State address due to term limits. It runs just under 1 1 2 hours. Ladies and gentlemen, the governor of the great state of West Virginia, the honorable jim justice. [ applause ] [applause] [applause] [applause]. Okay. Sit down. Yall look like you are getting tired. You got to clap a lot tonight. Oh, me. I will get to the meat and potatoes in just a second. But i want to thank you. I 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 that we spent together bickering at times, but hopefully loving each other in the end. And absolutely loving West Virginia no matter what. Now, if i can make some incredible introductions here. It is just this. You know, i would like to introduce my family. Especially kathy. Who has to put up with me all of the time. And please give kathy and jill and jay a big round of applause, please. [ applause ] [applause] [applause]. Okay. The member presidency of my cabinet. And i really dont see any need in going through each secretary but, in thinking about it, maybe i should. You know, because of all of the great work that they do all of the ti. You know, we have three new secretaries. The secretary of health, the secretary of human services, and the secretary of health facilities. You know, so, if young, percley and karuso can stand up, maybe you can give them a round of applause. [ applause ] now now, we have a new interim secretary of revenue in larry pack. And god knows all yall know larry and you have known him forever. [ applause ] him forever. [applause] him forever. Are secretary of our secretary aof administration, mark scott. Our secretary of homeland security, our secretary of transportation, our secretary of veterans assistance ted diaz, our secretary of Economic Development mitch carmichael. Please give them a round of applause, please m a round of applau m a round of [ applause ] se [applause] se now this man. Now this man demands uniqueness beyond belief. Our randall smith. I am going to hustle around. I have a lot, a lot to talk about tonight. Our secretary of tourism, our secretary of our det, doing a phenomenal job, harold ward, and our secretary of commerce, james bailey, please give them a round of applause bailey plead of a bailey plead [ applause ] e. [applause] e. Our adage into general general bill crane general bill crane and our command Sergeant Major james jones, our chancellor of the West VirginiaHigher Education policy commission sara tucker, and our commissioner of bureau of Senior Services denise swirley and last but not least, our director of our Herbert Henderson office of minority affairs, jill upman, please give them a round of applause. [ applause ] [applause] but dont [applause] do not hit your hands so much your hands get sore and blame it on me later on. But, think about this just a second. Please, my staff. My staff has been with me for a long, long time and they have done so much good work and they had to put up with me with maybe come to jesus meeting or put up with me when i was having a nut fit or whatever it may be. And there are times i can be dead wrong. Pu, please give them a big round of applause. [ applause ] se. [applause] se. Now, our supreme. Now, our supreme court, our chief Justice Justice beth walker. Justice john hutch inson. Give them a giant round of applause. [ applause ] [applause] thank you. Oh, thank you. I have to tell you this. But John Hutchinson looks so innocent, doesnt he . [ laughter ] now, just think about this. We were practicing basketball at Woodro Wilson in the year, the year i believe i believe i was a sophomore and john was a junior. John is way, way, way older than me. But, in all that, we were lining up at the Center Circle at the Raleigh County armory to jump ball. There were 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, were just we got run over every day. In this situation i truly did. As the ball was thrown up, john wheeled around at warp speed and hit me right in the nose with his head. My nose broke in three places. Blood was going everywhere. And the coach was screaming, justice, give off the court so, any way, brother john, i will never forget that. [ laughter ] our constitutional officers, from our left. Our attorney general, patrick morissey, please give him a big round of applause. [ applause ] [applause] our state. Orthe state auditor, another round of applause. Our secretary of state mac warner, please, another round of applause. Our commissioner of agriculture, same. Our state treasurer, riley moore. And our state superintendent of schools. [ applause ] well t has been easy up to now. Just think about this. Seven years ago and seven years for some i am sure it has gone really, really fast. This is my last day seven years, my gosh it seemed like an eternity when it all started. It has gone really fast. And i am sure for several of you it has gone really slow. Along the way i have tried to do this. I have tried to give wisdom. Wisdom that i was fought mostly from my dad. Wisdom about dont confuse effort with accomplishment, you can not get it done in 24 hours a day you have to work nights. You know, dad would of said as i stood in front of him and said dad, anything that i can do, and he exploded and he jumped forward as an 18year old around my shirt and just slammed me down on the desk and said, darn you, he did not say darn you, he said you best better always remember this, there is is always something you can do, and you darn well ought to always remember that. Well, that is how i lived my life. That is all there is to it. I believe that. I believe that if you give it to god above and you give your best and you give your best like nobodys business, good things will happen. Now, i will give you one more bit of advise right now. I gave this the same advise to that bunch of young ladies that is right up there. That is my Basketball Team. A bunch of kids that are the best of the best. I said to them, there is no substitute for being there. Absolutely always showing up. Always giving your best. And there is no substitute for being there. Now, with all of that being said if we can focus on just being there, let me tell you something. I just came up with this probably yesterday. I looked at the mileage deal on my vehicle. And this is this is four or five vehicles into this. 248,000 miles right now. I totaled up the vehicles over the last years that i have been your governor. And i am approaching driving one million miles in the state of West Virginia. A million miles. I do it on my dime and i do it proudly because i really think that i am here to serve. Now, just think about it. What is a million miles . Do you realize that if we left here right this minute and we headed to the Pacific Ocean in california. I could have done that 500 times. 