Charlotte Pritt

Charlotte Jean Pritt (born January 2, 1949)[6] is an American educator, businesswoman, and politician in the U.S. state of West Virginia.[7][8][9] From 1984 to 1988, she served in the West Virginia House of Delegates, representing Kanawha County.[10][11] From 1988 to 1992, she served in the West Virginia State Senate.[11] She ran unsuccessfully for West Virginia governor in 1992, 1996 and 2016 and for West Virginia Secretary of State in 2000.[12]

Charlotte Jean Pritt
Member of the West Virginia Senate
from the 17th district
In office
December 1, 1988 – December 1, 1992
Preceded byTod Kaufman
Succeeded byMartha Yeager Walker
Member of the West Virginia House of Delegates
from the 23rd district
In office
December 1, 1984 – December 1, 1988
Personal details
BornJanuary 2, 1949[1]
Charleston, West Virginia, U.S.[1]
Political partyNo Party Affiliation[2]
Other political
affiliations		Mountain (2012–2020)
[3] Democratic (before 2012)[3]
Spouse(s)James Midkiff[4]
Children3 Stepchildren[4]
EducationMarshall University (BA, MA)[5][1]

Career

Prior to entering politics, Pritt, the daughter of a coal miner, worked as a high school English teacher and a college professor.[13] During the span of her educational career, she served as director of communications at Kanawha County Schools and director of the West Virginia Writing Project at the West Virginia College of Graduate Studies.[9][6] She had also served as an independent marketer and president of the Charleston office for SteelOaks/Acorn Investments and formerly owned Pritt Associates.[14][9]

When elected to the West Virginia State Legislature, she directed two federal education grants and the National Writing Program in West Virginia.[9][15][16]

Statewide campaigns

1992

Pritt ran for governor as a Democrat in the primary election in 1992, but lost to Gaston Caperton.[13] She gained notoriety initially by challenging then-Governor Caperton on his grocery and gasoline taxes and opposition to collective bargaining.[17][18] She also managed to garner strong union support.[18] Even so, Caperton had outspent Pritt 10 to 1 and defeated Pritt in the primary, 42.68 to 34.65 percent.[17][19] West Virginia attorney general Mario Palumbo came in third, with 20.1 percent.[20][19]

After losing the Democratic primary to Caperton, Pritt refused to endorse her opponent and mounted an independent write-in bid for governor in the general election.[13][6] This action led to a splinter in the state's party establishment.[13] She garnered 7.4 percent in the race, in which Caperton defeated Republican Cleve Benedict, 56 to 36.6 percent.[21]

1996

Pritt ran as a Democrat for governor and defeated current U.S. Senator Joe Manchin in the primary, 39.5 to 32.6 percent.[22] [17] She was the first woman to secure the West Virginia gubernatorial nomination of either of the two major political parties and gained the endorsement of then President Bill Clinton.[23][24]

During the primary, Manchin had attempted to portray her as "anti-gun", in spite of her owning a shotgun and being a 12-year member of the National Rifle Association (NRA) at that time.[13][17][18] After the primary, a group known as "Democrats for Underwood", which consisted of West Virginia Democratic officials, refused to back her in the general election.[13] Pritt dismissed the defections as coming from Democratic officials "who would be Republicans in any other state anyway".[18]

Further complicating matters, the National Senate Republican Committee (NSRC) and West Virginia State Victory Committee funded a television ad campaign against Pritt falsely accusing her of voting for a bill that would allow children to access pornography and proposing to teach first graders about condom use, among others.[25] Underwood distanced himself from the negative ads.[26] Political opponents had additionally attempted to paint her as "flaky" and "a little off the wall" by alleging that her part-Native American mother had dabbled in fortune-telling.[17][18]

Pritt lost in the general election to Republican Cecil Underwood, 51.6 to 45.8 percent, after Manchin had heavily campaigned for Underwood.[27][28] While she sued the NSRC after the election, it was ruled that too much time had passed for it to have caused harm to Pritt.[29] Pritt called on her former opponent Underwood to testify during her suit.[26]

