CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) – When West Virginia Republicans vote in the primary on Tuesday, they will be hard-pressed to find a front-runner on the ballot in a statewide race who openly acknowledges that President Joe Biden won the 2020 election.
For Republicans running for governor and Congress in one of the states most faithful to former President Donald Trump, adopting or skirting the line of election denial has become an unspoken argument. What is being expressed – almost constantly – is praise for the party’s presumptive nominee for the White House from a slate that includes a convicted January 6 insurrectionist and the sons of two Republican members of West Virginia’s congressional delegation.
Glenn Elliott, who is seeking the Democratic nomination for a vacant Senate seat, said denying the election results was a “purity test” for West Virginia Republicans.
“Either you agree with the party leader on all points, or you are thrown out. “You’re not a Republican anymore, you’re a ‘RINO,'” he said, using the acronym for “Republicans In Name Only.” “This isn’t a party – it’s a cult.”
It’s about the worst thing you can call a Republican candidate in West Virginia.
In the crowded governor’s race, Secretary of State Mac Warner said he, like Trump, “strongly believes” the election was stolen, even though dozens of courts and audits have found the race was decided in Biden’s favor.
Warner, whose office oversees elections in West Virginia, said technology companies, media outlets and federal intelligence officials worked together to cover up incriminating information found on the laptop belonging to Biden’s son Hunter. Warner’s comments came a few months after announcing his campaign after years of remaining faithful to the 2020 election. The Army veteran said his views have nothing to do with running for office.
“Donald Trump won West Virginia in a landslide,” former state lawmaker Moore Capito, another candidate for governor, said in response to a question from The Associated Press. “And I just wish the rest of the country would run our elections the way we do here in the state of West Virginia.”
Other candidates shy away or don’t answer directly.
Attorney General Patrick Morrisey has refused to give a yes or no answer to questions about whether Biden won the 2020 race, but has claimed that there were “major irregularities,” “significant irregularities” and ” “very, very serious problems”.
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 thought Biden was the legitimate winner.
“If you vote in person and see your vote cast, 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 his participation in the riots at the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021, has escalated his verbal attacks against his primary rival. He calls Carol Miller a “Commie RINO” who “refused to stand and fight alongside President Trump” and an “undocumented Democrat.”
Not to mention, during Miller’s time in office, nearly 100% of her vote in the House of Representatives was on Trump’s side.
Evans said in an interview that he believes his willingness to stand by Trump and say the election was stolen will carry him to victory – even though Miller voted to do so just hours after Evans and other rioters stormed the Capitol To challenge Electoral College results Biden won two states.
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 remains undeterred and calls his role in the violent attack on the Capitol a badge of honor.
“I think when people learn that I am the only elected representative in the entire country who had the courage to fight back against the stolen election and had the courage to stand with President Trump on January 6th “,” he said, “I think this makes it very clear to them that I am the man to represent this district on a national stage.”
In an email to the AP, Carol Miller did not directly address the 2020 result. But she said she was the only candidate in the race who “has never been a registered Democrat or run for office as a Democrat.”
In West Virginia’s race for governor, all four major candidates agree on supporting the state’s coal industry, imposing harsher penalties on fentanyl dealers and the importance of economic development.
Morrisey, the fundraising frontrunner, threw the “RINO” label at Capito, seen as his main rival. Morrissey cited a February 2024 social media post by Donald Trump Jr. in which he criticized the vote of Capito’s mother, Republican Senator Shelley Moore Capito, to deliver aid to Ukraine. “She’s not up for re-election this year, but her RINO son is running for governor of West Virginia,” said Trump Jr. “MAGA – Send a message to Ukraine First RINOs & OPPOSE,” he said, referring to refers to Donald Trump’s “Make American Great Again” movement.
Morrisey clarified the connections in an interview.
“I think the choice is very clear: you have a conservative fighter who has a proven track record of great things, and you have political royalty who are part of the liberal establishment,” Morrisey said.
Moore Capito has since seized 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 assist people on fixed incomes who are struggling to pay their bills amid habitual increases in electric rates.
“That’s why it’s incredibly important that we elect Donald Trump as president,” Capito said after condemning a recently released Biden administration rule that would force coal-fired power plants to capture their emissions or shut down.
Ironically, Republican Gov. Jim Justice, running for retiring Democrat Joe Manchin’s Senate seat, is the only candidate to receive Trump’s coveted endorsement in a primary race. And Justice disagreed with Trump more than most candidates. For example, the governor supported the bipartisan infrastructure bill, which provided the state with millions of dollars to expand broadband and road networks.
Alex Mooney, a congressman running against the judiciary in the primary, has called the judiciary a “RINO” at every opportunity. Justice, a former billionaire businessman with a folksy personality that has won him a faithful following, was initially elected as a Democrat in 2017 before switching to Republican at a Trump rally early in his term. Mooney voted against the infrastructure bill.
Mooney has said he recognizes Biden as president but believes the 2020 election was not fair. He voted not to certify Biden’s victory in Pennsylvania.
Justice, asked during a news conference last week whether he believed Biden legitimately won, adopted a defiant tone even as he hedged: “What does it matter?” I mean, what on earth Does it matter?”
The governor then told a story he had told many times, about something his father had told him when he was playing in golf tournaments as a juvenile man.
“Dad always told me, ‘Son, the only shot that counts in golf is the next shot.’ If you made a hole-in-one as your last shot, so what?”
