Political History
From the 1930s through the 1990s, West Virginia's politics were largely dominated by the Democratic Party, and Democrats still dominate most local and state offices. West Virginia also has a very strong tradition of trade union membership.
In presidential elections, the state's electoral votes went to Democratic tradition by supporting Democrat Bill Clinton in 1992 and 1996, who won the state by large margins, but the state's five electoral votes went to George W. Bush in 2000 and 2004 (when Bush won by 13 percentage points) and to John McCain in 2008.
The most consistent support for Democrats is found in the coal fields of southern West Virginia (especially McDowell, Mingo, Logan, Wyoming, and Boone counties), while Republicans find greatest success to the east of the Allegheny Mountains, especially in the state's Eastern Panhandle, and in the suburbs near Charleston and Huntington.
Read more about this topic: Government Of West Virginia
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“Although knaves win in every political struggle, although society seems to be delivered over from the hands of one set of criminals into the hands of another set of criminals, as fast as the government is changed, and the march of civilization is a train of felonies, yet, general ends are somehow answered.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“Hence poetry is something more philosophic and of graver import than history, since its statements are rather of the nature of universals, whereas those of history are singulars.”
—Aristotle (384–322 B.C.)