Colby Lopez

A FAIR ECONOMY FOR ALL WEST VIRGINIANS

Building an economy that strengthens working families, supports small businesses, and invests in communities that have been forgotten for too long.

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Lower Costs & Fight Corporate Abuse

• Combat price-gouging by capping excessive price increases on essential goods, with allowances for inflation and fair profit margins.

• Cap prescription drug prices across a broader range of medications, benchmarking costs to what patients pay in other states and countries.

• Prioritize small, local businesses in all government purchasing and contracting.

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Support Local Food and Rural Producers

• Work with and subsidize local farmers, hunters, gatherers, and small food producers to keep locally sourced, fairly priced food available in our communities.

• Support policies that boost rural food economies and rebuild local supply chains.

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Fair, Working-Class Wage Laws

• Raise the minimum wage to match inflation since 2015 (~$11.93/hour in July 2025), then index it annually.

• Require employers that do not offer health insurance to pay at least $1.49/hour above minimum wage.

• Raise and index the tipped minimum wage to 75% of the standard minimum wage.

• Guarantee college athletes fair pay: 50% minimum wage for practices, full minimum wage for games.

• Establish a monthly minimum wage so part-time workers, elderly workers, and workers with disabilities cannot be underpaid due to unfair hour distribution. College Athletes will be exempt from monthly minimum wages.

• Add “disability” as a protected class in employment law and enforce protections strongly.

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Premium Pay for Hard Work

Guarantee fair compensation for long hours, late nights, holidays, and labor-intensive schedules:

• 1.25x pay after 8.25-hour days, split shifts, or 7 consecutive workdays.

• 1.5x pay after 10-hour days, beyond 40 hours weekly, or during holidays.

• 2x pay after 12-hour days, beyond 45 hours weekly, or 10+ consecutive days.

• Night-shift differential pay for workers at larger employers.

• Overtime protections for salaried workers abused through excessive hours.

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Protect Workers From Unfair Firings

• Adopt a law modeled after Montana’s Wrongful Discharge Act, limiting at-will termination to a probationary period.

• Require just cause for firing, compensation for wrongful termination, and fair notice procedures for employees terminated at-will.​

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Scheduling Rights for Working Families

• Require Weekly Schedules to be posted at least 10 days in advance.

• Establish minimum compensation for last-minute shift cuts.

• Prohibit "clopening" shifts (without prohibiting split or variable shifts).

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Strengthen Unions, Teachers, and Public Workers

• Provide guaranteed annual inflation-indexed raises for teachers and school service personnel.

• Require annual meetings between state leadership and public employee unions.

• Mandate that large, profitable corporations provide pay and benefits sufficient to prevent employee reliance on taxpayer-funded safety nets.

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Build Community Wealth — Not Corporate Wealth

• Create a publicly owned state bank, modeled after the Bank of North Dakota, to:

  • Support small local banks, and credit unions

  • Issue low-interest loans to students and small businesses

  • Stabilize the economy

  • Offer credit-building programs for high school students

  • Provide new sources of state revenue without raising taxes

• Establish a sovereign wealth fund that pays annual small dividends to public high school seniors in good standing and with reliable attendance.

• Invest in our youth through apprenticeship programs, paid internships, and expansion of university scholarships and grants.

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Housing & Local Business Support

• Introduce basic rent stability protections to prevent unreasonable increases.

• Recognize tenant right to own safe, contained pets (ie. Hamsters, Fish, Guinea Pigs, etc.) without violating Lease provisions and without paying additional fees or charges.

• Support creation of worker-owned cooperatives when major companies shut down local locations.

• Reform taxes and regulations to favor small and local businesses over out-of-state megacorporations.

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Innovation, IP, and Technology Fairness

• Create an IP and digital policy framework that protects creators, discourages abandonware, and clarifies how AI-generated content interacts with copyright law.

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PROTECT OUR NATURAL RESOURCES & BUILD A CLEAN FUTURE: Environmental Stewardship Is an Economic Opportunity

A cleaner West Virginia must uplift coal workers, not leave them behind.

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A Just Transition for Coal Communities

• Invest in mixed-energy development and clean industries without abandoning fossil-energy workers.

