Political Expert Assesses Wins, Losses In W.Va. Elections

In both the House of Delegates and the West Virginia Senate, the 2026 general election saw inroads for Democrats.  

At least one expert traces the reasons for those inroads to several key issues.  

Assistant News Director Maria Young spoke with Marshall University political science professor Marybeth Beller to find out about the wins and the losses.  

This transcript has been lightly edited for brevity and clarity. 

Young: Professor, let’s start in the West Virginia House of Delegates. A number of seats up for grabs, and there have been some notable victories here. Let’s start off with the race that was held by Vernon Criss. 

Beller: Yeah, Vernon Criss was the incumbent for the 12th district in the House of Delegates, and Vernon Criss lost his primary to Charles Hartzog, who was supported by the governor. But tonight, Hartzog lost to the Democratic candidate, Dennis Rempel, in a vote of 49% to 45%, with the third independent candidate taking 6%. So the seat that Morrissey really wanted for Hartzog has now flipped completely to a Democrat. 

Young: So what else is happening in the House of Delegates? 

Beller: Some exciting things, I think. Steve Williams is back. Steve Williams has won over an incumbent. This is in the 24th district, which was held by Patrick Lucas. Tonight, Steve Williams won 56% to 44%. So this is a bit of a homecoming for Steve Williams. Another person who’s coming back to the House in the 75th district is Linda Longstreth. 

Young: Now, over in the Senate, sort of a similar story. 

Beller: Right. And the Senate, of course, is much smaller. There are only 34 seats, but the Democrats have picked up two seats. In the 13th, John Williams has beat out incumbent Mike Oliverio, 55% to 41%, which is huge. And in the 17th, Richie Robb has beat out Anne Charnock, 53% to 47%. So those are two definite ones for the Democrats. In the third Democratic seat, that was Mike Woelfel’s, who retired, of course. and that seat stays in Democratic hands. Duron Jackson has won 52% to 48% over Chris Miller. That’s significant because Chris Miller, of course, from Huntington area has run for Republican nominations before and other offices and got the nod this time but still lost the seat. 

Young: What does this mean overall for the state of West Virginia? Because West Virginia obviously still very heavily Republican both in the House of Delegates and in the Senate. It is not the landslide victory that Democrats are seeing at the national level, but what does this say about Democrats in the state of West Virginia? 

Beller: It says that Democrats are revitalized, that they are working harder than ever, and that they’ve come back to life. There are a lot of policies in the state that have many people really upset. Our education system is really at a crisis point with public ed, and there are data centers that local people are not allowed to weigh in on because of House Bill 2014 that was passed last year. So there are serious issues in the state, and I think we’re seeing a lot of Democrats who are fighting back. 

Young: So let’s just touch quickly on what’s happening at the national level because certainly West Virginia is still a very heavily Republican state but the nation itself has seen a pretty significant shift. 

Beller: It has and it’s still going. It looks pretty positive now that the Democrats are going to be able to rule in the House of Representatives and that is significant because the House has oversight, certainly with looking at bringing people in and having hearings for accountability, no bill is going to ever get to the president’s desk without passing the House and the Senate. And of course, the House has the power of impeachment.