Both candidates who were expected to win in West Virginia Tuesday did — Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders took the state. With no one left to run against,…
Both candidates who were expected to win in West Virginia Tuesday did — Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders took the state.
With no one left to run against, Trump won the Republican primary in the state by a large margin. A small crowd gathered at Embassy Suites in Charleston to celebrate the victory. Robert Jones, of Charleston, was at the party and said Trump is the candidate the state needs.
“I believe that Trump resonates with the working man and I really like that,” Jones said. “Other than the past couple of years, the Republican party has distanced itself from middle America and I think Trump is the first person that is going to redefine the republican party.”
Things were more up in the air on the Democratic side, where Bernie Sanders was the projected winner of the state primary. Daniel Falsafi was at the Bernie Sanders rally at a bar in downtown Charleston. The college student from South Charleston said Sanders is the man for the working class.
“He does want to help out working people,” Falsafi said. “He wants to raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour, he wants to help with paid family and medical leave, he wants to help out the working man.”
Sanders took the victory over Hillary Clinton by a safe margin, despite her national delegate lead.
Now the election is over, some races we thought would be close…weren’t. Others not on our radar screen at all became barn burners.
What were the 10 most important lessons from this primary election?
1. Money beats name recognition in the W.Va. Supreme Court race
Before the election, Republicans feared arch-enemy Darrell McGraw would slip into the Supreme Court among a divided field. McGraw is well known from his long tenure as state Attorney General.
Instead, the GOP establishment’s preferred candidate, Beth Walker, walked away with an easy win.
Several GOP groups spent big to either support her or oppose McGraw and fellow Democrat Bill Wooton. Her commercials spoke about fighting drug abuse, while the attack ads branded McGraw and Wooton as Obama supporters.
In the end, it wasn’t even close.
Credit Daniel Shreve / The Media Center
/
The Media Center
Jim Justice (center) put away his two opponents
2. Money beats name recognition, part two – the billionaire wins
West Virginia’s only billionaire is now the Democratic candidate for governor.
Businessman Jim Justice garnered more votes than his two opponents combined. This despite the fact that one is a former Senate President (Kessler) and the other a former U.S. Attorney (Goodwin.)
Justice faces Senate President Bill Cole in the general election. Expect Justice to take heat for unpaid business taxes, and Cole to have to defend his record in the Legislature.
3. Sanders was a lot more popular than Clinton
His 51-36 win was bigger than expected. It continued to show her weakness among working-class whites, at a time when she wants to pivot to the general election.
The Clintons (Bill and Hillary) were met with angry protests in southern West Virginia, while huge crowds showed up for Sanders events.
Steve Helber
/
AP File Photo
Trump at a Charleston rally
4. Trump is the most popular of all!
True, the other GOP candidates have suspended their campaigns, Still, he received about 3 out of 4 GOP primary votes. If there is a #NeverTrump vote in West Virginia, it is very tiny.
Meanwhile, exit polls show Trump winning one-third of all DEMOCRATIC voters against either Sanders or Clinton, with another 20 percent undecided.
5. There’s a fierce fight to unseat Rep. Alex Mooney
In 2014, Alex Mooney overcame the carpetbagger label to win the 2nd Congressional seat, but by only 3 points.
Five Democrats were vying to take Mooney on in the fall, and two of them were very close all evening – former state Delegate Mark Hunt and lawyer and veteran Cory Simpson. Hunt squeaked out a victory.
Credit Martin Valent / West Virginia Public Broadcastinglative Photography
/
West Virginia Public Broadcastinglative Photography
Carmichael gives an emotional speech on the Religious Freedom Restoration Act
6. Republican leaders beat back pro-union Republicans challengers
Both House Speaker Tim Armstead and Senate Majority Leader Mitch Carmichael faced primary opponents backed by unions – and both won by substantial margin.
7. Maybe the Family Policy Council is not as powerful as it thought
Carmichael also was attacked by the Family Policy Council, which targeted him because he failed to support its preferred version of the Religious Freedom Restoration Act. Carmichael’s emotional speech is credited with helping to kill the bill in the Senate.
Credit Richard Ojeda / via Facebook
/
via Facebook
Richard Ojeda, after being beaten
8. After being beaten, Ojeda wins in upset
After being brutally attacked on Sunday night, military veteran and state Senate candidate Richard Ojeda became thrust into the national spotlight.
