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Goodwin Announces Bid for Governor

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Former U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of West Virginia Booth Goodwin officially announced his candidacy for governor with the federal courthouse in Charleston as his backdrop Wednesday.

The announcement marks Goodwin’s first run for public office after spending 15 years in the U.S. Attorney’s Office. Five of those years were spent as the office’s head.

Goodwin filed pre-candidacy papers Friday for the 2016 race to run as a Democrat. He faces two Democrat opponents in the primary, billionaire coal baron and owner of The Greenbrier Resort Jim Justice and Senate Minority Leader Jeff Kessler.

Senate President Bill Cole is leading the Republican ticket.

“I’m not a millionaire and I’m certainly not a billionaire,” Goodwin said in his short 6-minute announcement speech, “and I have no agenda except to protect my fellow West Virginians.”

As for his political leanings, Goodwin said he believes he lies at the center of the Democratic Party in West Virginia, focused on issues that matter to the party including the state’s budget deficit, substance abuse epidemic, and the loss of educated, young West Virginians to more attractive parts of the country.