Gov. Justice secures landslide victory for U.S. Senate seat

CELEBRATING — Gov. Jim Justice, surrounded by First Lady Cathy Justice, their adult children, their spouses and grandchildren, thanks supporters Tuesday night at the Greenbrier as confetti and balloons drop. — Steven Allen Adams

BWHITE SULPHUR SPRINGS – Gov. Jim Justice is used to landslide elections, and Tuesday night was no different, with Justice securing a victory to become West Virginia’s next U.S. Senator.

The Associated Press called the race Tuesday night in favor of Justice shortly after polls closed. Justice watched the results come in Tuesday night with friends, supporters and his loyal English bulldog Babydog in the Colonial Hall at the historic Greenbrier Resort.

“Absolutely with all in me, it’s an honor. I proudly … accept the honor beyond belief this absolute opportunity to serve as your United State (senator),” Justice said, surrounded by First Lady Cathy Justice, adult children Jay and Jill Justice and other family members.

According to unofficial election results Tuesday night reported by county clerks to the West Virginia Secretary of State’s Office, Justice carried 70 percent of the vote with 37 out of 55 counties completely reporting and 377,302 votes cast by 10:43 p.m. His Democratic opponent, two-term former Wheeling Mayor Glenn Elliott, carried 26 percent of the vote with 141,053 votes. Elliott said in a text message that his campaign would release a statement Wednesday.

Justice – who will succeed U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin, I-W.Va. – is the first Republican to hold this Senate seat since the brief tenure of Chapman Revercomb from 1956 to 1959. Justice told reporters after leaving the stage that he will be a different senator than what people are used to.

“I’m just humbled,” Justice said. “The way I did this all along, it’s going to be different. I can’t do this the way that it’s been done in D.C. I’ve got to do this my way, and really and truly my way has surely proven to be really, really fruitful. Now, with all that being said, the great people of the State of West Virginia believed in me. They stepped up.”

Wrapping up his second and final four-year term as West Virginia’s 36th governor, Justice first announced for U.S. Senate in April 2023 at the Greenbrier to challenge Manchin, the previous two-term governor who succeeded the late Democratic U.S. Sen. Robert C. Byrd in a special election in 2010. Manchin went on to serve the remainder of Byrd’s six-year term and was elected for two more terms in 2012 and 2018.

Manchin announced in November 2023 that he would retire from the U.S. Senate following the conclusion of his term at the end of 2024, later switching from a registered Democrat to unaffiliated earlier this year.

Justice was recruited for a U.S. Senate run by outgoing Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., and the National Republican Senatorial Committee. U.S. Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, expected to become the fourth ranking member of Senate Republican leadership next year, introduced and endorsed Justice at his April 2023 campaign announcement along with U.S. Sen. Lindsay Graham, R-S.C.

“Are you better off now than you were four years ago? Resoundingly, a lot of people are answering that question with a big fat no,” Capito said Tuesday night. “They want something different, and the path to that is President Donald Trump and Sen. Jim Justice to get us the majority in the United States Senate.”

“From my family to yours, we stand ready to help not just the Justice family … to not just make West Virginia a great place, but this country the place we aspire to, that we want our children in and want to fight for and believe in the liberties and freedoms that we have,” Capito continued.

First elected governor as the Democratic nominee in 2016 after defeating former Republican Senate President Bill Cole of Mercer County, Justice switched to the Republican Party in 2017 at the behest of Trump. He easily defeated businessman and former Justice cabinet official Woody Thrasher in the 2020 GOP primary for governor and Democratic Kanawha County Commissioner Ben Salango in the 2020 general election.

Justice easily defeated five-term U.S. Rep. Alex Mooney, R-W.Va., in the May Republican primary, by more than 35 points. Despite putting none of his own money in his race, Justice was able to pull significant amounts of campaign donations, and Justice maintained wide leads in opinion polls over Mooney and Elliott. In the later days of the campaign, Justice and Babydog hit the road not for himself, but on behalf of Trump.

In other federal races, Republican State Treasurer Riley Moore received enough votes to succeed Mooney in the 2nd Congressional District. Moore carried 71 percent of the vote at press time, receiving 206,305 votes. His Democratic challenger, retired U.S. Navy Cmdr. Steven Wendelin, had 29 percent of the vote, for 85,596 votes.

Moore – the nephew of Capito and the grandson of the late Republican governor and Congressman Arch Moore – is a former member of the House of Delegates who defeated long-time Democratic State Treasurer John Perdue in 2020.

“I am honored and humbled by the overwhelming support of the voters in West Virginia’s 2nd Congressional District,” Moore said in a statement Tuesday night. “While this election is now over, the process of fixing our country is just getting started. I promise to fight for West Virginia values every single day to make our state, and our country, a better place to live, work, and raise a family.”

In the 1st Congressional District covering the southern half of West Virginia, three-term U.S. Rep. Carol Miller, R-W.Va., easily secured her victory with 70 percent of the vote for 160,053 votes as of press time. Democratic opponent Chris Bob Reed had 24 percent of the vote for 54,183 votes. Independent candidate Wes Holden, had 6 percent of the vote for 14,646 votes.

“I am honored to have won the election in West Virginia’s 1st District,” Miller said in a statement. “Serving the southern half of West Virginia for the past six years has been an honor that I do not take lightly, and I will continue to enact policies that put West Virginians and Americans first.”