poster="http://v.politico.com/images/1155968404/201708/3638/1155968404_5531013019001_5530940686001-vs.jpg?pubId=1155968404" true West Virginia Democratic governor switches to GOP Justice's expected announcement is further confirmation of the state's rightward tilt. 
 
 West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice announced a party switch Thursday evening in a surprise appearance with President Donald Trump in Huntington, West Virginia. 
 
 “Today, I will tell you, with lots of prayers and lots of thinking, I can’t help you anymore being a Democrat governor," Justice said. "So tomorrow, I will be changing my registration to Republican.” 
 
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 Justice’s flip is further confirmation of his state’s sharp rightward turn, and reflects Trump’s widespread popularity in a state the president won by a landslide in 2016. 
 
 Trump, who has promised to restore lost coal industry jobs, has lavished attention on West Virginia since taking office. 
 
 Justice, who seldom worked with other Democrats, recently spent a well-publicized day hunting with Donald Trump Jr. — a familiar political optic in a largely rural state with a strong hunting tradition. But his move still blindsided his old party, which is now left with control of just 15 governor mansions. 
 
 Rumors that Justice was going to make the switch circulated throughout the day, but West Virginia Democrats and multiple national Democrats who have worked for Justice in the past said he gave them no notice on the party switch. 
 
 "We are sitting here in our office, everyone of us that is capable of standing on two feet, looking at each other, saying, 'Oh my goodness, did anybody see this coming?" said Steve Roberts, president of the West Virginia Chamber of Commerce. "I am surprised. However, when I worked with Gov. Justice during the last session of the Legislature, I could plainly see that he is a pragmatist who is trying to get things done and is not driven by ideological or party loyalty. And he has a close connection to the Trump family and it is my hope that this will further solidify a national attention in favor of policies that will help economic development, job creation and education in West Virginia." 
 
 Former Democratic Rep. Nick Rahall described the governor as a close friend who put West Virginia first. 
 
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 “Jim is a West Virginian true and blue and does what is best for West Virginia,” Rahall said. “That's his No. 1 goal. His every move as governor has been in that direction. I have not discussed this situation with him to know what moved him to switch parties, but suffice it to say that much of West Virginia's been voting late this way. But most of the state is registered Democrats, so I'm sure he read the political winds.” 
 
 Privately, the mood among many West Virginia Democrats was less understanding. Despite West Virginia’s embrace of Republicans on the federal level, Democrats had held the state’s governorship since 2001. 
 
 “Obviously, we're pissed. I mean let's face it, we put a lot of effort in the 2015 election to elect this man as governor,” a top West Virginia Democratic operative said. “And we had two more progressive individuals in that primary but we knew that if Jim Justice went out of that primary he could win. So I mean, a lot people are pissed. There's a lot of hurt feelings. People are feeling betrayed right now.” 
 
 The Democratic Governors Association had worked closely with Justice on his gubernatorial run, and combined with labor unions to spend about $1 million helping defeat GOP state Senate President Bill Cole. Justice, a populist-minded billionaire like Trump, funded much of his run out of his own fortune, made in the agriculture, coal, timber and tourism industries. Despite his status as the richest man in the state, he still lived in the house he grew up in and coached high school basketball. 
 
 Justice will not be a stranger in his new party. He’s friends with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, and donated to McConnell’s super PAC in 2014. He also donated to the Republican Governors Association just a few years before the RGA spent millions of dollars trying to defeat him in 2016, attacking him for failing to pay taxes and fines related to his businesses. 
 
 The governor's move stands to make the coming months more complicated for Sen. Joe Manchin, who now stands as the state’s most prominent Democrat ahead of a tough reelection challenge in 2018. Manchin — a moderate Democrat who is often criticized by his own party's left wing — was already a top GOP target, with Rep. Evan Jenkins and Attorney General Patrick Morrissey challenging him. 
 
 "I certainly have wondered what the impact is likely to be on Manchin," said Roberts. "There had been some speculation that Manchin was going to change parties from earlier on. If Manchin is taken by surprise, my guess is that he just has a lot to think about." 
 
 Manchin’s office declined to comment on Justice’s switch in party affiliation but said that the senator would continue to “be a proud West Virginia Democrat.” 
 
 In a sign of the charged politics surrounding Trump, Manchin — who has maintained good relations with the White House — issued a long statement welcoming Trump to the state Thursday. 
 
 “The president is coming to West Virginia, and I'm excited he is," Manchin said. "I know some Democrats, especially those in Washington, D.C., would not want the president to visit their state. As Americans, we should always be honored to have a president visit our state — whoever he or she is, regardless of political party. All Americans should hope for the president to succeed, because if he does, the country succeeds — and West Virginia does as well." 
 
 When Trump touched down in the state Thursday, he was set to visit the place that explains his surprise 2016 victory as well as the challenges of turning his campaign promises into tangible results. 
 
 Commentators were often left scratching their heads at Trump’s dark campaign rhetoric and description of a nation in decline, crushed by job loss, drugs and rising crime. In much of the country, particularly the urban centers Trump so often derided, the rhetoric simply did not match with reality. 
 
