CHARLESTON, W.Va. — When West Virginia Republicans vote in Tuesday’s primary, they will find the leading candidate in the statewide race openly acknowledging President Joe Biden’s victory in the 2020 election. would be difficult.
For Republicans running for governor or Congress in one of former President Donald Trump’s most loyal states, there is an implicit tension between embracing or avoiding the line of election denialism.
The story is almost always that the party’s White House candidate was selected from a list of candidates that included a convicted Jan. 6 insurrectionist and the sons of two Republican members of West Virginia’s congressional delegation. This is praise for a man who is seen as a House candidate.
Glenn Elliott, who is seeking the Democratic nomination to fill the vacant Senate seat, said denying the election results is a “test of purity” for West Virginia Republicans.
“You’re either with your party leader on everything, or you’re kicked out. You’re not a Republican anymore, you’re a ‘RINO,'” he said, using the acronym for “Republican in Name Only.” he said. “That’s not a party. That’s a cult.”
It’s the worst possible scenario for West Virginia’s Republican candidates.
In the crowded gubernatorial race, Secretary of State Mac Warner, like Trump, claims the election was stolen, despite dozens of courts and audits finding the race was decided fairly in Biden’s favor. He said he believed it “firmly”.
Warner’s office, which oversees West Virginia’s elections, said technology companies, the media and federal intelligence officials worked together to suppress incriminating information found on Biden’s son Hunter’s laptop.
Warner’s statement comes months after he announced his campaign after years of struggling in the 2020 election. The Army veteran said his thoughts have nothing to do with his candidacy.
“Donald Trump won West Virginia in a landslide,” former state Rep. Moore Capito, also a gubernatorial candidate, said in response to a question from The Associated Press. “And we can only hope that elections will be held in other parts of the country like they are here in West Virginia.”
Other candidates are evasive or do not answer directly.
Attorney General Patrick Morrissey declined to give a “yes” or “no” answer to the question of whether Biden won the 2020 election, but called the vote “huge fraud,” “gross fraud,” and “extraordinary fraud.” He claimed that there was a very serious problem. .
Chris Miller, a businessman and son of U.S. Rep. Carol Miller and a gubernatorial candidate, said people don’t trust voting by mail. He did not say whether he thought Biden was the rightful winner.
“It’s one thing to vote in person, it’s another thing to see your vote cast,” he says. For mail-in voting, he added: We don’t know what happened, and that’s the danger. ”
Former state Rep. Derrick Evans, who served three months in prison for participating in the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol, escalated his verbal attacks on his arch-rival.
He calls Carol Miller a “communist RINO” who “refused to stand up and fight President Trump,” and an “undocumented Democrat.”
Never mind that Miller went with Trump on nearly 100% of the House votes during his presidency.
Evans said in an interview that he believes his support for Trump and his willingness to say the election was stolen will help him win. That’s despite Miller voting to object to the Electoral College results hours after Evans and other rioters stormed the Capitol. Two states Biden won.
She said in a statement at the time that she has a constitutional obligation to “ensure that all Americans have access to free, fair, and accurate elections.”
Undaunted, Evans claimed his role in the violence against the Capitol was a badge of honor.
“I think when the people know that I am the only elected official in America who had the courage to stand up against a stolen election and who had the courage to stand beside President Trump on January 6th.” he said. I think that really made them realize that I’m the guy who should be representing this district on the national stage. ”
Carol Miller did not directly address the 2020 results in an email to The Associated Press. But she said she is the only candidate in the race “who has never registered as a Democrat or run as a Democrat.”
All four major candidates in West Virginia’s gubernatorial race are aligned on supporting the state’s coal industry, calling for tougher penalties for fentanyl dealers and the importance of economic development.
Morrissey, the leading candidate for the funding, has thrown the “RINO” label at Capito, who is seen as his main competitor.
Morrissey cited a February 2024 social media post by Donald Trump Jr. that criticized the vote to send aid to Ukraine by Capito’s mother, Republican Sen. Shelley Moore Capito.
“She’s not running for re-election this year, but her RINO son is running for governor of West Virginia,” Trump Jr. said. “MAGA – send a message to Ukraine’s First RINOs and their opponents,” he said, referring to Donald Trump’s “Make America Great Again” movement.
Morrissey connected the dots in an interview.
“I think the choice is very clear. There are conservative fighters who have a track record of achieving great things, and there are members of political royalty who are part of the liberal establishment,” Morrissey said.
Since then, Moore Capito has taken every opportunity to let voters know where his loyalties lie. At a Republican governor’s forum hosted by TV station WSAZ, candidates were asked what they could do to help people on fixed incomes who are struggling to pay frequent utility bill increases.
“That’s why it’s so important to elect Donald Trump as president,” Capito said after condemning the Biden administration’s recently announced rules forcing coal-fired power plants to capture or stop their emissions. Told.
Ironically, Republican Gov. Jim Justice, who is running for the Senate seat held by retired Democrat Joe Manchin, is the only candidate who can garner the coveted Trump support in the primary. . And justice activists oppose Trump more than most candidates.
For example, the governor supported a bipartisan infrastructure bill that would pump millions of dollars into the state to build broadband and roads.
Rep. Alex Mooney, who is running against Justice in the primary, calls Justice a “RINO” every chance he gets.
Mr. Justice, a former billionaire businessman whose peoplely personality has won him a fervent following, was first elected as a Democrat in 2017 and became a Republican at a Trump rally early in his term. Mooney voted against the infrastructure bill.
Mooney said he recognizes Biden as president but feels the 2020 election was not fair. He voted not to certify Biden’s victory in Pennsylvania.
Asked at a news conference last week whether he believed Biden had won legitimately, the judge said in a hedged but defiant tone: I mean, what the hell is the point of that? ”
The governor then told a story he has often told about something his father told him when he was playing in a golf tournament when he was younger.
“My father used to say to me, ‘Son, the only thing that matters in golf is your next shot.’ So what happens if you hit a hole-in-one on your last shot?”
