Praising right-to-work laws, regulatory reforms and charter schools, Indiana Gov. Mike Pence boosted Bill Cole's candidacy for governor at a Charleston fundraiser on Tuesday.
Speaking to about 70 donors at the Embassy Suites hotel, Pence touted his state's right-to-work law, passed by his predecessor in 2012, and praised Cole for passing a right-to-work law this spring.
West Virginia is the 26th state to adopt a right-to-work law, which allows employees at unionized workplaces to opt out of paying union fees, even though unions are obligated to represent every employee at the workplace.
He argued that such changes, as well as stalling or rolling back state regulations, will yield business growth.
"Our economic development pipeline is fuller now than it's ever been in our state's history," Pence said. "If you'll balance budgets, if you'll live within your means, if you'll work hard to create a pro-business environment, the thing will sell itself."
The right-to-work law, which passed without a single Democratic vote and over a gubernatorial veto, is among the crowning achievements of the new Republican Legislature in West Virginia. Cole's Democratic opponent, businessman Jim Justice, opposed the law.
"How can you say you're for jobs and yet hate the job creators?" Cole, the Republican president of the state Senate asked.
Both Cole and Pence touted the governor's role as a salesman, a similar argument to one Justice has made.
"In the governor we need a chief executive salesman," Cole said. "I've been a salesman all my life, I've been in business all my life, we need that person thats' going to go to the boardrooms around this country and advance the causes of West Virginia."
Pence made the same point: "It doesn't say it in the Constitution of West Virginia, doesn't say it in the Constitution of the state of Indiana, but you know we're like the salesman in chief of the state."
Justice, boosting himself, has repeatedly said that West Virginia needs "a marketer in chief."
Justice, who is mostly self-funding his campaign, on Tuesday repeated an attack on Cole for raising money, calling it "dog snot" that he held a fundraiser while the state budget remains in crisis.
Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin has vowed to veto the budget bill passed last week, which relies heavily on the state Rainy Day Fund to fill the budget gap.
Cole's campaign fired back, criticizing Justice for holding a press event at his Greenbrier resort on Monday at the same time that one of his coal mines contributed to damaging flooding in Kentucky.
"Too busy running for Governor to clean up his mess," Cole spokesman Kent Gates said. "Every dime of his tax debt, environmental fines and mining fines should be paid before he spends another nickel on his race."
Among Pence's best known acts as governor was signing a "religious freedom" law last year that he said would protect those whose "religious liberty is under attack," but which opponents called a license to discriminate against gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people.
After a national uproar, with major businesses and organizations threatening to boycott Indiana, Pence signed a revised version of the law which explicitly bars businesses from denying services based on sexual orientation.
Nonetheless, Visit Indy, a tourism group, estimated that the law's passage cost the city of Indianapolis up to 12 conventions and as much as $60 million in economic activity.
The West Virginia House of Delegates passed a similar bill this year, but it failed in Cole's Senate even though he was supportive of the bill.
Asked Tuesday if he would recommend West Virginia try again to pass a "religious freedom" bill, Pence did not answer, instead giving a response praising right-to-work and "strong Republican leadership."
An aide ushered Pence away when a reporter attempted to follow up.
Pence, in his speech, urged Republicans to defeat Hillary Clinton and said that he'd spoken with Donald Trump about reducing the size of the federal government.
On Tuesday, Republicans across the country condemned Donald Trump's recent remarks, in which he has repeatedly claimed that a federal judge could not do his job because he was of Mexican heritage.
U.S. House Speaker Paul Ryan called Trump's remark the "textbook definition of a racist comment."
Pence did not address the remarks while in Charleston, but told reporters in Indiana that Trump's remarks were "inappropriate."
Cole, who campaigned with Trump in Charleston and said "I stand with Donald Trump" after the May primary election, did not respond to requests for comment about Trump's remarks.
Justice, who has repeatedly declined to say which presidential candidate he supports, also did not respond when asked about Trump's remarks.
West Virginia's congressional Republicans, who have endorsed Trump for president, have all been silent on Trump's attacks on the judge.
Trump won a resounding victory in West Virginia's Republican primary and public opinion polls show him more popular in West Virginia than just about anywhere in the country.
Conrad Lucas, chairman of the state Republican Party, sighed when asked about Trump's remarks, then paused for about 20 seconds.
"Mr. Trump is in, certainly, a difficult situation and is being constantly bombarded with attacks and attention from the media and onlookers that he's just now becoming accustomed to," Lucas said.
Trump, who has been in the media limelight for more than three decades, initially brought up the judge's ethnicity during a speech last week, not in response to media questioning.
"Of course I disagree that should be a qualifier or disqualifier," Lucas said, when pressed. "I hope that Mr. Trump reconsiders his comments."
Reach David Gutman at david.gutman@wvgazettemail.com, 304-348-5119 or follow @davidlgutman on Twitter.