 But West Virginia was an exception. Trump’s promises to renew American greatness, to “bring back jobs” and restore an idealized version of the American worker struck a chord in a long-suffering state. Trump won 68 percent of the vote there against Hillary Clinton, carrying every one of the state’s 55 counties. In the state’s coal-producing counties, he regularly racked up more than 70 [percent] and 80 percent of the vote. 
 
 “The demographic profile sort of fits your hypothetical Trump voter — we’re older, we’re lower income, lower levels of education, not very ethnically diverse,” said Sean O’Leary, a senior policy analyst at the West Virginia Center on Budget and Policy. “If you were to take a stereotypical Trump voter it would look a lot like a stereotypical West Virginian.” 
 
 For many in the state, Trump’s dystopian rhetoric felt like a long-awaited acknowledgment. The state’s population peaked around 1950 and, after some rebounding growth over the past two decades, has begun to shrink again since 2010. It has one of the country’s lowest median household incomes at $42,824, well below the national average of $56,516. The life expectancy is more than three years below the national average, and in 2015 the rate of opioid overdose deaths was 3.6 times as high in West Virginia as nationwide. The state also had the highest rate of drug overdose deaths overall. 
 
 The economic scene is almost as bleak: The state’s labor force participation is just 53.1 percent, meaning almost half of the state’s adults are neither working or looking for jobs. 
 
 For an electorate that the Chamber's Roberts described as “rural populist,” Trump’s campaign pledge not to cut Medicare, Medicaid or Social Security carried special resonance. In supporting Republican health care plans since his inauguration, though, Trump has reneged on the promise to protect Medicaid. 
 
 But that has done little to dent his popularity in West Virginia, where much of his appeal is wrapped in his promise to restore the state’s coal industry. The industry, deeply entwined with the state’s culture even as it wanes in economic importance, has seen a stark decline in recent years. 
 
 Coal mining jobs declined by half from 2011 to 2016, with the Commerce Department tallying just 11,343 coal miners in the state by the end of 2016 — down from more than 23,000 in 2011. Total mining and logging jobs, though, have increased by about 2,400 over the last year, with 1,200 of those jobs coming just between May and June — a sign that Trump’s policies are working, supporters say. 
 
 “We love our coal miners. Great people,” Trump said at an executive order signing in March. “Over the past two years, I've spent time with the miners all over America. They told me about the struggles they've endured. I actually, in one case, I went to a group of miners in West Virginia — you remember, Shelley — and I said, how about this: Why don’t we get together, we'll go to another place, and you'll get another job; you won't mine anymore. Do you like that idea? They said, 'No, we don’t like that idea — we love to mine, that's what we want to do.' I said, if that's what you want to do, that's what you're going to do. And I was very impressed. They love the job. That's what their job is. I fully understand that.” 
 
 At a rally in the state during the campaign, Trump famously put on a coal miner’s helmet and mimed as though he was shoveling while the crowd roared. 
 
 “We have a tradition of mining and producing coal that people here are really proud of,” Roberts said, noting that Trump’s pro-mining rhetoric — particularly after the Obama administration sought to curtail coal production due to environmental concerns — was a breath of fresh air. 
 
 “Plain-spokenness is not considered offensive here, the fact that he just sort of calls it like he sees it,” Roberts said. “There probably is a very real feeling that the nation hasn’t done much to help our state during at least the eight years of the Obama administration and now we have a president that says, ‘I like coal, I support the military, I love the Boy Scouts.’” 
 
 “The president is proud to have the support of the men and women in places like West Virginia who had been left behind by the policies of the previous administration,” White House spokesperson Lindsay Walters said in a statement to POLITICO. “He’s working for them each and every day, unleashing American businesses and protecting their communities. Just look at the results he’s already gotten. 42,000 mining and logging jobs have been added since January, and a new coal mine has opened its doors. The much-needed resources of the federal government are refocused towards combating the epidemic of drug and opioid addiction. He’s getting better trade deals with our partners around the world. And this is only the beginning.” ||||| FILE - In this Jan. 8, 2017 file photo, West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice delivers his first State of the State speech in Charleston, W.Va. Justice is switching parties to join Republicans as President Donald... (Associated Press) 
 
 FILE - In this Jan. 8, 2017 file photo, West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice delivers his first State of the State speech in Charleston, W.Va. Justice is switching parties to join Republicans as President Donald Trump plans a visit to the increasingly conservative state. (AP Photo/Walter Scriptunas II, File) (Associated Press) 
 
 HUNTINGTON, W.Va. (AP) — West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice announced Thursday he's switching parties to join Republicans as President Donald Trump visited the increasingly conservative state. 
 
 Justice told about 9,000 Trump supporters at a rally in Huntington that he will be changing his registration Friday. He recently visited the White House twice with proposals on manufacturing and coal, neither he nor Trump are politicians and they both ran to get something done, he said. 
 
