State of Affairs

Voters across West Virginia turned out in record numbers to have their voices heard at the ballot box for the 2024 General Election. Early voting in West Virginia broke records this year with more than 300,000 voters participating. Election night results are in, and the television ads and mailbox flyers are out. 

West Virginia’s general election results went largely as expected Tuesday evening, with Republicans overwhelmingly winning most races and a lot of familiar and new faces moving to many different offices in 2025. 

At the federal level, West Virginia’s congressional delegation is now completely “red.” Governor Jim Justice successfully flipped the U.S. Senate seat currently held by Senator Joe Manchin, notching an overwhelming win (69% – 28%) over Wheeling Mayor Glenn Elliott. Once Senator Manchin announced his retirement, this seat had the eyes of key republicans in Washington and across the country to help flip the Senate. Republicans did just that thanks to Justice and others. Senator Shelley Moore Capito will now be the Senior Senator from West Virginia and looks to be in line for a high-ranking position in the Senate Republican Caucus.

West Virginia’s other two federal races also went as expected with State Treasurer Riley Moore – the nephew of U.S. Senator Shelley Moore Capito – now headed to Congress as West Virginia’s 2nd Congressional District representative. Moore will hold the seat once held by Congressman Alex Mooney, who instead ran for U.S. Senate earlier this year. Additionally, Incumbent 1st District Congresswoman Carol Miller easily won reelection by a comfortable margin of 67%-26%. Miller will return to Congress for her fourth consecutive term.

In West Virginia’s statewide races, Republican Attorney General Patrick Morrisey easily won election to succeed Justice as West Virginia’s next Governor. Morrisey defeated former Huntington Mayor Steve Williams by 31 percentage points. Governor-elect Morrisey will now turn to putting together a transition team as he looks to build an executive branch staff and agenda for when he takes office in 2025.

Current State Auditor J.B. McCuskey was also easily elected to succeed Morrisey as Attorney General. Kris Warner (Secretary of State), Larry Pack (State Treasurer), Kent Leonhardt (Commissioner of Agriculture) and Mark Hunt (State Auditor) – all Republicans – round out the remainder of the state’s Board of Public Works.  

With respect to the West Virginia Legislature, the vast majority of Tuesday’s general election races were uncompetitive – 7 of 17 state Senate seats were uncontested, while 43 of 100 House of Delegates seats were uncontested. At the end of the evening, the Legislature’s Republican supermajorities slightly increased in both chambers. Republicans picked up one seat in the state Senate with the election of Scott Fuller in Senate District 5, resulting in a new majority of 32-2 in the upper chamber. In the House of Delegates, Republicans expanded on their majority by two seats, with the House majority now standing at 91-9.  

Most focus will now turn to the election of West Virginia’s next Senate President, which could be dictated in large part by the fact that the Senate will have nine new members because of this year’s election results. Notably, two of those members are still to be appointed at some point in the coming weeks as a result of the anticipated resignations of Senator Charlie Trump (elected Supreme Court Justice) and Senator Mark Hunt (elected State Auditor). 

Legislators will be sworn in on January 8, and while the newly elected officials may be chomping at the bit to get started, they won't reconvene for the official start of the sixty-day regular session until February 12, 2025, due to the gubernatorial election. During that time the Morrisey administration will work to craft its agenda items for the upcoming session. As with any gubernatorial transition, it is possible that we could see some legislators take positions in the Morrisey administration and other state/federal offices, resulting in even more legislative appointments between now and the start of session.

Current legislators will return to Charleston shortly as the Legislature is slated to return for its previously scheduled interim meetings Nov.10 – 12 and then again Dec. 8 – 10 to round out the year. Lawmakers typically convene in caucus to nominate their leadership for the coming legislative year just prior to the December interim meetings.