Citing his history of creating jobs and working amicably with unions, the United Mine Workers of America endorsed Jim Justice, the coal and agriculture magnate and nascent politician, in the race to be West Virginia's next governor.
UMWA President Cecil Roberts noted the quizzical circumstance of the miners union endorsing a coal mine operator, but said the decision came from local miners.
"The thing we respect about Jim Justice is that he has never run away from a worker's right to belong to a union," Roberts said at an event in downtown Charleston on Thursday.
He said the decision to endorse came after a meeting of the Mine Workers local political action committee in Beckley last week.
Both Justice and his opponent in the Democratic primary, Senate Minority Leader Jeff Kessler, spoke at the meeting.
Roberts said the miners at the meeting were unanimous in supporting Justice.
Kessler and Justice have different opinions on the future of the coal industry in West Virginia. Kessler - who is from Marshall County, which produces more coal than any other in West Virginia - has said that while the coal industry will remain prominent, it will never again be dominant, and "it's not our salvation."
Justice said he sees a bright future for coal in West Virginia, despite industry forecasts saying the opposite.
"I owe my life to coal and I'm not willing to walk away," Justice said. "I'm a real believer that coal still has, not a part, not a part, it has a centerpiece within our state. It is vital to this country."
Justice said he has two ideas that will help the coal industry in West Virginia, but said he wasn't ready to announce them yet.
Justice's reaffirmation of coal's pre-eminence came on the same day that Hillary Clinton, the leading Democratic candidate for president, released a plan focused on helping coalfield communities restructure economies amid coal's ongoing decline.
Justice said that, if elected governor, he would veto "right-to-work" legislation, a union bugaboo but a primary goal of Republican legislative leaders, including Senate President Bill Cole, the only announced Republican gubernatorial candidate.
The room of about 45 miners and union officials erupted in applause when Justice said he would oppose right-to-work laws.
Roberts said the endorsement shouldn't be viewed as a criticism of Kessler, but that the UMWA viewed Justice as more electable.
"This is our membership believing that we need to take a bold step and get out early and fight hard to get someone in the governor's mansion who is going to fight hard for us," Roberts said. "I think our membership also believed that Jim Justice had the best possibility of winning."
Earlier Thursday, Kessler got his own labor endorsement, albeit a smaller one.
"Jeff Kessler has always stood alongside the hardworking men and women of West Virginia," Leroy Hunter, director of the Bricklayers District Council of West Virginia said in a prepared statement. "Jeff Kessler is the real Democrat in the Democratic primary and we are proud not only to endorse, but also support him."
Kessler said he was surprised and disappointed by the UMWA's endorsement of Justice.
"I've got a proud record of standing with coal miners against coal barons. I'm frankly shocked they threw in with one," Kessler said. "It's sort of like the chickens endorsing Colonel Sanders."
Delegate Mike Caputo, D-Marion, and a UMWA official, recognized Kessler's befuddlement but said the union felt good about Justice.
"Who'd have ever thought that one day the union would be endorsing a coal operator?" Caputo said. "But we've come a long way and we need somebody who cares deeply about coal miners and I believe Jim's that guy."
Roberts defended Justice against recent stories about his unpaid debts involving taxes and mine safety violations.
He pointed to Patriot Coal's most recent round of bankruptcy - which put miners' retirement benefits at risk and left debts unpaid - as the alternative to late payments.
"People who had supplied them with roof bolts and other things related to the mine, they lost," Roberts said. "Vendors lost. Everybody lost in the bankruptcy."
Cole's campaign released a statement noting that the UMWA endorsed President Barack Obama in 2008 (it did not in 2012) and said Justice chose to "switch parties and support President Obama's misguided agenda for West Virginia."
Justice's campaign so far has been light on policy specifics, but he has been quick to attack federal environmental regulations, specifically Obama's Clean Power Plan, which limits carbon emissions from power plants.
The UMWA also opposes the Clean Power Plan and has joined the coal industry, West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey and 23 other states in suing to block the regulations.
But Roberts has recently urged a more measured tone.
He noted Thursday that building a new coal-fired power plant costs $2 billion, while a gas plant costs $750 million.
"We could win this litigation," Roberts said, "and we'd still have a problem because the utilities are going to say, 'well, what's going to happen next.'"
He noted that future presidents will still be bound by the U.S. Supreme Court's 2007 decision giving the EPA authority to regulate carbon emissions, a principal cause of climate change.
"Shaking our fists at Washington, D.C., and retreating behind our mountains simply won't cut it anymore," Roberts said last month. "It doesn't solve the problem."
Clinton Smith, of Madison, is retired after 38 years of working at the Harris No. 1 mine in Boone County.
A UMWA member, Smith said he supported Justice because he owned union mines, rescued The Greenbrier and put people back to work.
If Justice is elected governor does he think mining jobs will return to Southern West Virginia?
"I hope they do," Smith said. "He seems to think they do."
Reach David Gutman at david.gutman@wvgazettemail.com, 304-348-5119 or follow @davidlgutman on Twitter.