Opinion ID: 1288202
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 13

Heading: The Speech at Racine, West Virginia

Text: During the 2004 general election, I ran as the Republican nominee for a seat on this Court. My incumbent opponent, former-Justice Warren McGraw, was the Democratic nominee. In the election, I received 382,036 votes (or 53.3%) and former-Justice McGraw received 334,301 votes (or 46.7%). See, West Virginia Secretary of State, http://www. wvsos.com/ elections/history/results/allgeneral04.pdf. Contrary to some who seek to minimize or dismiss it, the pivotal moment of the 2004 campaign was a Labor Day speech delivered by former-Justice McGraw at Racine, West Virginia. During that speech, Justice McGraw spoke in a screaming and unflattering manner. [35] Excerpts from the Racine speech were extensively aired as campaign advertisements by the Benjamin campaign throughout the State. [36] In the relevant text of the speech, Justice McGraw was screaming that people were following him looking for ugly. [37] The McGraw speech at Racine soon became the subject of much conversation around West Virginia. [38] In the final analysis, former-Justice McGraw simply could not defend himself against his own words. [39]