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West Virginia U.S. Rep. Alex Mooney rides Trump endorsement to primary win
Mooney defeats fellow Republican incumbent David McKinley, who voted for bipartisan infrastructure bill and independent January 6th investigation
♦By Rich Shumate, ChickenFriedPolitics.com editor
MORGANTOWN, West Virginia (CFP) — Republican U.S. Rep. Alex Mooney has won the hotly contested incumbent-vs-incumbent primary in West Virginia’s 2nd U.S. House District, riding Donald Trump’s coveted endorsement to an easy win over U.S. Rep. David McKinley in the state’s May 10 primary.
U.S. Rep. Alex Mooney, R-West Virginia
“When Donald Trump puts his mind to something, you better watch out,” Mooney told supporters in his victory speech, in which he said voters in northern West Virginia “spoke loud and clear tonight.”
Mooney also took a shot at Democratic U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin, who crossed party lines to endorse McKinley, hinting that he might run against him for the Senate when Manchin’s seat comes up in 2024.
“I’m 2-0 against him. Maybe I should make it 3-0,” Mooney said.
Mooney took 54% of the vote to 36% for McKinley, with the rest split among three other candidates. He will be heavily favored in November against Democrat Barry Wendell, a former city council member in Morgantown, who won his party’s primary.
One possible wild card in that race: Mooney is currently under investigation by the House Ethics Committee over allegations that he misused campaign funds, had office staff perform personal errands, and interfered in a previous ethics investigation. He has denied any wrongdoing.
McKinley and Mooney were forced to run against each other after West Virginia lost one of its three U.S. House seats after 2020 reapportionment. State legislators decided to slice the state into northern and southern districts, throwing both men into a primary for the same seat.
The 2nd District includes the northern and western panhandles and the northern third of the state, including the cities of Morgantown, Wheeling and Parkersburg.
McKinley has represented more of the district than Mooney in the previous House map, but Mooney ended up carrying all but three counties.
Trump endorsed Mooney over McKinley, who was one of just 35 Republicans to support an independent investigation into the January 6, 2021 riot at the U.S. Capitol and one of just 12 GOP members voting for Joe Biden’s bipartisan infrastructure bill.
McKinley later voted against a House-led January 6th investigation in which Republican leaders aren’t participating.
McKinley said he supported the infrastructure measure because West Virginia needed money, but Mooney has labeled him as a RINO – Republican in Name Only – for going along with a plan championed by Biden and Democrats.
The state’s other incumbent U.S. House member, Republican Carol Miller, easily won her primary in the southern 1st District that includes Charleston and Huntington. She will face Democrat Lacy Watson, an instructor at Bluefield State College, in November.
Mountaineer State voters also decided state legislative primaries and other local races Tuesday; there are no statewide races or U.S. Senate seats up this year.
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Republican U.S. House incumbents David McKinley, Alex Mooney face off in West Virginia primary
Donald Trump backing Mooney after McKinley votes for independent January 6th investigation
♦By Rich Shumate, ChickenFriedPolitics.com editor
MORGANTOWN, West Virginia (CFP) — Republicans in the northern half of West Virginia will go to the polls Tuesday to decide an incumbent-vs-incumbent U.S. House race that will test the potency of Donald Trump’s political brand in one of his strongest states.
U.S. Reps. David McKinley and Alex Mooney, R-West Virginia
In the state’s 2nd U.S. House District, Republican U.S. Reps. David McKinley and Alex Mooney –- thrown into the same district after West Virginia lost a House seat in reapportionment –- will face off in what has become a contentious intra-party spat.
Mountaineer State voters will also decide state legislative primaries and other local races Tuesday; there are no statewide races or U.S. Senate seats up this year.
Trump has endorsed Mooney over McKinley, who was one of just 35 Republicans to support an independent investigation into the January 6, 2021 riot at the U.S. Capitol and one of just 12 GOP members voting for Joe Biden’s bipartisan infrastructure bill.
McKinley later voted against a House-led January 6th investigation in which Republican leaders aren’t participating.
McKinley said he supported the infrastructure measure because West Virginia needed money, but Mooney has labeled him as a RINO – Republican in Name Only – for going along with a plan championed by Biden and Democrats.
