CHARLESTON, W.Va. – CHARLESTON, W.Va.West Virginia teachers whose protests sparked a national wave of unrest took to chanting “Ditch Mitch” as they descended on the Capitol.
Ditch him they did. West Virginia Senate President Mitch Carmichae fell in stunning defeat to small-town elementary school teacher Amy Nichole Grady in the state's primary Tuesday night, following back-to-back years of strikes in which teachers packed into the state Capitol and made the powerful Republican their chief target. “I was the villain,” Carmichael said in an interview Wednesday morning.