The Green Party of West Virginia (GPoWV) held their founding meeting on Saturday, August 28, 2004 in Parkersburg at the central library. There were six founders in attendance. Also in attendance were Gray Newman (N.C.) from the GPUS Steering Committee and Steve Kramer (Md.), a delegate on the Coordinating Committee. The convener of the event was Chad Edwards.

In the Spring of 2004, the Mountain Party (which is not a Green Party chapter) held its state convention and decided not to support Ralph Nader's candidacy for the presidency. Many of the young people there were disappointed and did not want to support either of the war parties' candidates.

Chad Edwards was a Mountain Party member at that convention, though he had been involved with the Green Party before. And, since Edwards was among those who wanted to support an alternative candidate for president, he switched his registration to Green and began trying to gather the Greens in West Virginia together.

Edwards decided to contact the Secretary of State's office to get a list of registered Greens. Edwards thought that perhaps there would be 40 in the state. To his surprise, there were 329 on the list. He began contacting each of them and working towards the first state-wide gathering of Greens in West Virginia.

In West Virginia, official recognition of a political party is only possible by earning at least 1 percent of the vote in the Governor's race. Greens there have set this as a preliminary goal for 2008. Currently there are three parties recognized in West Virginia. On the voter registration form, voters may only register into the Democratic, Republican or Mountain Party, although there is a blank for 'Other,' where voters can write in Green Party.
The Mountain Party was originally convened in response to the despoiling of West Virginia's environment through coal mining. Its values are similar to the Green Party. A recent local news item noted that the Mountain Party had 207 registered voters.

GPoWV is not yet fielding candidates. The party ran a write-in campaign for Cobb/LaMarche and endorsed the Mountain Party candidate for Governor, Jesse Johnson.

Currently there are local contacts for the following emerging Green locals: Beckley/Concord Campus Greens, Green Party of Charleston, Eastern Panhandle Greens, Mid-Ohio Valley Greens, Northern Panhandle Greens and the Wheeling Area Greens. The latter two held their first organizing meeting on October 23 in Wheeling.

GPoWV is working towards another statewide gathering some time around Martin Luther King Jr. Day.

The Green Party of West Virginia's website is www.gpwv.org. You can reach them by calling (304) 684-2452 or by e-mail: chadedwards@gpwv.org.

Their address is:
GPoWV
c/o Chad Edwards
223 Cedar Run Road
Friendly, WV 26146