AP Photo/Chris Tilley, File, AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File
- West Virginia is holding congressional primaries on May 10.
- GOP Reps. Alex Mooney and Rep. David McKinley, are facing off for the same district.
- Polls are now closed. Follow along for live results.
West Virginia is holding congressional primaries on May 10. Polls are now closed in the race.
The races and the stakes:
West Virginia is holding congressional and state legislative primaries on Tuesday — including the first primary election of the 2022 midterms where two members of Congress are competing against each other head-to-head.
The state lost one of its three congressional districts as a result of reapportionment following 2020 US Census, resulting in two Republicans — Rep. David McKinley and Rep. Alex Mooney — being drawn into West Virginia’s 2nd District.
The contest will pit the potency of President Donald Trump’s endorsement power against the strength of new infrastructure spending in West Virginia.
Trump has backed Mooney, a Maryland native who was elected to Congress in 2014, over McKinley, an engineer by trade and one of the most vocal champions of the $1.2 trillion bipartisan infrastructure Congress passed in 2021.
On the campaign trail, Mooney has hammered McKinley for being one of 13 House Republicans to vote for that bill and one of 35 to vote for a bipartisan commission to investigate the January 6 insurrection, which Republicans ultimately blocked in the US Senate.
But Trump has not hit the campaign trail or cut any ads for Mooney as he has for some of his other endorsees, including Senate candidates JD Vance in Ohio and Mehmet Oz in Pennsylvania, Politico noted.
McKinley, for his part, has been endorsed by Gov. Jim Justice and Sen. Joe Manchin — powerful West Virginia Democrat who played a key role in the infrastructure talks on the Senate side and even cut an ad in support of McKinley.
“I’ve always said if I can’t go home and explain it, I can’t vote for it — and that’s why I opposed Build Back Better,” Manchin said in the ad, referring to Democrats’ proposed spending package focused on social spending and climate.
“For Alex Mooney and his out-of-state supporters to suggest that David McKinley supported Build Back Better is an outright lie. David McKinley has always opposed reckless spending because it doesn’t make sense for West Virginia,” Manchin added.
McKinley himself been shameless about his infrastructure investment support.
“We have the worst conditions,” McKinley told Politico of infrastructure. “Some of the roads and bridges are 50, 70 years old. We have water lines built in 1880. I can’t do this. This is not a time to play politics. I’m voting for West Virginia.”
Whichever candidate wins the primary election is the heavy favorite to win the general election in November in this safely Republican district.
Later this year, members of Congress belonging to the same political party will face off in member-on-member primaries in Georgia, Illinois, and Michigan.
In another Republican primary in Illinois, Trump has endorsed Rep. Mary Miller over Rep. Rodney Davis, another member of Congress who voted for the bipartisan January 6 commission.
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