 "This man is a good man. He's got a backbone. He's got real ideas," Justice said. "He cares about America. He cares about us in West Virginia." 
 
 Trump said they spoke a few weeks ago about working together to open coal mines and create jobs in furniture manufacturing and other forms of manufacturing. "But Gov. Justice did something else very important tonight. He showed the country that our agenda rises above left or right," he said. 
 
 Justice was elected in November with just 49 percent of the vote, 20 percentage points behind Trump's total in the presidential contest in the state. Trump won 77 percent of West Virginia's Republican primary voters in May. 
 
 The president promised throughout the campaign to resurrect the lagging coal industry that has declined amid changing energy markets, leaving many West Virginia communities devastated. The industry and many of its workers have blamed the decline mostly on former President Barack Obama and his environmental policies. 
 
 Justice's defection leaves Democrats with just 15 governors among 50 states. 
 
 In West Virginia, his jump is another blow for Democrats in a state they once ran without opposition. U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin and state Treasurer John Perdue will be the remaining statewide elected Democrats. Manchin is up for re-election in 2018, one of 10 Democratic senators running in states Trump won, a dynamic that gives Democrats an uphill path to reclaiming a Senate majority. 
 
 Manchin said he'll always be a West Virginia Democrat and was disappointed by Justice's decision but said he'll work with anyone regardless of party affiliation to benefit West Virginians. 
 
 Elected in his first run for statewide office, Justice is a 66-year-old businessman whose family owns farms and coal mines who largely funded his own campaign against then West Virginia Republican Senate President Bill Cole. He has spoken often during the campaign and since publicly about his friendship with the Trump family and hosted Donald Trump Jr. turkey hunting and trout fishing earlier this year. 
 
 Justice has turned the daily business operations over to his children while governor. He battled the Republican-controlled Legislature in his first year to limit budget cuts to Medicaid and to state colleges and universities, sometimes with public theatrics like bringing cow manure to a press conference. 
 
 He said Thursday that it was the defection from his positions by minority Democrats that resulted in outcomes that hurt people. He said both his parents were staunch Republicans. "Today I tell you as West Virginians I can't help you any more being a Democrat governor," he said. 
 
 Republican House Speaker Tim Armstead said the increases in Republican registration and elected officials show people in the state want change. "We welcome all West Virginians to the Republican ranks," he said. 
 
 "We're eager to work with Gov. Justice to apply our team's conservative principles to the executive branch and make a clean break from the status quo that has dominated the previous two administrations," Senate President Mitch Carmichael said. 
 
 West Virginia Democratic Party Chairwoman Belinda Biafore said Justice became a Democrat because they care about people and then took advantage of them by taking their money and votes. "I think we can all guess just who he cares about by his decision today and it's not the people of West Virginia," she said. 
 
 Republican U.S. Sen. Shelley Moore Capito said Republicans represent the state's future and she's ready to work with Justice to grow the economy and fight for energy jobs. 
 
 In the national debate over health care, Justice expressed worries about future health coverage for 175,000 West Virginians in the expanded Medicaid program under the Affordable Care Act, but declined to push to repeal and replace "Obamacare." He said he believes Republicans and Democrats will "get it right" when they work together to overhaul the law. 
 
 Rep. Evan Jenkins, who switched from Democrat to Republican and won a U.S. House seat in 2014, said at a meet-and-greet in Huntington before the rally that "so many people in recent years have switched from Democrat to Republican, and if Jim Justice is making the switch, I welcome him to the Republican Party." 
 
 Jenkins is now running for Manchin's seat. 
 
 In May 2015, when he announced his candidacy, Justice said he wanted to put aside partisan politics and that he had changed his party registration multiple times. "I am much more suited to be a Democrat because I truly want to be the person who is trying to take up for the little guy," he said. 
 
 ___ 
 
 Associated Press writers Michael Virtanen in Morgantown and Jonathan Mattise in Nashville contributed to this report.
– President Trump was teasing a "very big announcement" Thursday night in West Virginia, CNN reports. And while West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin had hoped it would be "good news" about jobs or the opioid crisis, it appears instead that the state's Democratic Gov. Jim Justice will reveal he's switching parties. According to Politico, no one in the Democratic Party was warned about Justice's plans. “Obviously we're pissed. I mean let's face it, we put a lot of effort in the 2015 election to elect this man as governor,” a Democratic operative in West Virginia says. Democrats had held the governorship in West Virginia since 2001. While Democrats weren't given notice of Justice's switch, they probably shouldn't be surprised. Justice only joined the Democratic Party in 2015 to run for governor. He had been a registered Independent and Republican prior to that and even donated to the Republican Governors' Association a few years before his run as a Democrat. He's also friends with the Trump family and Sen. Mitch McConnell. Plus, the ever-more conservative West Virginia is a hotbed of Trump support. With Justice's defection, there are only 15 Democratic governors in the US and only six states in which Democrats control the governorship and both legislative chambers, the Hill reports. Meanwhile, West Virginia becomes the 26th state in which Republicans control all three.