Jim Justice Biography, Career, Education, Age, Height, Family, and Net Worth.

Who is Jim Justice?

Jim Justice (Jim Conley Justice) is an America Politician and a businessman. Currently, he is serving as the 36th governor of West Virginia. He has been holding the governorship position since 2017. He is one of the wealthiest people in West Virginia.

Moreover, he inherited a coal mining business from his father. In addition, he has built a business empire with more than 94 companies, including the Greenbrier, a luxury resort.

Jim announced his bid to run for governor of West Virginia in the 2016 gubernatorial election in 2015. However, despite being a registered Republican before vying for governor, Jim ran as a Democrat defeating the Republican opponent, Bill Cole.

Moreover, seven months after he was elected with the Democratic ticket, he switched again and went back to the Republican party. In addition, during the 2020 gubernatorial election, he ran against Democratic nominee Ben Salango.

Career

Entrepreneur Career

Soon after he completed his studies, he joined a family business that was dealing with Agriculture. After that, he founded Bluestone Farms in 1997. Currently, the farms operate at 50,000 acres of farmland. In addition, the farm is the leading producer of grain on the East Coast of the United States.

Furthermore, Jim also created Stoney Brook Plantation, a 15,000-acre hunting and fishing preserve in Monroe County, during this time. In addition, Jim has won the national corn growing championship seven times.

In 1993 Justice inherited, ownership of Bluestone Industries and Bluestone Coal Corporation after his father died. However, he later sold a portion of his coal business to the Russian corporation Mechel for $568 million in 2009. After a massive decrease in coal prices forced Mechel stopped several of his mines. It was at this point that Jim acquired the company back for only $5 million in 2015.

Moreover, after he bought back the company he reopened several mines and hired more than 200 coal miners.

In addition, his mining companies have been in the spotlight for a while for safety violations and lack of paying taxes.

By 2014 he has owned 70 active mine companies in 5 states. In addition, his charitable activities include $25million for the James C. Justice National Scout Camp at The Summit Bechtel Family National Scout Reserves and others.

Prior to being the governor, he stepped down from all executive positions he was holding at his company. After he steps down he assigned control of the Greenbrier to his daughter Jill. Moreover, he assigned his mining and agriculture enterprises to his son Jay. However, Jim has stated that he will place all of his assets in a blind trust, but that the procedure would be lengthy due to their intricacy. In addition as the governor, he is in control of many state agencies that regulate most of his businesses.

How Old Is Jim Justice?

He was born on April 27th, 1951, and currently, he is aged 70 years.

Jim Justice Family

Who are His Parents?

He is a native of Charleston, West Virginia, he is a son to James Conley and Edna Ruth Justice. His father was a businessman dealing with coal mining and he was one of the richest people in West Virginia in those days.

Does He Have Siblings?

He has a sister by the name of Stephanie Justice, though much is not known about her.

Jim Justice Education

He attended the University of Tennessee, this was after he secured an athletic scholarship for golf. However, he didn’t graduate from the institution as he transferred to Marshall University. He graduted from Marshall University with a bachelor’s degree and a Master’s degree in Business Administration.

Jim Justice Wife

He is married to Cathy Corner, the two lovebirds who got married in 1975. The two met while he was still in high school.

Jim Justice Kids

Justice and Cathy are blessed with two children Jay and Jill. In addition, they had one dog and a Baby dog.

Political Career

In 2015 he declared his interest to ran for the gubernatorial position in the 2016 general election as a member of the Democratic Party. Initially, he was a registered Republican Party member.

However, in February 2015, he decided to change his registration. This was his first election to a political position. Jim won the Democratic primary for governor in May 2016. After that, he went ahead and faced Republican opponent Bill Cole in the general election.

Despite tough competition, he managed to be the winner of the November 8th election. Moreover, during his campaign season, he was endorsed by the United Mine Workers.

2020 Election

After serving for one term, in January 2019, Jim announced his intention to run for re-election to a second term. Moreover, in his reelection, he ran as a Republican since he had previously switched his party membership following a rally featuring President Donald Trump in 2017. During the primaries, he defeated several opponents from his own party.

Throughout the general election campaign, his focus was on his response to COVID-19, the state’s financial surplus, and his efforts on the drug addiction issue. Moreover, prior to the election, several polls had predicted his win by a wide majority over Kanawha County Commissioner Ben Salango.

However, during his second term campaigns, The United Mine Workers supported his opponent, Ben Salango, after earlier supporting him in his gubernatorial bid in 2016. In addition, The West Virginia Coal Association, on the other hand, endorsed Jim, stating he has “fought to safeguard workers, boost coal production, and seek innovative ways to use coal for new products and downstream job opportunities.”

Governorship

After winning his first term, he took office as the new governor of West Virginia on January 16th, 2017. Moreover, he is well known for using colorful metaphors and digs at political opponents.

In order to enhance West Virginia. Jim has suggested raising the state’s revenue by $450 million, largely by increasing the consumer sales tax, and reinstituting the business and occupation (B & O) tax. And implementing a “rich man’s” tax. In addition, he opposed measures to reduce expenditure on health care and education.

Jim confirmed his return to the Republican Party in August 2017. Jim said that he was returning to the Republican Party because he was unable to support President Trump as a member of the Democratic Party.

As a result, he became West Virginia’s first Republican governor in 2001. In the 2018 Senate election, he originally backed incumbent Democrat Joe Manchin’s reelection bid.

Jim Justice Height

Justice stands at an average height of 6 feet 7 inches.

Jim Justice’s Net Worth

Being a successful businessman and a politician, he has earned a net worth of $1.2 billion. In addition, he is the richest man in the West Virginia.