500 times on the mileage that i have spent traveling all across this unbelievable state. Now, if i would absolutely tell you just this. Along the way, maybe i am different, maybe i am the guy that is not crazy about spending your money. Maybe i am the guy that really is not crazy about having a party every other night, or maybe i am the guy that is not crazy about flying in your aircraft, can you imagine i have been in your helicopter one time, one time. I am crazy about just this. I am crazy about serving. You know, our forefathers stepped up and an awful lot of you are doing exactly the same thing. You are on the cusp right now of being away from your families for all practice purposes for 60 days, and what you are paid is nothing. Absolutely at the end of the day i can not thank you enough. Now, i will tell you this job, at times, can be pretty dog gone tough. There are days that it is plenty lonely. And there are days that you are tired and you feel beat up and lo and behold in the clear sky there are families that are devastated with floods or whatever it may be and there is not maybe anything you can do. You see our heroes, the heroes that are the first that we all call that maybe we lost. And, you said briefing after briefing after briefing and you read the names of 7,000 plus people lost. We dont read the names, do we . We read the age, the sex, the county. It was terrible. I know very well what each and every one of those families was going through was really tough. I see the pain at times that my family has and i only tell you just this, though, a thousand, a thousand, a thousand times over i would do it again. And a thousand, a thousand, a thousand times over they would, too. Now, let me just read a couple lines to you. When the first time that you saw me i stood before you pledging to fight for the soul of our state. We were staring down a dark tunnel. Our state was bankrupt, our jobs and our people were leaving and our spirit was broken. Do 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 oftentimes things come in really odd looks packages. And i am it. You know, you got a big guy, for crying out loud he has a bull dog, too, with all of that being said, the big boy brought white boards in the beginning, sweat running off of him in every direction known to man while i was trying to get this written and this written and this written. The big guy is creative, and the big guy has got big, big, big dreams. I do have a ton of energy that god has given me and a lot and lot and lot of enthusiasm. I believe there was real hope. And i believed it. I believe most 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 benefits of who would be 50 in this country. It did not matter to me. I knew, i knew how good you really are. And i knew it. And i believed it. I asked you to close your eyes at that point in time. A long way back, and think of the place, the place. Has four seasons and all of these Natural Resources and the real treasure, you, you, the greatness of the people. I will ask you before i am done tonight to close your eyes one more time. I came in at the first state of the state and i said just these. Think about just there for a second. I said, we need to make education our centerpiece. We need to grow tourism, we need to diversify our economies, we need to never, never, never forget our coal miners, our gas workers and our fossil fuels. We need to absolutely change our standard of life. We need to pass roads to prosperity and change our image. Nothing changed. Nothing changed. From the first crack out of the box, nothing changed. Just think about it. You know, we absolutely stepped up to the plate in regard to education, we sure got a long ways to go. We got parents now that can choose where they want to go and what they want to do. Absolutely, we grown tourism off of the charts. And every dollar that you put into tourism you dont put enough and you dont put enough and you dont put enough because every dollar that you put in it comes ripping back to us instantly. I said diversify the economy. We could not just depend on one industry all of the time. My family has been in the coal business forever. We could not depend on one industry all of the time. But we dont forget, do we . You know what happens . Because putting another stake in the sand saying we are not going to forget our fossil fuels and for those crazies that are out there in lala land that believe we can do without fossil fuels today go back to your crazy stuff, you know, to be perfectly honest i dont want to start the death in the dark. [ applause ] [applause] [applause] when you are thinking about standard of life. You have to be thinking about two things. Who do they have . Schools and roads . Over and over and over and over. The same thing. Think about it. Granted. Our schools have a ways to go. But you know, i think we should always, all never forget this. Jim is in the schools all of the time. All of the time. Why would i tell you anything but the