• Guarantee displaced energy workers priority access to new jobs, no-cost retraining, and early-retirement options where appropriate.

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Protect Public Health

• Eliminate asbestos, lead, and similar hazards from homes, schools, and public buildings.

• Expand EMS, and Fire Fighting capabilities, including expanding investment into volunteer fire departments.

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Restore & Protect West Virginia’s Outdoors

• Expand state parks and nature preserves with proper staffing and maintenance.

• Fund reforestation, urban gardens, and pollinator support programs (including beekeeper tax credits).

• Strengthen recycling, litter cleanup, and packaging regulations.

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Invest in Flood and Climate Resiliency

• Fund the Flood Resiliency Fund for the first time.

• Support stronger disaster-prevention infrastructure statewide.

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Build a Modern Rural Infrastructure

• Improve long-term infrastructure using less polluting materials and practices.

• Work toward multi-state expansions of public transit, with support for counties to build bus lines, sidewalks, walking/biking trails, and safe ATV paths.

• Ensure Internet Service Providers follow broadband buildout requirements, Utilize Federal broadband funding more efficiently, and transparently hold Internet Service Providers who fail to deliver to account.

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Promote Safe Outdoor Traditions

• Support education in safe, sustainable hunting, fishing, and wild harvesting for West Virginia’s youth.

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FISCAL MODERATION & RESPONSIBLE GOVERNMENT

A government that works for the people; instead of for insiders, lobbyists, or political machines.

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Responsible, Balanced Budgets

• Pursue budgets with minimal surplus or deficit, ensuring programs are fully funded and opportunities aren’t wasted.

• Use surplus funds to:

  1. Pay down debt

  2. Fund emergency and resiliency programs

  3. Provide dividends to families with children under 5 once state obligations are met

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Protect Social Safety Net Programs

• Treat safety-net programs as essential services, not political targets.

• Transform fragmented welfare programs into flexible financial assistance that lifts people out of poverty.

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Anti-Corruption & Accountability

• Enact strict anti-corruption rules across all branches and levels of government.

• Require income-based fines so wealthy individuals can’t treat penalties as “the cost of doing business.”

• Order regular independent audits of all government accounts, with automatic funding freezes after failed audits.

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Modernize West Virginia’s Tax Structure

• Maintain a wide, stable tax base to avoid over-reliance on single industries.

• Use progressive multi-bracket tax systems for businesses.

• Allow individuals making < $100,000/yr to deduct a portion of sales and personal property tax from income tax.

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ADDITIONAL PRIORITIES FOR A STRONGER, FAIRER WEST VIRGINIA

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Animal Welfare

• Fund expansions of no-kill Humane Society facilities across West Virginia to prevent overcrowding, expand care capacity, and improve volunteer recruitment.

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Public Safety & Drug Policy Reform

• Prioritize policing of drug traffickers and dealers; not low-level users.

• Decriminalize most private-use drug possession while maintaining DUI and public intoxication laws.

• Expand detox and rehab options for repeated or severe cases.

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Legalize Cannabis

• Fully legalize and regulate adult-use cannabis and cannabis products.

• Regulate cultivation and production as agricultural industries, not prohibitively burdensome special industries.

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Universal Voter ID

• Provide every eligible voter with a free, government-issued voter ID without application barriers.

• Allow online or in-person retrieval if the ID is not delivered correctly.

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Election Reform

• Proportional allocation of Electoral College votes.

• Expand voter-registration deadlines and allow same-day registration for early voting (provisional ballot only).

• Legalize electoral fusion and allow independents to receive party nominations.

• Require party preference to be listed on ballots for all candidates.

• Improve ballot design clarity and consistency.

• Ensure at least one non-majority party member holds seats on major statewide bodies.

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Direct Democracy

• Allow citizens to place laws on the ballot via initiative.

• Protect voter-approved referendums, which receive 2/3 support or more, from being overturned by the legislature without 2/3 support or more in each chamber.

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Government Structural Reform

• Elect a Lieutenant Governor on a separate primary ticket but joint general ticket.

• Shorten WV Supreme Court terms.

• Adjust veto override thresholds for balanced governance.