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Sen. Ron Stollings Announces Candidacy for W.Va. Governor

CHARLESTON – A Boone County doctor and state senator has thrown his hat in the ring for the Democratic nomination to be West Virginia’s next governor.

Sen. Ron Stollings, D-Boone, filed his precandidacy paperwork Monday morning at the Secretary of State’s office in Charleston to begin fundraising for a run for governor. The candidate filing period for the May 4, 2020, primary starts Jan. 13.

Stollings is a doctor at Boone Memorial Hospital in Madison, working as a physician for 34 years. He has served in the Senate since 2006, winning re-election to his fourth four-year term in 2018. Before the Republicans took the Senate majority going into 2015, Stollings was chairman of the Health and Human Resources Committee.

“I love the state of West Virginia,” Stollings said Monday morning during an interview on the floor of the Senate chamber where he has served for 13 years. “With all my experience in the senate and in what I’ve done throughout my life, I look at who’s running, and I think that I can provide that leadership.”

It’s a big jump for Stollings, whose entire governmental experience has been in the Senate and through appointments to several state boards and commissions. But he said he is ready to make the jump from the legislative to executive branch.

“It’s scary. Don’t get me wrong, it’s been a tough decision. It’s been a roller coaster decision,” Stollings said. But based on a lot of my mentors and a lot of people who I’ve known through throughout my life, I’m ready to go in there and run 100 percent.”

The opioid crisis is fresh on Stollings’ mind, both as a doctor and a lawmaker. Boone and Logan counties have been ground zero for the delivery of millions of painkillers to a handful of small pharmacies.

Stollings said any opioid settlement monies need to be reinvested in the communities hit hardest by opioid abuse.

“I feel that I’m poised to provide the leadership needed in critical areas in West Virginia, including the substance use disorder crisis that we have and all the social ills that come with that,” Stollings said. “We really have to invest in this upfront critical investment so that we can save another generation.”

Stollings’ experience as a doctor has also put him face-to-face with people and their concerns. This is particularly true of the state’s older population.

“I’ve been involved in the healthcare industry and provided healthcare,” Stollings said. “I listen every day to my patients who have critical needs. I’m mainly a geriatrician, so I see what impact the seniors have as far as food insecurity. You know, these seniors being grandparents are raising these families that they’re not really equipped to do. I know that the education, the economy, and the health of a population are so tied together that you really have to go after all three of them.”

Among candidates Stollings may face in the Democratic primary are former Mid-Ohio Valley economic development official Jody Murphy and community organizer Stephen Smith, who was recently endorsed by Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Elizabeth Warren.

Stollings said he is closer to a traditional moderate Democrat. He has seen the damage Obama-era rules and regulations have done to the Southern West Virginia coal industry.

“I am definitely a West Virginia Democrat,” Stollings said. “I come from coal country and I’ve seen what happens after coal goes away.”

The state needs to take a second look at how it taxes coal and natural gas production, Stollings said, including setting up a future fund to collect some of these monies and save them for future needs.

“We really do have look at our severance tax issue and we have to use that severance tax for our future,” Stollings said. “You know, that is money that we get from a nonrenewable resource. We have to focus that type funding for our future. If we’d had done that, we’d have been a lot better off down south.”

The winner of the Democratic primary will go on to possibly face Gov. Jim Justice, provided justice wins the Republican primary.

Justice has spent the last year touting a “rocket ship ride” of jobs and economic growth. Stollings said that is a rocket ship ride that many parts of the state are not seeing.

“There may be pockets in West Virginia, but certainly the lion’s share of West Virginia is not stable,” Stollings said. “I’ll be truthful with people, I can promise you that.”

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