Election. Ask ladies and gentlemen think governor of the great state of West Virginia the honorable jim justice. [applause] [applause] [applause] okay, sit down you all look like youre getting tired. [laughter] you have got to clap a lot tonight. I will get to the meat and potatoes in just a Second Period but i want to thank you credit want to thank you from all of us. All of my family in every way for all of the years and all of the time we have spent together. Bickering at times but hopefully loving each other in the end. An absolutely loving West Virginia it that matter what. Now, if i could make some incredible introductions here. It is just this. I would like to introduce my family. Especially kathy he has to put up with me all of the time. And please give it kathy and jill and jay a big round of applause, please. [applause] [applause] okay. The members of my cabinet and i really do not see need going through each secretary but in thinking about it maybe i should. Because of all the great work they do all of the time. We have three new secretaries the secretary of health, the secretary of Human Services and the secretary of health facilities. So if sherry young, cynthia, and mike would stand up maybe you could give them a round of applause. [applause] now we have a new interim secretary of revenue and larry pack and god knows you all know larry, youve known him forever. [applause] are secretary of administration mark scott. Our secretary of Homeland Security marcia. Our secretary of transportation jimmy. Secretary of veterans assistance ted diaz and our secretary of Economic Development ms. Carmichael. Please give them a round of applause, please. [applause] now this man demands uniqueness beyond belief. Our curator randall reed smith. [cheering] [applause] i am going to hustle along here weve got a lot to talk about tonight. Our secretary of tourism chelsea ruby. Our secretary was doing a phenomenal job, harold undersecretary of commerce james bailey please give them a round of applause. [cheering] [applause] our adage into general general bill crane our command sgt major james jones. Our chancellor of the West VirginiaHigher Education policy commissioner sarah tucker our commissioner of the bureau of Senior Services denise whirley. Last but not least our director of the Herbert Henderson office of Minority Affairs jill upson please give them a big round of applause. [applause] but dont hit your hand so much their hands get sore you come blame that on meet later on. But think about this just a second please, my staff, my staff has been with me for a long, long time they have done so much good work and they have to put up with me periodically may be a come to jesus meeting or they have to put up with me when i was having a fit whatever it may be and there are times i could be dead wrong but please give them a big round of applause. [applause] now, our supreme court, our chief justice tim armistead. Justice beth walker. Justice john hutchinson. Justice haley bollen and Justice William bill wooton. Please give them a giant round of applause. [applause] thank you. I have to tell you this. John hutchinson looks so innocent, doesnt he . [laughter] now just think about this. We were practicing basketball at Woodrow Wilson in the year i believe i was a sophomore and john was a junior. So john is way, way, way older than me. But in all of that we were at lightning out of the Center Circle the Raleigh County armory jump ball five sophomores on the team we ended up winning the state championship. But with all of that being said those five sophomores one of 15 foreground fodder. Absolutely we got run over every single day. And in this situation i truly did because as the ball was thrown up shawna wheeled around at warp speed hit me right in the nose with his head. My nose broke in three places blood was going everywhere and the coach was screaming justicee get off the court. So anyway brother john i will never forget that. Our constitutional officers from our left. Our attorney general Patrick Morrissey please give him a big round of applause. [applause] our state auditor another round of applause. [applause] our secretary of state. Warner please another round of applause. [applause] our commissioner of agriculture same it. [applause] our state treasurer riley moore. [applause] [cheering] and our state superintendent of schools. [applause] well, it has been easy up until now. But just think about this. Seven years ago in seven years for some i am sure his gun really, really fast. This is my last state of the state. Seven years my gosh it seemed like an eternity when it all started. For a lot it has got really fast and i am sure for several of you it has gone really slow. [laughter] but along the way i have tried to do this, i have tried to give wisdom. Wisdom that i was taught mostly from my dad. Wisdom about dont for confuse wisdom with accomplishment if you cannot get it done 24 hours a day of got to work nights. Dad wouldve said as i stood in front of him and said there was anything i could do and as the desk exploded as he jumped forward and grabbed me as an 18yearold around my shirt and slammed me down on the desk and said darn you, he didnt say darn you he said you best better always remember this there is always something you can do and youd darn well ought to always remember that. That is how i have lived my life. That is all there is to it. I believe that. I believe if you give it a shot of the few your best to give your best like nobodys business good things will happen. Now im going to give you one more bit of advice right now. I gave this same advice for that bunch of young ladies right that is my Basketball Team have fun for kids that are the best of the best i said for them there is no substitute for being there. Absolutely always showing up always given your best and there is no substitute for being there. With all that being said if you could focus for the second im being there im going to tell you something i just came up with this probably yesterday. I looked up the mileage view on my vehicle says four or five vehicles into this. 240,000 miles right now. I total up the vehicle over the last few years that ive been your governor and i am approaching driving a 1 million miles in the state of West Virginia. 