Kris Warner, director of the state’s Economic Development Authority, will be West Virginia’s next secretary of state.
Warner, a Republican and brother of outgoing Secretary of State Mac Warner, won the general election against Democratic opponent Thornton Cooper, a South Charleston attorney.
The Associated Press called the race for Warner at 8:46 p.m. Tuesday, when unofficial results showed Warner had captured about 70% of the votes counted, compared to 30% for Cooper.
Mac Warner is among Republicans who have disputed the results of the 2020 election, which then saw President Donald Trump lose to President Joe Biden. Asked if he shared the same views as his brother, Kris Warner told West Virginia Watch in May that the election in West Virginia wasn’t stolen, but he was “unable to talk” about whether it was stolen in other states.
Warner soundly defeated his Republican opponents in the May primary despite being overwhelmed, which he attributed at the time to his more than three decades of experience with the state Republican Party, including five years as party chairman.
Warner’s campaign against primary opponent Doug Skaff, a former Democrat, was sponsored by Conservative Policy Action, a federally registered political action committee.
Mark Scott, the state’s former administrative secretary, resigned in July after serving for months in that role and as chairman of the PAC, sources said Reporting by West Virginia MetroNews. Reporting by the Charleston Gazette-Mail noted that there are close relationships between the PAC and the beneficiaries the economic development authority. He did not respond to the newspaper’s request for comment at the time.
Another opponent of Kris Warner in the primary: Ken Reed filed a complaint He called on the State Department to investigate the connections. A spokesman for the secretary of state’s office said state law prohibits the office from confirming the existence of an investigation into an election complaint or election results.
From mid-October Warner had overtaken Cooper $157,000 to $22,000, according to campaign finance reports.
