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WHEELING - Huntington Mayor Steve Williams believes 2024 is "the year of the mayor," and he hopes to be governor by this time next year.
Williams, is the only Democrat on the ballot seeking nomination to the governor's office in the May 14 primary election.
"The reason I wanted to run for governor is I thought I could help," he said. "We have so many challenges in the state. We have infrastructure issues (and) budgetary concerns."
Williams noted that current state officials often tout the state's budget surpluses.
"But from what I see, whoever comes in as governor is going to be faced with some hard, hard decisions," he said. "I've had to deal with those for the last 12 years in Huntington.
"As I was looking around at who might be qualified to do this, they all might be qualified, but there is one thing they don't have. They don't have the experience to take what I have been able to work with in Huntington and bring a city around that was on the verge of bankruptcy."
There are municipalities all over the state "that have opportunities to be able to blossom," he continued.
Money issues are the biggest challenges facing the state, according to Williams.
"I think there's a false narrative right now saying we have all of this surplus, that we have all of these tax cuts," he said. "I did cut taxes. I eliminated business taxes on retail, and I cut it in half on service businesses. You know what? Our business collections have actually gone up. There is a right way and a wrong way to do it.
"I applaud (current Gov. Jim Justice's) attempts to eliminate the state income tax, but you have to do it smart."
Municipalities "have to have a vision and to be able to pursue that vision," Williams added.
"(As governor) you've got to let local governments run themselves, take care of the problems that are statewide and let municipalities take care of their issues," he explained.
Williams has a background in finance and business, as well as public administration. In his private life, he worked as an investment banker and assisted communities with financing infrastructure issues. Williams also has been a stockbroker.
He earned a bachelor's degree in political science from Marshall University in 1978, and a master’s degree in public administration from West Virginia University in 1980.
He began serving as the city's director of economic development in 1984. Later that same year, he was named the youngest city manager in Huntington's history. He served as city manager until Huntington switched to a strong mayor form of government in 1985.
From 1987 to 1994, Williams represented Cabell and Wayne counties in the West Virginia House of Delegates. He was elected to Huntington City Council in 2008, then went on to be elected mayor in 2012. He is concluding his third four-year term.
As Huntington's mayor, Williams also has had to deal head on with an intense opioid epidemic in that area. The city has made progress with curbing the issues, and Williams a unified community effort there for making that happen. He noted the turning point in the crisis after he called a town hall meeting and directed that "everybody has an assignment."
"Our culture is such that people will worry about something, then they'll roll up their sleeves and get involved," he explained. "Businesses started rolling up their sleeves. (Marshall University) started rolling up its sleeves. Certainly, the hospitals got involved, the churches got involved, the neighborhoods got involved. The school system got involved.
"Everybody ended up collaborating and forming partnerships. That's the opportunity in West Virginia."
But the population centers in the state "can't do it all," Williams continued.
"We have the capability of figuring it out locally, but we don't have the capacity," he said. "We have to have a partner in state government."