FAREWELL – Gov. Jim Justice looks out over members of the West Virginia Legislature as his gives his goodbye address Wednesday after two terms in office. -- Steven Allen Adams

CHARLESTON — Four days before stepping down to join the U.S. Senate and turn over the keys to Governor-elect Patrick Morrisey, outgoing Gov. Jim Justice gave a farewell address to a joint session of the West Virginia Senate and House of Delegates Wednesday.

Justice – who delayed taking his U.S. Senate seat in order to avoid having two state Senate presidents acting as governor before Morrisey is formally sworn in as the 37th governor of the State of West Virginia on Monday – spoke to lawmakers on the first gaveling in of the Legislature to formally accept the election results from the 2024 general elections.

“We pulled the rope together, we made tough right decisions,” Justice said. “They called us hillbillies, but we proved them wrong. And now West Virginia, in many ways, is the envy of the world. I would tell you keep it going. Absolutely keep it going. I’m so proud of you, it’s off the chart.”

Justice likened his two four-year terms as governor to coaching a sports team. A coach of the Greenbrier East High School girls’ basketball team, Justice said much of his inspiration for leading the state came from leading his athletes.

“I’ve said this a bunch of times, and I really mean it: you needed a head coach,” Justice said. “I hope that you think that I’ve been a decent coach. But you can’t win ball games if you don’t have great players, and you were the players and you were great players. You made me proud so much…I promised you a rocket ship ride, and we’re riding that rocket like we can’t imagine.”

Looking back at his nearly eight years in office, Justice took pride in reversing the state’s general revenue budget hole and ending the last several years with record-breaking tax revenue surpluses. He praised the passage early in his tenure of the Roads to Prosperity bond initiative, resulting in new road and bridge construction.

Justice pointed to additional funding made available for secondary road maintenance, economic development incentives for major manufacturers, water and wastewater infrastructure, broadband expansion, and school building construction. He credited the ability to do these additional projects to maintaining a flat general revenue budget. This also allowed for a series of tax cuts and other tax reforms.

“We cut taxes over and over and over 27 times,” Justice said. “We’ve cut taxes for cars and Social Security, childcare and small business, retirees and veterans, and on and on and on and on and on and the largest tax cut in state history in regard to reducing your personal income tax. I would tell you, don’t lose the mission. The faster you can get rid of your personal income tax in West Virginia, this place will flood with people and offer opportunity over and over and over you.”

First elected governor as the Democratic nominee in 2016 after defeating former Republican Senate President Bill Cole of Mercer County, Justice switched to the Republican Party in 2017 at the behest of Donald Trump. He defeated businessman and former Justice cabinet official Woody Thrasher in the 2020 GOP primary for governor and Democratic Kanawha County Commissioner Ben Salango in the 2020 general election.

Justice will succeed U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin, I-W.Va., who declined to seek re-election for a third six-year term. Justice is the first Republican to hold this Senate seat since the brief tenure of Chapman Revercomb from 1956 to 1959.

Wrapping up his second and final four-year term as West Virginia’s 36th governor, Justice first announced for U.S. Senate in April 2023. Justice defeated five-term U.S. Rep. Alex Mooney, R-W.Va., in the May Republican primary, by more than 35 points. He also defeated his Democratic opponent in November, former Wheeling mayor Glenn Elliott.

Justice urged lawmakers Wednesday to support Morrisey and wished he and his wife Denise well as they succeed him and first lady Cathy Justice.

“We got a new governor coming in and we wish him the best like you can imagine,” Justice said. “I think the world of Patrick and Denise, and I wish them the best in every way. I stand ready to try to help them at every minute and so does Cathy. So does my whole family. I pray that they will have successes like you can’t imagine.”