West Virginia Democratic Women August 8, 2022

I was invited to speak to this group on 8/8/22 Here's what I said:

I am Barry Lee Wendell,  the Democratic Party candidate in West Virginia’s Second Congressional District. The District is rated R +30, so a hard race to win. As a 72-year old Jew in a same-gender marriage, I may not be the best person to run for this office. Two of us stepped up, and I won the primary. 

I had a scare Friday. A friend, a recently retired high school science teacher in Long Beach, California,  a friend of at least thirty years, was in Halifax, Nova Scotia, where he was born and raised. His father had just died at 90 and they conducted a shiva minyan, a Jewish prayer service held every day for a week after a death, from the assisted living facility where his father had lived. Jonathan is married to a Mexican-American man who has a PhD. In early childhood education for children who lack language skills in both English and Spanish. George teaches elementary school in Long Beach. Jonathan and George have an adopted son who just graduated from high school this year. Jonathan’s father was born to a Jewish family in Warsaw, Poland, in 1931. A Polish family hid him and his parents during World War II. They all survived, but were not permitted to stay in Poland. They settled in Canada. 

Candidates in the United States have flirted with Nazi ideas, most closely, Doug Mastriano, the Republican candidate for Governor in Pennsylvania, who has a Jewish opponent, Josh Shapiro. In our own state, Delegate Danielle Walker has faced threats, including from a man wearing Nazi paraphernalia when she was at a Black Lives Matter rally in Preston County. 

The attacks on women’s rights, starting with the Supreme Court’s majority vote overturning  Roe vs.Wade, is a prelude to worse things. I attended the so-called hearing on HB 302 in Charleston two weeks ago. While Justice Alito said this doesn’t mean they will try to overturn same-gender marriage, Justice Thomas said it very well might. Ruth Rowan, a delegate from Hampshire County who introduced an anti-abortion amendment last year in the Legislature  said “West Virginia is a Christian state” as her reason for introducing the bill. I wrote to her and told her there is no established religion in this country. I worry about people like Jonathan and George and their apparently happy and well-adjusted son, Jimmy.

I make it clear in my campaign that “Mountaineers are always free” and that we are all entitled to “Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness.” I always say I am pro-choice, a religious Jew, and married to a man, Morgantown’s Rabbi Joe. People often tell me I’m brave. The truth is that my father died at 69 and my mother at 75. I’ll be 73 by Election Day and I don’t see a long future ahead of me, nor do I have a career that will be upended by a defeat in this election. 

I have a dedicated group of volunteers. I love traveling around the state, I think I write and speak well. In Los Angeles, I studied both writing and acting. I don’t have the technological skills of today’s third graders, and I prefer that someone else raise money. I’m grateful that I have people who have volunteered to help or take charge of those things. 

We have about eighty donors to the campaign, all friends and family across the country, and people in West Virginia who have heard me speak or seen me online. I can’t match Alex Mooney for money, and I tell people not to fret that they don’t have enough money to send me. I tell them I’m grateful for every dollar, and I am, and that they should tell their friends and neighbors about the campaign. 

Alex Mooney has done nothing for West Virginia. He voted against the various Infrastructure and Build Back Better Acts, he voted against getting our veterans who are ill from burn pits the benefits they deserve, against lowering the cost of life-saving drugs like insulin. He has said “ Life begins at conception” and “Marriage is only between a man and a woman.” That gets personal for me. 

Liberal institutions have not given my campaign their support, and my sister called me to say that she saw in The Washington Post that the national Democratic Party wouldn’t contest the incumbents in West Virginia. Danielle Walker, the new vice-chair of the West Virginia Democratic Party, has spoken at my events and touted my candidacy online, but that’s the extent of state support. My campaign has reached out to County chairs in the counties in my district. I’ve gotten support and encouragement from Berkeley, Hampshire, Marshall and Tucker Counties. Individuals in Mineral and Wood Counties have reached out to me.

Joe Statler, the lone Republican delegate in Monongalia County, saw me in Charleston. He laughed when I asked him to vote against banning abortion, and asked how my campaign is going. I said “It’s going great. I’ll be a shoo-in once Mooney and Trump go to jail.” It was my turn to laugh.

This is the choice: Do we just want to let it go that we have a corporate extremist ideologue in Congress, or are we willing to fight to bring real democracy by backing a non-corporate, open-hearted and open-minded candidate who wants people in West Virginia to have better lives. I ask for your support and encouragement in this campaign. Thanks you for inviting me and allowing me to speak.

Passover So Far

Today (Thursday) is the sixth day of Passover. In Israel, the seventh day is a major holiday and then the holiday is over. In the diaspora, Conservative and Orthodox Askenazi Jews (German-Polish-Russian) observe an eighth day. We've been invited to a Passover dinner Friday night, and we will probably observe Passover until Saturday night.

We welcomed my sister Robin from Maryland Thursday afternoon. Our alternate cleaning woman (the daughter-in-law of the real cleaning woman) came in to help out. Robin went out with Joe to buy clothes Friday and helped him pick out some good suits. I went to the gym. In the afternoon, they cleaned out all the hametz, the food we can't eat for Passover. I'm taking a class at OLLI, Life-Long Learning, about Michael Moore movies. We saw Sicko, from 2006, about how terrible our health system is. Since then, the Affordable Care Act was enacted; things are somewhat better. Hillary Clinton, over the course of the movie, changes from an advocate for health care reform to a sell-out to the industry.