1 million miles. I do it on my guys and i do it proudly because i really think im here to serve now just think about what is a million miles . Do you realize that if we left here right this minute we headed to the Pacific Ocean in california i could have done that 500 times. 500 times on the mileage i have spent traveling all across this unbelievable state. Now, if i would absolutely just this, along the way maybe i am different. I am the god crazy about spending our money. Maybe i am the guy whos not crazy about having a party every other night. Maybe i am the guy whos not crazy about flying in your aircraft. Can you imagine ive been your helicopter one time, one time. I am crazy about just this. Im crazy about serving. Our forefathers stepped up and i think it off a lot of you are you exactly the same thing. On the costs right now think away from your families for all practical purposes for 60 days. What you are paid is nothing. Absolutely at the end of the day i cannot thank you enough. Now i will tell you this job at times can be pretty doggone to. There is days is plenty lonely. There are days you are tired and you feel beat up low and behold out of the Clear Blue Sky you know there are more and more days that you see families that are devastated with floods or whatever it may be and theres maybe not anything you can do. You absolutely see our heroes. Our heroes of the first that we all call that maybe we have lost. You sit briefing after briefing after briefing and you read the names of 7000 plus people that we have lost. Now we dont read the names, do we . We read the aged, the sex and the county. It was terrible absolutely terrible. Because i know so well what each and every one of those families were going through. It was really tough. I see the pain at times that my family has. And i would tell you just this. 1000, 1000, 1000 times over i would do it again spent 1000, 1000, 1000 times over they would too. Now, let me just read a couple lines to you. When the first time you saw me i stood before you pledging to fight for the soul of our states. We were staring down a dark tunnel our state was bankrupt. Our jobs and our people were leaving and our spirit was broken. You remember those days . Do you remember what that was like . It was not any fun, was it . Now i would also tell you that often times things calm and odd looking packages and i admit. [laughter] you know youve got a big guy for crying out loud and hes got a bulldog to with all of that being said the big guy brought whiteboards in the beginning sweat was running off of him in every direction was running back and forth to get this written in this writ in this written. The big guy is created and the guy is big, big, big dreams. I do have a taunt of energy god has given me and a lot of enthusiasm. I believe there was real hope and i believe that. I believe first and foremost overwhelmingly that god above was at play in all of our hearts right here with us. Each and every day. It did not matter to me that we were absolutely the benefactors of decade after decade after decade on is going to be 50 if they did not matter to me. I knew, i knew just how good you really are. And i knew it and i believed it. I ask you to close your eyes at that point in time a long way back and think of the place that is within our what rockstar of two thirds of the population is four unbelievable seasons and all these Natural Resources the real treasure is you, you the greatness of the people i will ask you to form done tonight to closure is one more time i came at the first state of the state i said think about just this for a second i said we need to make education our centerpiece. Need to grow tourism would need to diversify our economies lead to never, never never forget our coal miners are gas workers in our fossil fuel. We need to absolutely change our standard of life. We need to pass roads to prosperity and we need to change our image. Nothing changed. Nothing changed. From the first crack outofthebox, nothing changed. Just think about it. We absolutely stepped up to the plate in regards to education we sure got a long ways to go. We have a parents now but can choose where they want to go and what they want to do. Absolutely we have grown tourism up at absolute chart every dad gum dollar you put in tourism you do not put enough, you dont put enough, you dont put enough because every dollar you put in it comes to ripping back to us instantaneously. Absolutely i said diversify the economy. We cannot depend on one industry all the time. My family spent in the coal business forever we could not depend on the one industry all the time but we dont forget, do it . And you know what happened . Spent another stake in the sand sank we are not going to forget our fossil fuels and for those crazies that are out there in la la land that believe we can do without fossil fuels today back to your crazy stuff. To be perfectly honest i do not want to starve to death in the dark. [applause] [applause] were thinking about standard of life you can be thinking about two things. One of the ask how are the schools customer car the roads . How are the schools are the roads cosmic over and over and over and over the same thing. Well think about it. Granted our schools have got a ways to go. Granted we do. But i think you should always all never think just this. Jim is in the school all the time all the time by what i type anything but the truth . I challenge the media every day over and over and over find it something that knowingly i have told you is not true. Politicians do it nonstop. Find something jim justices told you that