Her nomination was particularly ground-breaking because only 20 of the 134 West Virginia legislators were women in 1996, and per the U.S. Census Bureau, fewer women hold jobs in West Virginia than any other state.[17] A study published in 1999 in the Journal of Women, Politics & Policy found that the press coverage surrounding her and Mary Sue Terry's gubernatorial campaigns had been negative, albeit primarily based on issues aside from gender.[30] Even still, none of the state's major newspapers endorsed her campaign.[31]

2000

Pritt ran for West Virginia Secretary of State in 2000, losing the Democratic primary to Manchin, 51.1 to 28.9 percent.[12][32] After the election, she returned to educational pursuits and studied for a degree in Nutrition.[6]

2016

Pritt was nominated as the Mountain Party's candidate for West Virginia governor on July 16, 2016, at the party's convention.[33] Rev. Jim Lewis, who was previously expected to get the nod, got sidelined by knee surgery.[12]

On Bray Cary's statewide show Decision Makers, Pritt called her billionaire Democratic gubernatorial opponent, who would later become Governor Jim Justice a "Republican".[34] In response, West Virginia Democratic Party chairwoman Belinda Biafore allegedly signed and sent out a letter to an electronic mailing list claiming that the GOP had adopted Pritt, that the Republicans funded her campaign, and that "a vote for Pritt is a vote for Cole".[34] Pritt called the unsubstantiated accusations a "blindfaced lie" and instead argued that a vote for her is a vote against the "conservative status quo".[34][35]

Despite her previous experience in office, she was excluded from any mainstream debate between the Republican and Democratic candidates.[23][36] 2 out of every 3 people in the focus group surveyed by Eyewitness News said they would have liked to see Pritt on the debate stage.[36] She came in third place in the general election, receiving nearly 6% of the vote, behind winner Jim Justice and Bill Cole.[37]

Mountain Party

From 2012 to 2014, she was Chairwoman of the Mountain Party, which is the Green Party's state branch affiliate for West Virginia.[38][39]

Political Activism

During campaign events, Pritt would recount standing on picket lines.[17] The Rolling Stone noted that she was a longtime advocate for the environment, women’s rights and worker safety.[10] She started her political career arguing against nursing home closures and against gas taxes.[40] In July 1993, while working as a consultant for citizens groups, she authored a column calling for citizen action against the construction of the APCO 760 kV high voltage line, which was successfully brought to a halt.[41]

During the 2016 election cycle, she supported Senator Bernie Sanders in the Democratic presidential primary and Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein for the general election.[11] She also endorsed the Occupy Charleston Movement in 2016.[42]

During the 2018 election cycle, Pritt endorsed Paula Jean Swearengin in the Senatorial primary against incumbent Senator Joe Manchin.[43] Pritt said that the race was "a chance for an FDR Democrat to take the party back".[44]

Having been hit hard by the effects of coal mining on miners, she campaigned for marijuana legalization.[40] This culminated in the passage of Senate Bill 386 in April 2017 to allow marijuana use for chronically-ill patients.[45][40] Pritt was also a speaker at the 2017 Indivisible March for West Virginia in celebration of Women's Equality Day.[46]

In 2017, Pritt defended a Raleigh County, West Virginia doctor, Michael Kostenko, who was sentenced to 20 years in prison on federal drug charges for giving out painkillers.[47] Federal prosecutors said Kostenko continued to prescribe oxycodone to patients, even through signs of abuse. After Kostenko pleaded guilty, Pritt said at his sentencing that he was a great doctor who used “non-traditional” and “non-invasive” medical techniques.[47][48]

During the 2020 election cycle, Pritt endorsed and cast her vote by absentee ballot for Tulsi Gabbard in the Democratic presidential primaries;[49][50] she later voted for Howie Hawkins for president and Swearengin in her Senatorial bid against incumbent Senator Shelley Capito in the general election.[51][52] She has advocated for the pardon of Edward Snowden and Julian Assange.[53] She was also featured in "Water For Life: Is Safe Water a Human Right?", an episode of the PBS documentary series Global Mosaic, where she talks about the bipartisan political stranglehold exerted by the coal and fracking industries.[54][55]

