CHARLESTON, W.Va. When West Virginia Republicans vote in Tuesday’s primary, they will be hard-pressed to find a major candidate on the ballot in any statewide race who openly acknowledges that President Joe Biden won the 2020 election.
Embracing or skirting the line of election denial has become an unspoken obstacle among Republicans running for governor and Congress in one of the states most loyal to former President Donald Trump. The talk – almost constantly – is praise for the party’s presumptive nominee for the White House, among a list of candidates that includes a rebel convicted on January 6, as well as the children of two GOP members of Virginia’s congressional delegation. Western.
Glenn Elliott, who is seeking the Democratic nomination for a Senate seat, said denying the election result was a “purity test” for West Virginia Republicans.
“Either you are with the party leader on everything or you are expelled. You are no longer a Republican, you are a ‘RINO,’” he said, using the acronym for “Republicans in Name Only.” “This isn’t a party – it’s a cult.”
That’s the worst thing you can call a Republican candidate in West Virginia.
In the hotly contested governor’s race, Secretary of State Mac Warner said he “firmly” believes, like Trump, that the election was stolen, even though dozens of courts and audits have determined the race was fairly decided in Biden’s favor.
Warner, whose office oversees elections in West Virginia, said technology companies, the media and federal intelligence officials worked together to cover up incriminating information found on Biden’s son Hunter’s laptop. Warner’s statements came a few months after announcing his campaign, after years of following the lines in the 2020 elections. The Army veteran said his opinions have nothing to do with running for public office.
“Donald Trump won West Virginia in a landslide,” said former state lawmaker Moore Capito, another candidate for governor, in response to a question from the Associated Press. “And I just wish the rest of the country would conduct our elections like we do here in the state of West Virginia.”
Other candidates hedge or don’t respond directly.
Attorney General Patrick Morrisey refused to answer yes or no to questions about whether Biden won the 2020 race, but said there were “huge irregularities,” “significant irregularities” and “very, very serious problems” related to that vote. .
Businessman Chris Miller, also a candidate for governor and son of U.S. Rep. Carol Miller, said people don’t trust mail-in ballots. He did not say whether he considered Biden the legitimate winner.
“If you’re voting in person and you see your vote, that’s one thing,” he said. With mail-in ballots, he added, “You can’t see it. You don’t know what happened, and that’s the danger.”
Derrick Evans, a former state lawmaker who spent three months in prison for participating in the Jan. 6, 2021, U.S. Capitol riot, has intensified his verbal attacks against his main rival. He calls Carol Miller a “commie RINO” who “refused to stand up and fight with President Trump” as well as an “undocumented Democrat.”
Never mind that Miller aligned with Trump on nearly 100% of House votes while he was in office.
Evans, in an interview, said he believes his willingness to support Trump and say the election was stolen will lead him to victory — even though Miller, hours after Evans and other rioters stormed the Capitol, voted to challenge the Electoral College results. in two states that Biden won.
She said in a statement at the time that she had a constitutional duty to “ensure that all Americans have access to free, fair and accurate elections.”
Evans is undeterred, claiming his role in the violent attack on the Capitol as a badge of honor.
“I think when people know that I am the only elected lawmaker in the entire country who had the courage to stand up against the stolen election and had the courage to stand up alongside President Trump on January 6th,” he said, “ I think it makes them realize very seriously that I am the person who represents this district on the national stage.”
In an email to the AP, Carol Miller did not directly address the 2020 outcome. But she said she is the only candidate in the race who has “never been a registered Democrat or run for office as a Democrat.”
In the West Virginia gubernatorial race, the four leading candidates are on the same page in supporting the state’s coal industry, imposing tougher penalties on fentanyl traffickers and the importance of economic development.
Morrisey, the fundraising favorite, launched the “RINO” label for Capito, who is considered his main competitor. Morrissey cited a February 2024 social media post by Donald Trump Jr. criticizing a vote by Capito’s mother, Republican Senator Shelley Moore Capito, to send aid to Ukraine. “She is not running for re-election this year, but her son RINO is running for governor of West Virginia,” said Trump Jr. “MAGA – Send a message to Ukraine’s First RINOs & Oppose it,” he said, referring to Donald Trump’s “Make American Great Again” movement.
Morrisey, in an interview, connected the dots.
“I think the choice is very clear: You have a conservative fighter with a track record of accomplishing great things, and you have political royalty, part of the liberal establishment,” Morrisey said.
Since then, Moore Capito has taken every opportunity to ensure voters know where his loyalties lie. At a Republican gubernatorial forum hosted by television station WSAZ, candidates were asked what they could do to help people on fixed incomes who struggle to pay their bills amid frequent increases in utility rates.
“This is why it is critically important that we elect Donald Trump as president,” Capito said, after condemning a rule recently released by the Biden administration that would force coal-fired power plants to capture their emissions or shut down.
Ironically, Republican Gov. Jim Justice, who is running for the Senate seat held by retiring Democrat Joe Manchin, is the only candidate to win Trump’s coveted endorsement in any primary race. And Justice disagreed with Trump more than most candidates. For example, the governor supported the bipartisan infrastructure bill that poured millions of dollars into the state to build broadband and roads.
Alex Mooney, a congressman running against Justice in the primary, has called Justice a “RINO” at every opportunity. Justice, a billionaire former businessman with a folksy persona that earned him a devoted following, was initially elected as a Democrat in 2017 before becoming a Republican at a Trump rally early in his term. Mooney voted against the infrastructure project.
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.
Justice, asked during a press conference last week whether he thought Biden legitimately won, struck a defiant tone even as he sidestepped: “What does it matter? I mean, what does it matter?”
The governor then told a story he often told about something his father told him when he competed in golf tournaments as a young man.
“Dad would tell me, ‘Son, the only shot that matters in golf is the next shot. If you holed out on one of them as your last shot, well, so what?”
