I came out of Parkersburg High and gave over nine years of my life to the U.S. Army, including a year in the hellscape of Afghanistan. The flag I bled for turned its back on me the second I came home. This country discards veterans, crushes the poor, starves the working class, and calls it “freedom” while politicians shovel cash into their own pockets. As a Disabled Combat Veteran, I live every day fighting to survive in a rigged system designed to break us.
In 2025, I stopped waiting for saviors and founded Fights Back. What started in West Virginia exploded into a nationwide revolt; mutual aid on street corners, harm reduction in communities left to rot, and defense training in towns the state forgot. Permission wasn’t requested. Crumbs were never accepted. Power was built with our own hands and we made it clear that if the system won’t take care of us, we’ll take care of each other and fight the bastards who left us behind.
Speeches aren’t made to stroke my ego. Forcing the Clarksburg VA Hospital to stop treating racial awareness like an “option” and making it mandatory was my doing. When politicians turned their backs, I organized food and medicine. My body has been on the line, building networks of resistance because empty promises don’t save lives, direct action does.
Service in the Army hardened me. Experience with the FBI sharpened me. Living under this collapsing system made me ruthless against corruption. Struggle and loss are familiar, and I know how to fight back harder than anything thrown at me.
I live in Charleston with my daughter, the reason I refuse to bend or break. Every step I take is to make sure her future isn’t chained to the same rot I’ve seen. When I’m not organizing, I keep my body strong and my mind sharp, because survival in this country is a battlefield, and I won’t lose.
By 2028, I’ll be 34 and running for Magistrate Judge. West Virginia doesn’t need another soft handed politician or cop in a robe. Fire is required. Fight is demanded. A judge who has seen the system up close, been broken by it, and came back ready to tear its rotten guts out is essential.
They’ve counted us out for too long. Justice isn’t something we request. Leftovers are beneath us. What’s ours will be taken as we burn their broken system down to the ground.
Chase Linko-Looper For Kanawha County Magistrate Judge 