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Early voting for the 2026 general election ended in West Virginia over the weekend. The polls open statewide Tuesday at 6:30 a.m. and close at 7:30 p.m.
There is a lot riding on the outcome of Tuesday’s election, both in this state and across the nation. Maria Young spoke with Marshall University Political Science Professor Marybeth Beller about what to watch for as the results come in.
This transcript has been lightly edited for brevity and clarity.
Young: Obviously there’s a lot happening nationally, but let’s start off with what’s happening in West Virginia. The state is obviously very heavily Republican and that’s not going to change in this election, right?
Beller: It is not likely to change. I think a couple of things we need to look at. The first is that we have more and more races in the House and the Senate that are being contested.
And, a lot of those contestants this time are women, which is really important because West Virginia has had for several years a national reputation of having some of the lowest representation of women.
We have a total of 65 women who are running for those positions. Some of those are incumbents. but the majority of them are not. And of the women who are running, 10 are Republican, 50 are Democrats, three are from the Constitution Party, and then we have one each represented from the Mountain Party and from an independent.
And the West Virginia Senate, we also have eight women who are running, and only one is an incumbent. So I think that’s part of the story that we really need to look at going into this election on Tuesday.
Young: When you have that many women candidates, what does that say? I’m thinking of issues like abortion, but there are other typical women’s issues that might be more impacted by a woman candidate or a woman office holder. What are those issues in your mind?
Beller: I would say when it comes to abortion, women as a gender are divided on that issue. And West Virginia has been pretty clear in the policies that had passed.
However, women are also very interested in other forms of healthcare and in childcare and in education. And right now in West Virginia, our public education system has been greatly damaged by a lot of the public money that is going toward homeschooling and charter schools.
And I think these issues really ignite women because a lot of women we see in legislatures all over the United States, when women are in office, they pay attention to all issues, but they prioritize many times education and health care in ways that a lot of male legislators do not.
Young: If we take a look at, for example, the House of Delegates in West Virginia, how many of those are, would you say, heavily contested as opposed to just shoe-in candidates who aren’t going to have any problem getting an election?
Beller: In District 75, Linda Longstreth is running again. She has already served in the House but has been out for a term and the incumbent right now is Phil Mallow. She’s running against him. People know Linda Longstreth, and so that’s something that we want to pay attention to.
Another race that I think is going to be really interesting to follow is Vernon Criss, who lost his primary to a candidate who was backed by the governor. And Vernon Criss is now launching a write-in campaign. And so that’s going to be interesting to look at.
Young: When we look at the state legislature, right now it’s roughly 91% controlled by Republicans. What would you think would be the outcome of this election?
Beller: I think that we have a very good chance that Democrats are going to make some headway. I believe that when we have closer to a two-party divide in any legislative system, we create a system of higher accountability to the voters.
When one party dominates, it very often has a feeling that it’s not as accountable to the voters because it could afford to lose a few seats and still keep control. So if the Democratic Party is able to gain some seats, it could result in really moving the legislature both in the House and the Senate possibly away from these cultural issues and more toward legislation that addresses economic issues and issues of education.