For West Virginia Gubernatorial “Wild Card” Candidate Chris Miller, It All Comes Down to Economics So, things are going well for you. Why on Earth are you going into politics? At the end of the day, if I ran my businesses the way the government spends our tax dollars, I’d be broke. And that’s a primary reason why I want to get involved. But I really also like problem-solving. The governor should be looked at as the CEO of the state. And to realize that all of us as taxpayers really should be looked at as shareholders. And the entire job of the CEO is to manage a company, a state, to maximize return on investment for the shareholders. We should have a very customer-centric focus on how we interact with taxpayers. Car dealers live and die by the Customer Satisfaction Index. We understand how to take care of customers, and we need to bring that same idea to government. As Governor, you say your focus is on rebuilding the economy and running it like a business. But you say your passion is about families and keeping people in West Virginia. Explain that concept. West Virginia’s greatest export, as of now, is not our coal or natural gas. It’s our kids. It’s our educated kids. And they leave the state to go find gainful employment, to go find opportunity. And there’s absolutely zero reason why we can’t be doing that inside the state to keep our kids here. There are all these people, interestingly, who have gone all around the country and are dying to come back home. They want to be a part of what is happening inside of Will a Southwest Virginia Auto Dealer be West Virginia’s Next Governor? HHaving a healthy neighbor is important, and West Virginia has a number of challenges it must tackle and opportunities it must seize in order to gain a steady bill of health. So at VADA, we’ve been keeping our eyes on the state’s 2024 governor’s race, as current Gov. Jim Justice’s term ends in January 2025 and he eyes a seat in the U.S. Senate. (Justice’s company owns The Greenbrier resort, the site of our joint convention in 2023 with West Virginia, Kentucky and Maryland dealers.) Part of the reason why we care: One of the candidates is Chris Miller, who, among his numerous family businesses, owns Dutch Miller Auto Group with his family. The group has 13 stores, including one in the Southwest Virginia town of Wytheville. He is one in a crowded field of Republican candidates in a solidly red state where the state attorney general, Patrick Morrisey, is the one to beat. Jeff Kelley with VADA spoke recently to Miller, 45, about why he wants to enter politics (he is the son of West Virginia U.S. Rep. Carol Miller), his goals for the state and a little about his boxing career. Tell us: Who is Chris Miller? I was born and raised in Huntington, West Virginia. I love the state. When I got involved in our family’s business, we had two businesses. Through a lot of blood, sweat, tears and hard work, we got into 26 different enterprises. We have 13 car dealerships; we have several real estate companies. We’re in insurance and reinsurance. I’ve got a data and technology company. And we’re also bison farmers. vada.com 7
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