Friday evening, Joe led our temple seder at Lakeview, a resort near Morgantown. I sat at the head table with Joe; Robin sat with a couple she knows well. I migrated around to speak to people who have become my friends. The food was plentiful and good. I ate my annual piece of brisket, and a slice of flourless chocolate cake.

I didn't want to go to the Democratic Women's lunch Saturday. We all stayed home and took it easy.

We had three invitations for a second seder Saturday, but went to the home of friends who are also congregants. More great food and good company.

I was off the rest of the weekend as well, although we all attended an unveiling for the brother of a congregant Sunday and went back to the family home for a late Passover lunch. Joe ran off to Preston County, to do a model seder for a United Methodist Church . I got out on my bike in the morning to downtown, along the Mon River and up through the Arboretum, where spring wildflowers are in bloom.

Robin and Joe bonded over Scrabble. They both are cutthroats; I don't play because I am awful at it.
Robin left Monday and then it was back to the campaign.

With my husband and sister at the first seder

The second seder, led by our friend Art at home

Wildflowers at Core Arboretum Sunday morning

Wednesday night, The League of Women Voters held a forum for candidates. We were to bring snacks, so I brought those awful Passover colored fruit slices that I remember from childhood and wouldn't eat now, and some Spanish figs, which I did eat. They had sheriff candidates and prosecuting attorney candidates before they got to Delegate. There were ten of us; five Democrats for Delegate and two for Senator. The Republican slots are not contested in the primary. Five of the eight of us running for Delegate in the primary will run in the general election.

We only had three minutes to talk and one minute for two questions from the audience. Here's what I said, more or less. I didn't write it down before, and my three minutes were up before I could finish.

" It's Passover now. Four years ago at Passover, I was living in Crescent City, on the far north coast of California, with my husband, Rabbi Joe Hample. Joe worked as a chaplain at Pelican Bay State Prison. Because of a budget dispute with the Republicans, Governor Jerry Brown sent layoff notices to most of the state's employees the previous autumn. Joe applied for jobs at congregations. He let me pick out where to apply. We tried all the big cities and suburbs. No one asked Joe to come for an interview in thirty-six applications. I wrote on my blog ("Barry's Excellent Adventure," still on the internet at www.barrywendell.blogspot.com) that instead of "Next year in Jerusalem," the traditional last line of the seder, I would say "Next year in the city that hires Joe as its rabbi."

After Passover, I insisted he look at the list available to Reform rabbis to see if any other jobs had shown up. There was one: Tree of Life Congregation in Morgantown, West Virginia. Neither of us knew anything about Morgantown. I did some research. I found a large university, a pretty town with homes on the hills above a river. Tree of Life's motto on  their website said "You're Only A Stranger Once At Tree of Life." I said 'I think I found our new home.'

"Joe was skeptical.  He said 'They hate gay people in West Virginia.' I said 'I bet Morgantown isn't like that.'

"The congregation invited Joe for an interview, and he blew them away, as I knew he would. We moved here that July, and made lots of friends. Morgantown has become the home we were looking for. Except for the Republican legislature. In 2015, they introduced bills to take away mine safety regulations, to have voter IDs, to form charter schools, and a local delegate introduced a resolution to the US Congress, to pass an amendment to the Constitution to ban any recognition of same gender relationships. Someone had to do something. I had to do something. We know Morgantown as a friendly, inclusive town. I am running to represent that Morgantown in the state Legislature."

I didn't actually get to say all that in three minutes, but I got the idea across. I made an impression, a good one, for most people. The Delegate who introduced the anti-gay resolution (and also voted for the "right-to discriminate act" this session) saw me after at the refreshment table, and denied having done anything like that. It's in the record.

This morning, I listened to judge candidates on the radio on the way to my writing group. I will be on the same radio show Monday morning for ten minutes. I always wondered what would happen if I were interviewed by Fox News, but I assumed that would never happen. Now it will. I heard the questions they asked two candidates this morning, and how they answered, so I have some idea what the interviewers are like, and what to say and not say as an answer.

I was at the mall where OLLI meets early. People had said to go to the senior centers and chat them up. The center at this mall has bingo at 10, so I was told to get there at 9:30. I was a few minutes later than that. Another Delegate candidate was there, and a judge candidate, handing out pens and cookies, and the county assessor, who is unopposed in the primary. I met a few friendly people, including a woman who said she would only vote for anti-abortion candidates. We had a polite conversation about that. A group of men was eating cheese crackers over by a pool table near the door. I introduced myself and one asked me about my platform. I explained it in a few words. Another man, who wouldn't look directly at me, said he was looking for a KKK candidate. I said "You want that?" He said "Maybe that will clean up this mess, or maybe we could get another Hitler to run. That would help." I suggested he vote for two Republican candidates I named. "They should be close to what you want." I said "Have a nice day," which often has a specific meaning in California, which I won't repeat here. I walked out to my writing group and penned this.

Early voting continues through May 7 at Mountaineer Mall and two other locations, east and west of Morgantown. Primary Day is May 10.