Pritt says she has worked on "election integrity" issues since at least 2000, stemming from "voter irregularities" that she suspected in her 1992 gubernatorial primaries.[20] Having previously taught research design, she advocated for hand-counting of ballots in lieu of machines (citing a 2017 instance in The Netherlands), increasing the number of ballot boxes to increase voter accessibility, and diverting millions from corporations to locally-owned print shops for printing ballots.[56][57]

She is currently a board member of the Greater Sissonville Development Council (GSDC), a volunteer-led non-profit organization to improve the Sissonville Community.[14] The non-profit seeks to increase community events, improve infrastructure, and promote economic and housing opportunities.[14]

Personal life

Pritt was the oldest of six kids and grew up on a farm with a part-Native American mother.[18] Pritt's father, who had worked as a mine safety officer with a United Mine Workers local passed away from black lung.[40]

Pritt is married to James Midkiff and has 3 stepchildren.[58] Today, she is the president of Better Balance LLC, a West Virginia-based educational and wellness consulting firm.[6][9] Her work has enabled her to travel abroad to Cusco, Peru, and "the first all-green hospital" in Kolkata, India.[9] Pritt owns property in Buzzard Mountain.[17]

Electoral history
West Virginia Senate District 17, Position B election, 1988[59]
Party Candidate Votes %
Democratic Charlotte Pritt 38,229 54.08
Republican Charles Jones 32,464 45.92
Total votes 70,693 100.00
West Virginia Democratic gubernatorial primary, 1992[60]
Party Candidate Votes %
Democratic Gaston Caperton 142,261 42.68
Democratic Charlotte Pritt 115,498 34.65
Democratic Mario Palumbo 66,984 20.10
Democratic Larry Butcher 4,994 1.50
Democratic Rodger Belknap 3,590 1.08
Total votes 333,327 100.00
West Virginia gubernatorial election, 1992[61]
Party Candidate Votes %
Democratic Gaston Caperton 368,302 56.01
Republican Cleve Benedict 240,390 36.56
Nonpartisan Charlotte Pritt (write-in) 48,873 7.43
Total votes 657,565 100.00
West Virginia Democratic gubernatorial primary, 1996[62]
Party Candidate Votes %
Democratic Charlotte Pritt 130,107 39.54
Democratic Joe Manchin 107,124 32.56
Democratic Jim Lees 64,100 19.48
Democratic Larrie Bailey 15,733 4.78
Democratic Bobbie Edward Myers 3,038 0.92
Democratic Lyle Sattes 2,931 0.89
Democratic Bob Henry Baber 1,456 0.44
Democratic Louis J. Davis 1,351 0.41
Democratic Frank Rochetti 1,330 0.40
Democratic Richard E. Koon 1,154 0.35
Democratic Fred Schell 733 0.22
Total votes 329,057 100.00
West Virginia gubernatorial election, 1996[63]
Party Candidate Votes %
Republican Cecil H. Underwood 324,518 51.63
Democratic Charlotte Pritt 287,870 45.80
Libertarian Wallace Johnson 16,171 2.57
Total votes 628,559 100.00
West Virginia Secretary of State Democratic primary, 2000[64]
Party Candidate Votes %
Democratic Joe Manchin 141,839 51.08
Democratic Charlotte Pritt 80,148 28.86
Democratic Mike Oliverio 35,424 12.76
Democratic Bobby Nelson 20,259 7.30
Total votes 277,670 100.00
West Virginia gubernatorial election, 2016[65]
Party Candidate Votes %
Democratic Jim Justice 350,408 49.09
Republican Bill Cole 301,987 42.30
Mountain Charlotte Pritt 42,068 5.89
Libertarian David Moran 15,354 2.15
Constitution Phil Hudok 4,041 0.57
Total votes 713,858 100.00

References
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Party political offices
Preceded by
Gaston Caperton		 Democratic nominee for Governor of West Virginia
1996		 Succeeded by
Bob Wise
Preceded by
Jesse Johnson		 Mountain nominee for Governor of West Virginia
2016		 Succeeded by
Daniel P. Lutz Jr.
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