Mountain Party | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Chair | Dylan Parsons |
| Vice Chair | Betsy Orndoff-Sayers |
| Secretary | T. Fout |
| Treasurer | Robert Smith |
| Founder | Denise Giardina Frank Young |
| Founded | May 8, 2000; 24 years ago (2000-05-08)[1] |
| Headquarters | P.O. Box 805 New Martinsville, WV 26155 |
| Membership(2023) |  2,470[2] |
| Ideology | Green politics Eco-socialism[3] Anti-Zionism[4] |
| Political position | Left-wing |
| National affiliation | Green Party of the United States |
| Colors | Evergreen |
| West Virginia Senate | 0 / 34 |
| West Virginia House of Delegates | 0 / 100 |
| Mayors | 1 / 231 [5] |
| Website | |
| www | |
TheMountain Party, also known as theWest Virginia Green Party and theWest Virginia Workers’ Party,[6] is a political party inWest Virginia affiliated with theGreen Party of the United States.[7][8]
It is aprogressive andenvironmentalist party whose party platform primarily focuses on "Grassroots Democracy", "Social Justice & Equal Opportunity", "Ecological Wisdom" and "Non-Violence".[9]
The Mountain Party was created largely in response to theconservative tilt of theWest Virginia Democratic Party, and was thus born out ofDenise Giardina's gubernatorial campaign in2000.[10]
Today, the party is chaired by Dylan Parsons.[11]
In2016, the party ran formerstate senatorCharlotte Pritt forGovernor of West Virginia.[12] This led to growth for the party.[13] She received nearly 6% of the vote, the highest ever for a Mountain Party gubernatorial candidate.
In 2018, the Mountain Party elected Betsy Orndoff-Sayers as Mayor ofWardensville winning 55.7% of the vote and was re-elected without a challenger in 2022.[5]
In 2022, House of Delegates candidate Dylan Parsons was endorsed by two members of theMorgantown City Council, former Democratic nominees for CongressMike Manypenny and Sue Thorn, Conservation District Supervisor and Executive Director of the West Virginia Farmers Market Association Holly Morgan, and the organization WV Can't Wait.[14]
In 2024, Wardensville mayor Betsy Orndoff-Sayers sought election to theWest Virginia Senate.[15] Orndoff-Sayers received the endorsement ofPlanned Parenthood Votes South Atlantic, WV Can’t Wait, and former Democratic candidate for U.S. SenateZachary Shrewsbury.
The current Mountain Party platform was formally adopted on February 27, 2021, and can be found in its entirety on the party website.
The Mountain Party seeks to allowinitiative andreferendum processes in West Virginia, which the state does not currently provide, and to allow public employees to run for office.[16] The party also supports the creation ofcitizen assemblies as a means to open legislative participation to all constituents.
The Mountain Party also seeks to allowrecall elections at every level of government, ban corporate donations to candidates, enable non-citizen,permanent residents to vote in municipal elections, enactranked-choice voting, and require all employers to allow workers paid time off to vote.
The Mountain Party opposes legislation that wields penalties against supporters of theBoycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement.
The Mountain Party supports equal rights for all persons regardless of theirsex,gender identity, orsexual orientation. The party supports a ban onconversion therapy and legislation to outlaw discrimination based on gender identity or expression. The Mountain Party supportsreparations to black people, indigenous people, and people of color for what it describes as "the past four hundred plus years ofgenocide, slavery, land-loss, destruction of original identity, and the stark disparities which haunt the present."
The Mountain Party seeks to expand and protect women's rights to participate in society free fromsexual harassment and job and wage discrimination. The party seeks to ensure that access to birth control, family planning resources, and abortion remains available.
The Mountain Party seeks to supportpersons with disabilities by protecting their rights, providing access to healthcare, and enforcing theAmericans with Disabilities Act. Additionally, the party supports fully funding residential, community-based services and public sector service coordinators.
The Mountain Party seeks to abolish the use ofeminent domain to take over land for use by private corporations. The party also seeks to ends homelessness by constructing and maintaining sufficientpublic housing, placing a moratorium on home foreclosures and evictions, prohibiting compulsory work service for residents of public housing, providing job training and support services for homeless people, and replacing the shelter system with apartments.
The Mountain Party seeks to endhigh-stakes testing and eliminate thestandardized testing model. The party seeks to fully fund full-day and developmentally appropriate universalpre-kindergarten and all state colleges and universities. The party supports student democratic decision-making in curriculum, administration, and conflict resolution within each school.
The Mountain Party seeks to allow local governments to establish a higher minimum wage for all workers, increase and enforce a statewideliving wage that is adjusted annually for inflation, increase wages for tipped workers, and abolish unpaid internships. The party supports the rights of workers to in engage incollective action andself-representation.
The Mountain Party supportseconomic democracy through workers' direct control over themeans of production.[17]
Betsy Orndoff-Sayers has been the Mountain (Green Party) affiliated Mayor ofWardensville, West Virginia since 2018 and was re-elected in 2022.[5]
The Mountain Party has consistently maintained a number of officeholders for non-partisan offices, despite not being nominated by the party membership. According to theGreen Party of the United States elections database, there are two non-partisan officeholders registered with the Mountain Party serving as Conservation District Supervisors.[18]
| Year | Nominee | Votes | Percent |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2024 | Jill Stein | 2,531 | 0.33% |
| 2020 | Howie Hawkins | 2,599 | 0.33% |
| 2016 | Jill Stein | 8,075 | 1.13% |
| 2012 | 4,406 | 0.66% | |
| 2008 | Cynthia McKinney | 2,355 | 0.33% |
| Year | Nominee | Votes | Percent |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2024 | Chase Linko-Looper | 9,596 | 1.30% |
| 2020 | Daniel Lutz | 11,296 | 1.47% |
| 2016 | Charlotte Pritt | 42,068 | 5.89% |
| 2012 | Jesse Johnson | 16,787 | 2.53% |
| 2011 | Bob Henry Baber | 6,083 | 2.02% |
| 2008 | Jesse Johnson | 31,486 | 4.46% |
| 2004 | 18,430 | 2.48% | |
| 2000 | Denise Giardina | 10,416 | 1.61% |
| West Virginia Senate | West Virginia House of Delegates | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Year | Total Votes | Total Percent | Year | Total Votes |
| 2002 | 1,173 | missing | 2002 | 3,165 |
| 2004 | 2,048 | missing | 2004 | no candidates |
| 2006 | no candidates | 2006 | 365 | |
| 2008 | 2,682 | 0.37% | 2008 | 5,606 |
| 2010 | 3,628 | 0.74%[a] | 2010 | 2,791 |
| 2012 | no candidates | 2012 | 5,994 | |
| 2014 | 1,221 | 0.28% | 2014 | 3,720 |
| 2016 | 1,404 | 0.20%[b] | 2016 | 3,031 |
| 2018 | no candidates | 2018 | 3,365 | |
| 2020 | 10,324 | 1.34% | 2020 | 3,228 |
| 2022 | no candidates | 2022 | 641 | |
| 2024 | 5,551 | 0.83% | 2024 | no candidates |