CHARLESTON — Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., thinks tax reform will be one of the key issues that help keep her party in power after the November mid-term election.
“I’m going to keep talking about tax reform, and I bet everyone who voted for it will keep talking about it,” Capito said in an interview. “Now the people who voted against it? They don’t want to talk about it, because they know the good effects of it. I think you’ll see the Democrats try to mute that message, because they know it’s a positive message for Republicans.”
Capitol visited Cyclops Industries of South Charleston on Friday morning to hear how the company is doing after the GOP’s tax plan has taken affect.
But about 3 hours north, in one of Pennsylvania’s deeply conservative districts, the tax plan wasn’t enough to boost a Republican in a recent special election.
Conor Lamb, a conservative Democrat who said the plan was a “giveaway” to wealthy people and campaigned against it, narrowly defeated a Republican who supported the plan. Lamb won a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives representing the Keystone State’s 18th district.
In the 2016 presidential election, voters in that district voted for Donald Trump by a 20-point margin.
“I think what happened there was, you had a Democrat that really ran a Republican race — anti-Nancy Pelosi, pro-gun, pro a lot of Trump’s policies,” Capito said. “In other words, he knows what’s going to sell in the district.”
House Speaker Paul Ryan made similar remarks on why Lamb won the election, according to media reports.
Nationally, Democrats are hoping to regain control of Congress, and Republicans are hoping to defend their majority this year.
In the Mountain State, Republicans are looking to unseat Sen. Joe Manchin, the only Democrat representing the state in Congress, later this year. Manchin will face at least two challengers for the Democratic nomination in May.
A handful of Republicans, including Attorney General Patrick Morrisey and U.S. Rep. Evan Jenkins, are vying for the Republican senatorial nomination. Both men have supported the GOP tax plan.
To Capito, it makes sense for Republicans to campaign on their tax plan. She said she hasn’t heard any negative feelings toward the tax plan, and she believes that once more people realize Republicans in Congress and President Trump are the reason for the plan, it will be a boon to the GOP in the mid-term.
“I’m hearing really good news,” Capito said. “I’m hearing from some small businesses that they are able to increase their lines of business and hire new people. I’ve heard that (in) every business, employees are very pleased to see more money in the bottom line of their paycheck. Even though they might not have gotten a raise, they’ve gotten more money because of the new withholdings."
Capitalizing on the tax overhaul, Capito launched a new online initiative to collect the stories of positive change in communities across West Virginia.
She is inviting people across the state to visit her website and share stories of positive change they’ve seen in their lives and to share other solutions they’d like to see.
