISE West Virginia disaster recovery program and for not living in Charleston as required by the state constitution. A Kanawha County circuit court judge is considering a motion to dismiss a case regarding Justice’s residency.

Also running in the Republican primary for governor is former Berkeley County delegate and airline pilot Mike Folk; and businessman Woody Thrasher, the former secretary of the state Department of Commerce tasked with running the RISE program. Thrasher also switched from Democrat to Republican in the last two months.