MORGANTOWN - Jeb Bush hit the campaign trail Tuesday for West Virginia Republican gubernatorial nominee Bill Cole, a Donald Trump supporter in heavily pro-Trump coal country.
Bush, who has said he won't vote for Trump or Hillary Clinton for president, addressed a West Virginia business group Tuesday about fighting substance abuse, reforming the tax code, cutting regulations and overhauling the education system.
The former Florida governor's speech largely avoided commentary on Trump, a bitter rival whose attacks became personal during a crowded Republican presidential primary. Bush also headlined a Cole fundraiser Tuesday evening.
"I'd say that everybody has their right to make their choice," Bush told reporters about Trump's West Virginia popularity. "Mr. Trump has captured the support of a lot of people who don't think the system works for them."
Trump's favorability in West Virginia is hardly mirrored nationally, according to recent polling. Bush said it doesn't look like Trump is going to win, adding that the presidency is won "with your arms wide open, not by scolding people."
"We win when we have a positive, proactive, conservative message - one that's inclusive," Bush told reporters. "Repeating how bad things are over and over again can work for a while, but, to win the presidency, we need a serious 21st-century conservative agenda."
Jeb Bush, his brother, former president George W. Bush, and his father, former president George H.W. Bush, skipped the Republican National Convention.
Trump showed up in Charleston for a rally in May, supporters sporting Trump coal mine helmets standing behind him. Cole gave Trump a glowing introduction at the rally, and he's running TV ads that say he "stands with Donald Trump" because of his support for the coal industry.
Cole faces a tough contest against Democratic billionaire businessman Jim Justice, a coal magnate himself. Justice has passed on endorsing anyone for president and is painting himself as a political outsider.
Trump has drawn praise from many coal supporters because he has promised to bring back jobs in the failing industry. He hasn't specifically said how he would do it.
Economic forecasts don't call for coal to return to dominance, regardless of whether global warming-inspired federal regulations on carbon pollution from coal-fired power plants take effect. The complicating factors include cheaper natural gas, competition from other coal-producing regions and thinning central Appalachian coal seams.
Clinton badly lost West Virginia's Democratic primary after saying she was "going to put a lot of coal miners and coal companies out of business" while discussing plans to help the coalfields, including renewable-energy opportunities. She later said he made a "misstatement."
On Tuesday, Cole announced a seven-point plan to combat West Virginia's drug-abuse epidemic, including a push for mandatory minimum jail sentences for drug dealers. He said anyone caught bringing their "poison" into the state would be imprisoned for a long time.
To address prison overcrowding, then-Attorney General Eric Holder, in 2013, implemented a change so that low-level, nonviolent drug offenders without large-scale gang or cartel ties wouldn't face charges carrying mandatory minimums.
Cole's list of influential GOP visitors to West Virginia is growing. Indiana Gov. Mike Pence, before becoming Trump's vice-presidential nominee, and former Texas governor Rick Perry also attended Charleston fundraisers.