Gov. Jim Justice (R-WV) won the GOP primary for outgoing Sen. Joe Manchin’s (D-WV) seat on Tuesday, making it a seat heavily favored for Republicans to flip come November.
The Associated Press called the race for Justice at 8:15 p.m., less than an hour after the polls closed in West Virginia. With 13% of ballots counted, Justice led with 61% of the vote. Justice defeated his closest competition, Rep. Alex Mooney (R-WV), who had 28.2% of the vote, along with five other lesser-known Republican candidates who appeared on the ballot.
Justice, 73, is finishing out his second term as governor and is term limited. The businessman and member of a prominent coal mining family was first elected as governor in 2016 as a Democrat before becoming a Republican in August 2017.
Incumbent Manchin decided not to run for reelection in November, raising speculation about a third-party presidential run. However, he ultimately ruled out a White House bid in February under No Labels, the centrist group that has since abandoned moving forward with a bipartisan unity ticket for the 2024 presidential election.
Justice announced a run for Senate nearly a year ago, a major win for national Republicans who had been recruiting the term-limited governor for months. Justice framed himself as the strongest candidate to unseat Manchin before Manchin ultimately announced his retirement from the Senate. The West Virginia Democrat had been considered Senate Democrats’ only chance of holding on to the West Virginia seat.
Former President Donald Trump endorsed Justice in the Senate race to replace outgoing Manchin in October. However, Mooney was already in the race and had the endorsement of the conservative Club for Growth.
Mooney, a five-term congressman who had the backing of Sens. Ted Cruz (R-TX), Rand Paul (R-KY), and Mike Lee (R-UT) and Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH), sought to brand Justice as a RINO, or “Republican in name only,” and emphasized he was the only true conservative in the race, pointing out Justice’s past as a Democrat. The West Virginia congressman also sought to highlight scrutiny over a string of legal challenges against Justice’s coal empire.
Justice will go on to face the Democratic candidate who wins the primary. There are three Democratic hopefuls vying to replace Manchin, including Wheeling Mayor Glenn Elliott, who was an aide to Democratic Sen. Robert C. Byrd and has the backing of Manchin.
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Manchin, who was the former governor of West Virginia, was first elected in a special election in 2010. Manchin went on to be reelected to serve for two more full terms.
As West Virginia is likely going to flip to Republicans, Democrats are facing a difficult map to keep control of the Senate in 2024. With a narrow 51-49 advantage in the chamber, they must defend incumbents in Ohio and Montana as well as other states like Pennsylvania, Michigan, Nevada and Wisconsin.