is not true. You cant do it, you cant do it. Now with all that being said think about the standard of life and think about our schools. Heres the next thing i will absolutely challenge you to do. Pick a school, i dont care at the school is pickup middle school pick in Elementary School, go to the school walk into fourth grade class do this, please do the squawking to the fourth grade class and may beat ms. Lilys class and ask ms. Lily to come out in the hall lever out the hall is second go back and assayed the kids what you think of ms. Lily . I will bet you overwhelmingly they say we love ms. Lily. And then go out and ask ms. Lily what she thanks of her students and you will get the same answer. And then go downtown and say what do you think of Cameron Elementary School . What do you think of a patent city . What do you think . And heres the answer we love our school. We love our school. And it means everything to our community. Weve got stuff to improve but for god sake that kids love the teacher and the teacher loves the kids and they community loves the school we have got a lot not in a good way too. Our roads to prosperity we had to wear that you liked it or didnt like it we had to change our image. Today of all things and if i could say its in slang who could have ever thunk it. Think about it. And world travel magazines, and countries so far away it we we donthave any idea where thee they are saying West Virginia as the place you ought to go. They are saying it all around you. They are saying it everywhere. Absolutely we are in a different place today. With all of that together what happened . Then the rocketship took off, didnt . Now im going to read a couple more lines to you. We climbed that mountain together. We pulled the rope together. Every step of the way and the view from the top is breathtaking. Think about that. If i could just touch on just a couple more. It all started like i said but the roads to prosperity program. Our roads are anything that steel and concrete. The roads are arteries that are pumping life back into our very towns and cities. Every mile we pave as a mile closer to new horizons, two jobs that are coming home. And to families that can stay home. And speaking of families we stepped out. We stepped up for our troopers be stepped up for our teachers. And our public servants. We absolutely stepped up when they were having a tough time. We delivered payraise after payraise. Our schools now have new life. Our streets are safer and our state runs like a well oiled machine at this time pumping out pride and not desperation. Remember the taxes we paid it. The regulations that burdened our businesses. We them together. Together all of us. We cut the red tape and what happened . Businesses are absolutely booming and jobs are multiplying. A West Virginia has become a magnet for dreams not dust. Our revenue surpluses have reached heights nobody could ever have dreamed of it. Thats all there is to it. We are returning those dollars to you. Its not all about dollars and cents is it . It boils right down to it is about the soul of the state. Protected the coal miners, our gun rights and our unborn babies. I could not be more proud. [applause] s. [applause] we fought for our faith, did we not . Our families, our freedoms, we stood tall and West Virginia and West Virginia strong we were through covid, fires, floods, and storms. The world to sing that West Virginia grit that we have got. Now im going to lay aside what we have done. Because my dad will say to me over and over and over, at one time believe it or not i was skinny and had brown hair i was a hottie toddy golfer. I went our state junior abbot are a couple times but all over the place playing in tournament after tournament was sams made, it. He actually thought i was a pretty good player. With all of that being said, my dad said to me 1000, 1000 times son, the only shot in golf that matters is the next shot. Your last shot went dead in the middle of the swamp, what can you do about it . If the last shot was a hole in one, what does it matter . The only shot in life and many situations is the next shot. And so with that being said i would say to you, we are a long way summing done and West Virginia. We have got jobs to create, schools to enhance and schools to lift. Lets make this laster that i have in the decades to come better and better and better and better. Please lets do just that. Imagine the businesses that are calling over and over and over and opportunities for jobs and goodness that other states had that we never had. Its real. Its absolutely real. Numbers since 2017. 591 jobs. We have retained 20,000, 155 jobs and theres 240 companies in the mix somewhere. We do have a seat at the table and in my words, we are the seat. Do you get that . Of all things, West Virginia is the seat. We are competing on the world stage and we are winning. Six new businesses that i will announce and go through them pretty quickly. Fuel sale is coming through the bridge port airport with investment or 64 million and 203 jobs. 40 new jobs and 50 milliondollar investment. We have expansion or retain businesses. 70 million. 500 jobs, g stamp is coming to South Charleston with 70 Million Investment and 401 new jobs. 40 jobs, 100 retained jobs. 23 million in investment and its coming to morgan town. 220 million of investment, 210 retained jobs. Give all these folks an applause. [applause] amazon is coming to West Virginia again but this time amazon is coming with aws. We cant run internet with aws. Its amazing the the partnerships are beginning to happen with our schools. We have two people and i think they are here tonight. Is kim mijares with us . Okay, theres kim. Please give her a big round of applause. [applause] and fasa, there he is. [applause] think about this. You deserve so much credit, tax cuts. Weve cut tax cuts in West Virginia 23 times since i walked in the door. 23 different times and delivered on the biggest tax