While teaching a writing class in the southern coal fields of West Virginia, Charlotte was asked by a teacher what good could writing theories do when children were too hungry to think. The teacher went on to say that children were coming to school hungry on Monday mornings; so hungry that the school personnel were concerned that the children weren't getting anything to eat on the weekends.
Coming from a family of faith and strong union support, Charlotte had been taught that if a person needed help they had two places to go: the church and the union hall. When she asked her father, Garnett Pritt, a former UMWA local President to ask the miners in the southern coal fields to help her with hunger in their area, he responded that he would help but what she really needed to do was run for office. She protested that she was an educator not a politician! And that messing around with politics could ruin a person's reputation. That was 1985 and her words were more prophetic than she realized.
She was asked when she was the Democratic nominee for Governor of West Virginia in 1996, if it had been a lifelong dream to be Governor of her state. She replied her life long dream had been to be a prize winning poet. But the comments of the teacher in that writing class taught in McDowell County, West Virginia so touched her heart that it changed the rest of her life.
Present - 1997: Lawsuit concerning Negative Campaign Ads during the 1996 Governor's Race in WV (First in the nation to bring suit against a political party).
2000: Campaign for Secretary of State in West Virginia
1996: Democratic Nominee for Governor of West Virginia
Respponsibilities: Organized 55 county coordinators and 15 regional coordinators; garnered the support of more than 7,000 volunteers in the data base; raised more than two (2) million dollars for the campaign.
Honors: Featured in George (John Kennedy Jr.'s Magazine) as one of the "Twenty Most Fascinating Women in Politics"; Featured on International Public Radio during the Democratic Convention in Chicago as one of the up and coming leaders of the Democratic Party; Featured in Spin Magazine, Featured in Glamour as one of "Eleven Women Who Could Change the Country"; Featured speaker at the Democratic National Convention 1996 on National and International television; Charlotte's Convention speech was printed in the Congressional Quarterly; Interviewed and Featured on the Nickelodeon Channel in their coverage of the Democratic National Convention; Selected as the National Recipient of the Community Service/Leadership Award given by Phi Mu Sorority.
1992: Grassroots Campaign for Governor of West Virginia
Honors: Named Outstanding Woman in Government by the West Virginia Women's Commission; Received the Susan B. Anthony Award for work on behalf of Women and Children; Received Outstanding Legislator of the year by the Council of Senior Citizens for work on behalf of the elderly; Featured in the Nation magazine;"Can A Coal Miner's Daughter Do It?"; Featured in the The Christian Science Monitor magazine.
1992 - 1988: West Virginia State Senator, Kanawha County
Committee Assignments: Rules; Judiciary; Banking and Insurance; Interstate Cooperation;Small Business; Vice Chair of Health and Human Resources.
Honors: 1988 named the Legislator of the Year by the West Virginia Prenatal Association for support and cooperation in helping to achieve a healthy next generation; 1988 Si Galperin Award for outstanding voting record on behalf of consumers, the environment and good government; Featured in the national magazine and on the cover of Lears April, 1990, (Interviewed by the editor Frances Lear (late wife of Norman Lear) concerning the state of politics in America in her column, "Lunch."
1988 - 1985: Member of the West Virginia House of Delegates, Kanawha County
Committee Assignments: Finance; Banking and Insurance; Political Subdivision; Health and Human Resources
Honors: Selected to be part of the first all women delegation on a fact finding mission to Central America (Of the 15 women selected nationally, Charlotte represented the southern states and a House Member -- the 15 included a state Senator from Iowa and the female Lieutenant Governor of Missouri Harriett Woods); Selected Outstanding Young Woman of America; Selected to represent WV on the National Council of Legislators Committee on Arts and Toursim and Cultural Tourism.
Community Service: Member of the West Virginia Coalition for the Homeless; Initiated the Legislative Statewide Task Force on Hunger in West Virginia; Member of the Sierra Club.