Nationalists Put “West Virginia First” in a Spirited Convention

Nationalist Party Convention

Emcee Max Frato welcomed the floor by inviting West Virginians to “maximize Boys State,” then handed off to a spokesman named Shane to lay out a platform built on two principles: putting West Virginians first, and planning for the long term “beyond any one administration.” The party organized its agenda around four pillars — growth of industry, quality of life, opportunity, and education reform — with a special emphasis on the last. “We need to put money where it matters,” Shane said.

Each candidate took the stage with the lights down and 60 seconds to make a case. Commissioner of agriculture candidate Khalil Clements, “the Chocolate Thunder,” drew on his own story — a family that sold its farm in Logan and moved to Huntington for opportunity — to argue that opportunity should be built into every county, through agricultural funding, college partnerships, and new leadership programs that teach people how to actually run a farm.

Auditor candidate Adrian Constable Knight kept it characteristically brief and transparent: “I love being open. I love being transparent.” He also playfully claimed the “law” for himself — it’s right there in Constable. Treasurer Matthew Hayes of Webster County pitched a fascination with finance channeled toward education, innovation, and “action in a good way” to fund the state.

Secretary of state candidate Shane Burkhart of Jefferson County offered honesty about arriving without a plan and seizing an opening, leaning on his SGA note-taking and rules-committee experience for the job’s two halves: records and elections. Attorney general candidate Shane Shepherd — “West Virginia’s Good Shepherd” of Hampshire High — delivered the convention’s most pointed remarks, vowing litigation against polluters and “abusive business practices,” with damages funneled straight back into cleaning the state’s rivers and water.

Closing the night, governor candidate Coleman Nutter — “the Coal Man” — thanked his primary opponents before delivering a message of unity: nationalists and federalists may differ, but “we are all West Virginians.” Citing lessons from his job at Chick-fil-A, he argued that leadership “is not about a title” but about service and trust, and made a direct plea to keep the state’s best and brightest from leaving. The convention ended, fittingly, with a prayer of brotherhood for a room full of young men “united as one.”