The candidates’ West Virginia bona fides could also be a deciding factor: McKinley, 70, from Wheeling in the northern panhandle, touts that his family has been in the state for seven generations. Mooney, 50, from Charles Town in the eastern panhandle, is a former state senator in Maryland and Washington lobbyist who moved to the state prior to running for Congress in 2014.
Mooney is also currently under investigation by the House Ethics Committee over allegations that he misused campaign funds, had office staff perform personal errands, and interfered in a previous ethics investigation. He has denied any wrongdoing.
McKinley has been endorsed by both Republican Governor Jim Justice and Democratic U.S. Senator Joe Manchin, the only Democrat still holding a statewide or federal office.
During a virtual appearance at a pre-election rally, Trump, who carried West Virginia by 40 points in 2016 and 39 points in 2020, charged that McKinley “betrayed Republican voters in West Virginia” with his bipartisan votes and called Mooney a “warrior In every sense of the way.”
But McKinley touts that he supported Trump 92% of the time in Congress and has accused Mooney of misleading voters into thinking that he supported Biden’s larger social spending program, which he opposed, rather than the smaller spending bill focused on infrastructure.
McKinley and Mooney were forced to run against each other after West Virginia lost one of its three U.S. House seats after 2020 reapportionment. State legislators decided to slice the state into northern and southern districts, throwing both men into a primary for the same seat.
The 2nd District includes the northern and western panhandles and the northern third of the state, including the cities of Morgantown, Wheeling and Parkersburg. McKinley represents more of the district than Mooney in the previous House map.
The state’s other incumbent U.S. House member, Republican Carol Miller, is running in the southern 1st District that includes Charleston and Huntington. She faces four Republican opponents but is expected to easily win the primary and face Democrat Lacy Watson, an instructor at Bluefield State College.
Democrats in the 2nd District will choose between former Morgantown city councilman Barry Wendell and Angela Dwyer, a security operations manager and mother of seven from Falling Waters. The winner will face either McKinley or Mooney in November
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Alex Mooney tops crowded field to win GOP U.S. House primary in West Virgina
Republican primary race in state’s 2nd District featured Tea Party-versus-establishment battle
♦By Rich Shumate, Chickenfriedpolitics.com editor
CHARLESTON, West Virginia (CFP) — Just a year after moving across the Potomac River from Maryland into West Virginia, Republican Alex Mooney has won his party’s nomination for his new state’s open 2nd District U.S. House seat.
GOP House candidate Alex Mooney
In a seven-way race, Mooney captured 36 percent of the vote, defeating Ken Reed, a pharmacy owner from Berkeley Springs, who came in second at 22 percent, and Charlotte Lane, a Charleston lawyer and international trade commissioner under President George W. Bush, who took 18 percent of the vote.
West Virginia does not have primary runoffs.
The battle for the GOP nod in the 2nd District turned into a closely watched tussle between outside conservative activists and Tea Party groups, who backed Mooney, and business and party leaders who lined up behind Lane. Reed poured more than $500,000 of his own money into the race.
Lane had the backing of the powerful West Virginia Coal Association. Mooney was endorsed by the Senate Conservatives Fund, the Tea Party Express and former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee. Despite her establishment credentials, Mooney eclipsed Lane in fundraising by $150,000, according to filings with the Federal Election Commission.
Both Lane and Reed had accused Mooney, who served in the Maryland Senate from 1999 to 2010, of being a carpetbagger who parachuted into West Virginia to seek political office.
He had formed an exploratory committee for a U.S. House race in Maryland in 2012 but eventually decided not to run, and he moved to West Virginia in 2013. His Maryland Senate district was adjacent to the Mountaineer State.
Nick Casey, the former chairman of the West Virginia Democratic Party, easily won his party’s nomination for the 2nd District seat and will face Mooney in November.
The 2nd District meanders across 17 counties from Charleston, the state capital, to the Eastern Panhandle sandwiched between Maryland and Virginia. The seat is currently held by Republican U.S. Rep. Shelley Moore Capito, who is giving it up to run for the U.S. Senate.
Capito easily won her Senate primary and will face Democratic Secretary of State Natalie Tennant in the fall.
Even though Capito has held the seat since 2001 and Mitt Romney captured 60 percent of its presidential votes in 2012, Democrats see the seat as a potential pickup target. Casey has raised more than $890,000 in a district with modest media advertising costs, according to FEC reports.
Capito did not endorse any of the candidates in the Republican primary.
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