It’s unclear whether the attack was politically motivated. Incumbent Sen. Art Kirkendoll – Ojeda’s opponent – said he does not condone violence.
But Ojeda won the race.
9. Maybe West Virginians aren’t so apathetic after all
Voter turnout, or the lack thereof, has been the biggest election story in West Virginia in recent years. In the 2014 general election, the state had the lowest voter turnout in the nation at 37.3 percent.
Unofficial voter turnout was 40 percent in this primary, with 487,550 ballots cast. Voter turnout in the 2012 primary election was 27 percent, and was 36 percent in the 2008 primary election, according to W.Va. Secretary of State Natalie Tennant.
10. Republicans are finally catching up to Democrats in primary votes
Almost as many people cast GOP ballots as Democratic ones – which is an ongoing trend. This despite Donald Trump’s advice to supporters at a rally in Charleston: “Stay at home,” he told the crowd, “and get twice as many people to vote in November.”
Hey West Virginians – go vote! Right now. No excuses!
You say that not voting is a form of protest? You’re wrong. It is nothing. It is an abdication of responsibility.
You don’t like any of the candidates? Write in your ideal public servant.
Forget about the presidential race. Today will decide future rulings of the state Supreme Court. It decides who teaches our children, and how.
And yes, every vote makes a difference. Sometimes literally – especially in smaller races. Your vote combines with others to send a powerful message to politicians…
I’m watching. I care. You better do right by us.
There are lots of things West Virginians are last in. Some of them are hard to fix. But we don’t have to be last in voter participation.
This is perhaps the West Virginia GOP’s worst nightmare – waking up May 11 to newly-elected Supreme Court Justice Darrell McGraw.
It wasn’t supposed to happen this way. When the GOP took over the state legislature last year, one of their biggest reforms was to make judicial elections non-partisan.
But since the election is decided in one vote, during the primary and without a runoff, the controversial former Attorney General could be elected with only a small plurality of votes.
“Whoever has the most on Tuesday will win, even if it is just 21 percent,” said Laurie Lin, conservative columnist, on The Front Porch podcast.
She said Republicans disarmed themselves at the very time when being a Republican was becoming a plus.
“I think there’s a lot of private griping in the Republican Party about why, why did we do this?” she said.
On this week’s podcast, liberal columnist Rick Wilson agrees with Lin that doing away with partisan elections for judge was a mistake. But they’re not sure the Legislature will revisit the law, since many incumbent judges support it.
Also on this show, we talk about the race for Governor, and what happens after the primary.
“Whoever the Democratic nominee is going to be dogged constantly by, ‘Do you support Hillary Clinton?’ Trump is going to be very popular in this state,” Lin said.
However, she said, “It will be harder for Jim Justice to be made out to be anti-coal. The guy owns a bunch of coal mines.”
“Another factor will be, how did you like what happened or didn’t happen in the legislature last session,” Wilson said. “Will you remember in November?”
Subscribe to “The Front Porch” podcast on iTunes or however you listen to podcasts.
An edited version of “The Front Porch” airs Fridays at 4:50 p.m. on West Virginia Public Broadcasting’s radio network, and the full version is available above.
Share your opinions with us about these issues, and let us know what you’d like us to discuss in the future. Send a tweet to @radiofinn or @wvpublicnews, or e-mail Scott at sfinn @ wvpublic.org
The Front Porch is underwritten by The Charleston Gazette Mail, providing both sides of the story on its two editorial pages. Check it out: http://www.wvgazettemail.com/
On West Virginia Morning, Democratic Presidential candidate Bernie Sanders reflects on his visit to the state last week in an interview with Ashton Marra…
On West Virginia Morning, Democratic Presidential candidate Bernie Sanders reflects on his visit to the state last week in an interview with Ashton Marra and Clark Davis takes the political pulse among students at Marshall University.
These stories on West Virginia Morning from West Virginia Public Broadcasting – telling West Virginia’s story.
Thousands of voters across North Central West Virginia have already cast their ballots during the first five days of the state’s early voting period for next week’s primary.
Harrison County clerk Susan Thomas tells The Exponent-Telegram of Clarksburg that an average of more than 265 residents have cast their ballots each day in the county ahead of the May 10 primary.
Lewis County clerk Cynthia Rowan says more than 100 people are casting their votes in the county each day.
She says she expects that most people who have tried early voting in the past now are consistently taking advantage of the opportunity.
The first day of early voting was April 27. Residents can visit early voting locations within their counties until 5 p.m. Saturday.
