West Virginia Governor Jim Justice has won his state’s Republican U.S. Senate primary election, delivering former President Donald Trump a key win that could decide which party controls the Senate next year.
Justice, who was endorsed by Trump shortly after entering the race last year, became the GOP Senate candidate on Tuesday night, more than doubling the vote total of his nearest competitor, U.S. Representative Alex Mooney, at the time of publication, according to the Associated Press.
While Mooney was also endorsed by Trump while winning reelection to his House seat in 2022, Justice is a very popular figure in West Virginia and likely represents a far greater threat to moderate Democratic Senator Joe Manchin’s hopes of reelection in November.
Justice, who became governor as a Democrat but switched allegiance to the GOP during a 2017 Trump rally, promised to follow an “America-First agenda” in the Senate following his win in a statement shared to X, formerly Twitter, on Tuesday night.
Then-President Donald Trump, left, and West Virginia Governor Jim Justice are pictured at a “Make America Great Again” rally in Huntington, West Virginia, on August 3, 2017. Justice won West Virginia’s GOP Senate primary race… Then-President Donald Trump, left, and West Virginia Governor Jim Justice are pictured at a “Make America Great Again” rally in Huntington, West Virginia, on August 3, 2017. Justice won West Virginia’s GOP Senate primary race on Tuesday night with Trump’s endorsement.
SAUL LOEB/AFP
“Thank you, West Virginia, for placing your support and trust in me,” Justice wrote. “I am truly humbled and will work every day to win in November so we can flip the Senate and deliver on our America-First agenda!”
Justice’s Trump-backed primary victory, as the Republican governor of a state that overwhelmingly voted for Trump in 2016 and 2020, was expected by most political observers.
However, Trump does not have a flawless track record of endorsed candidates winning U.S. Senate seats in high-profile general election races, with Mehmet Oz in Pennsylvania and Herschel Walker in Georgia being two notable examples of Trump endorsees whose 2022 defeats helped Democrats take control of the upper chamber.
This is a developing story and will be updated as more information becomes available.
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