truth . I challenge the media every day, over and over and over and over and over, find something that knowingly i told you that is not true. Politicians do it nonstop find something that jim justice has told you that is not true. You cant do it. You cant do it. Now, with all of that being saturday, think about that standard of life and schools, here is the next thing that i absolutely challenge you to do. Pick a school. I dont care what school. Pick an elementary school, go to the school. Walk into the 4th grade class, do this, please, do this, walk into the 4th grade class, it may be miss lilys class and ask miss lily to go out in the hall and say to the kids, what do you think of miss lily and they will say i love miss lily and ask her about her students you will get the same thing. Then, go downtown and say what do you think of Cameron Elementary School . What do you think . Here would be the answer. We love our school. We love our school. It means everything to our community. We just have to improve. It is the kids, love the teacher, and the teacher loves the kids and the community loves the school. We got a lot going on in a good way, too. Our roads to prosperity launched and we had if we liked it or didnt like it. We had to change our image. Today of all things. And if i could say it in slang, who could of ever thunk it. Think about it. In world travel magazine. In countries so far away we dont have any idea where they are. They are saying West Virginia is the place you out to go. You are seeing it all around you. You are seeing it everywhere. Absolutely we are a different place today. With all of that together, what happened . Then the rocket ship took off, didnt it . Now. I want to read just a couple more lines to you. We have climbed that mountain together. We have pulled the rope together. Every step of the way and the view from the top is breathtaking. If i can just touch on just a couple more. It all started like i said with the road to prosperity program. You know. Our roads are anything but just steel and concrete. The roads are arteries that are pumping life back into our very error towns and towns and cities. They are jobs that are coming home and to families that can stay home. And speaking of families, we stepped up. We stepped up for our troopers. We stepped up for our teachers and our public servants. We absolutely stepped up when they were having a tough time. We delivered pay raise after pay raise. 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 that we pay. The regulations that burden our businesses. We slash them together. Together, all of us. We cut the red tape and what happened . Businesses are absolutely booming. And jobs are multiplying. And West Virginia has become a magnet for dreams not dust. Our revenue surpluses reached heights that nobody could of ever dreamed of. That is all there is to. And, we are returning those dollars to you. But it is not all dollars and cents, is it . When it really boils right down to it, it is about the soul of this state. We protected our coal miners, our gun rights, and our unborn babies. I could not be more proud. [ applause ] we fought for our faith, did we not . Our families, our freedoms. We stood tall in West Virginia and West Virginia strong we were through covid and fires, floods, and storms. And the world is seeing the West Virginia grit that we got. Now, i am going to lay aside what we have done. Because my dad would say to me over and over and over, again, at one time, believe it or not i was skinny and had brown lair and i was a hottie to they golfer. I won state junior amateur a couple times and played tournament, tournament with sam smead. He thought i was a good player. With all that being said, my dad would of said to me 1,000 times, son, the only shot in golf that matters is the next shot. If your last shot went dead in the middle of the swamp what can you do about it . If the last shot was a holein one, what does it matter . The only shot in life in many situations is the next shot. So, with that being said, i would say to you, we are a long ways from being done in West Virginia. We have jobs to create, schools to enhance and communities to lift. So, lets make this last year that i have and then the decades to come, better and better and better and better and better. Please lets do just that. If i could talk just a second about Economic Development here is what i would say to you. How does it feel . How does it feel to go to the place today and every single time you go to the plate you are hitting a home run . That is how it feels. For gods sakes, you can not imagine the businesses that are calling over and over and over and over. And opportunities for jobs and goods other states had that we never had. It is real. It is absolutely real. These are numbers that i have been given and everything but numbers, since 2017 we created 12,591 jobs, retained 20,150 jobs, 240 companies in the mix somewhere. We do have a seat at the table now. And in my words, we are the seat. Do you get that . For gods sakes of all things, West Virginia is the seat. We are competing on that world stage and we are winning. There are six new businesses that i am going to announce to you, go through them pretty quickly. Wet fuel sell is coming to the airport with 230 jobs, clean seeds is comes to quincy with 40 new jobs and a 50 Million Investment, we have an expansion or retain businesses alcon that has spending 70 million and 500 jobs, gstamp is coming to South Charleston with 70 Million Investment and 400 new jobs. Smr technologies is coming to Nicholas County with 40 new jobs, no, i am sorry, with 40 jobs, 100 retain jobs and 23 million in investment and Mountain Top Beverage is coming to morgantown with 240 Million Investment, 210 retain jobs and 140 more jobs that are being added. Please give all of these folks your heartfelt applause [