WHEELING -- Woody Thrasher, Republican candidate for West Virginia governor, sees issues most affecting the Northern Panhandle determining the 2020 gubernatorial race.
"The last few months, there have been a lot of things going on in the Northern Panhandle, and unfortunately a lot of them not good," Thrasher said while visiting Wheeling on Wednesday. "Specifically, you had the hospital (Ohio Valley Medical Center) close. That was really troubling to everybody.
"We have the on-going roads situation. Then we have the real decline in what has been an economic boost for the Northern Panhandle -- the oil and gas industry."
All these issues will have an effect on the 2020 gubernatorial election, according to Thrasher.
"The hospital issue was a problem everybody knew about years ago," he said. "Within the past two years, if anybody was paying attention to that facility, it was really apparent it was struggling."
He said there was no effort on behalf of current state officials to prevent a closing, or to make certain health care options were available in the Northern Panhandle. It was only after the hospital closed that Gov. Jim Justice came to Wheeling to address these issues, according to Thrasher.
He called this a "knee jerk" reaction.
On the issue of roads, Thrasher said highway conditions locally aren't improving, with major traffic issues likely in the future.
Oil and gas severance tax collections from counties in the Northern Panhandle "carried the load" for the state in recent years as other areas saw economic downturns, but this boon was expected to be short-lived by those experienced in finance, he said.
The state, meanwhile, continues to project high revenue numbers that haven't met predictions on a regular basis, according to Thrasher.
Thrasher previously served as state commerce secretary under Justice. He was forced out of the job in June 2018, a year after floods devastated the southern part of the state and the recovery effort handled through his office hadn't met the administration's expectations.
Thrasher is owner of the Thrasher Group, an engineering and development firm headquartered in his home area of Harrison County, West Virginia. Among its projects have been renovations to the Greenbrier Resort, owned by Justice.
Thrasher received his engineering degree from West Virginia University in 1977.