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I’m writing this on Friday, but by the time you read this I will be on vacation at Disney World with my wife, mother-in-law, my best friend, his wife and their three young daughters. This will be my friend’s family’s first time at Disney, so I’m looking forward to being part of those memories.

Let’s get to the column then.

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Don’t expect a debate between Republican Gov. Jim Justice and Democratic former Wheeling mayor Glenn Elliott for their U.S. Senate race. My friend and colleague Brad McElhinny with WV MetroNews posed the question about the possibility of a debate last week to Justice and got a pretty hard no.

“I don’t mean this in an egotistical way, but in the primary, I didn’t put a sign out … and I won by 35-plus points,” Justice said Thursday during his weekly administration briefing. “The people of this state know me, and they know me really well. I’ve done almost zero campaigning. … From the Senate race standpoint and everything, the race is over. We’re going to win the race and win the race going away.”

Justice did easily defeat 2nd District Congressman Alex Mooney in the May Republican primary 62% to 27%. According to the WV MetroNews West Virginia Poll released at the end of August, Justice leads Elliott 62% to 28%, a 34-point margin similar to the Justice/Mooney spread, with 5% preferring another candidate and 5% not sure.

So, the election is over, right? No. As the old phrase attributed to the great Yogi Berra goes, it ain’t over ’til it’s over.

“I can understand why the governor wouldn’t debate me. He thinks he is up in the polls, and he doesn’t want to do anything to jeopardize that,” Elliott said Friday on WV MetroNews Talkline with host Hoppy Kercheval. “But I think voters deserve a chance to see their two candidates for U.S. Senate debate each other. … What’s he afraid of? If he is up so much, what does he think a debate is going to do to that?”

Look, as has been pointed out, Elliott and other Democratic statewide candidates understand the current political demographics of the state. They understand they have an uphill battle. I spent most of my week last week interviewing other Democratic Board of Public Works candidates. You, as informed voters, should know as much about all the candidates as possible going into the voting booth.

One way to do that is by having debates. I can understand why the Justice campaign doesn’t want to do one when you are as popular as Justice is. Very rarely do the perceived frontrunners in a race proactively seek debates. If you are behind in the polling, you’d be dumb not to seek a debate because any attention is good attention.

And as a reporter who covers statewide elections, I do want a debate. I prefer to focus on public policy when it comes to political candidates, and a good way to get a side-by-side comparison of the candidates on the top issues is putting them on the same stage, asking them questions and hearing their responses and rebuttals.

I think major party candidates for top-of-ticket offices ought to be required to have at least one debate. I’m not even opposed to minor party candidates getting in the mix if they can demonstrate some level of support. If they can get north of 10%, I say include them (though based on past performance most can’t even get to 5%).

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Both Huntington Mayor Steve Williams, the Democratic candidate for governor, and Republican Attorney General Patrick Morrisey have agreed to debate, but I’ll believe it when I see it. Morrisey might be saying he is fine with a debate, but he has the same incentive as Justice not to debate, and I suspect behind the scenes they probably are not actively negotiating for a debate.

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Speaking of Williams, I wish I understood why he or his advisers think calling for this state constitutional amendment or that constitutional amendment is a winning strategy.

Williams is now calling on lawmakers to pass a joint resolution to put before voters the question of whether to add language to the state Constitution to legalize adult-use recreational cannabis. Williams is also still calling for a state constitutional amendment to protect reproductive rights of women.

One need only look at the 2022 midterm election to see where state voters stand on the issue of reproductive rights. The Legislature passed a near-total ban on abortion in a special session in the summer of 2022. By the November 2022 general election, Republicans picked up more seats in the Legislature, with only 11 Democratic lawmakers in the House of Delegates and three Democratic state senators. The Republican supermajority has no incentive to put the issue of reproductive rights before voters.

As for recreational cannabis, I will confess an opinion: I have no issue with recreational cannabis legalization. But with that said, who is out there clamoring for this? Surely this isn’t a top issue that voters are bringing up to Williams on the campaign trail, is it?

According to recent polling from the Pew Research Center, 57% of adults in the U.S. support both legal medical and recreational cannabis use. But when you get into the two political parties, only 41% of Republicans say legalization of recreational cannabis would have a positive effect on local economies, 42% of Republicans believe it would increase use of other illegal drugs, and 48% believe legalization would make their communities less safe.

Who makes up a plurality of registered voters in West Virginia? By last count, more than 40% of registered voters in the state are Republicans.

If Williams and other Democratic candidates want to win in November, they had better figure out quick how to talk to Republicans and those with no party affiliation about the issues they care about. Because simply talking to Democratic base voters is not going to work.