Republican state lawmaker Carol Miller has won a congressional seat in West Virginia, holding off a strong Democratic challenge in a district Donald Trump dominated two years ago.
The Latest on the general election in West Virginia (all times local):
10:05 p.m.
Republican state lawmaker Carol Miller has won a congressional seat in West Virginia, holding off a strong Democratic challenge in a district Donald Trump dominated two years ago.
Miller defeated Democratic state Sen. Richard Ojeda in Tuesday’s 3rd District election. Incumbent Republican Evan Jenkins gave up the House seat for an unsuccessful run for the U. S. Senate. He then was appointed to fill a state Supreme Court seat.
Miller becomes the third woman from West Virginia elected to Congress, where her father also served from Ohio.
He has served in the state House of Delegates since 2007 and is a bison farmer and small-business owner.
She received an endorsement from Trump, who cited her support of coal and gun rights. Trump won the district by nearly 50 percentage points in winning the presidency in 2016.
___
10:05 p.m.
Republican U. S. Rep. Alex Mooney has won a third term in West Virginia’s 2nd District.
Mooney defeated Democrat Talley Sergent in Tuesday’s election. Sergent is a former Hillary Clinton state presidential campaign director in a state that Republican Donald Trump won in a landslide in 2016 as he ran for president.
Mooney is a former Maryland state senator and state GOP chairman who moved in 2013 about 25 miles from Frederick, Maryland, to Charles Town, West Virginia. He won the 2nd District race in 2014 when seven-term incumbent Republican Shelley Moore Capito won a U. S. Senate seat.
Sergent ran for Congress to fight the opioid epidemic. Her mother has adopted an 11-year-old granddaughter whose mother — Sergent’s sister — is a drug addict.
The district stretches 300 miles from the Ohio River to the Eastern Panhandle.
___
9:45 p.m.
Democrat Joe Manchin of West Virginia has turned back a challenge by Republican Patrick Morrisey to win his second full-term in the U. S. Senate in a state carried by President Donald Trump.
Manchin survived the most difficult re-election campaign of his career against the comparative newcomer Morrisey. Manchin is a former governor who has held elected office in West Virginia for the better part of three decades.
Manchin heavily outspent Morrisey and portrayed himself as loyal to his home state rather than party ideology. Manchin was the only Senate Democrat to vote to confirm U. S. Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh.
Manchin was critical of Morrisey’s New Jersey roots and his past lobbying ties to the pharmaceutical industry.
Morrisey is a two-term state attorney general and a staunch Trump supporter.
___
9:15 p.m.
Republican U. S. Rep. David McKinley has won a fifth term to represent West Virginia’s 1st District.
McKinley defeated Democrat Kendra Fershee in Tuesday’s election.
McKinley has represented the northern West Virginia district since 2011.
The 71-year-old McKinley touted his background as a professional engineer and seventh-generation West Virginian, and efforts to protect jobs and health care for state residents.
Campaign finance records show McKinley outraised Fershee by a 5-to-1 margin.
Fershee is a West Virginia University law professor and associate dean of academic affairs. The first-time candidate and Michigan native said she was turned off by Democrat Bernie Sanders and Republican Donald Trump in the 2016 campaign as well as the voting record of McKinley. She said voters want someone in Congress who „is just like them.“
___
8:40 p.m.
Military service meant a lot to some voters who sided with Democrat Richard Ojeda in West Virginia’s 3rd Congressional District.
Ojeda was a 24-year Army veteran before retiring. He’s a first-term state senator who faced House of Delegates member Carol Miller for the U. S. House seat that Rep. Evan Jenkins vacated in order to run for a U. S. Senate seat.
Milton voter Everett Neville preferred Ojeda simply because of his military background.
Darlene Dunfee of Milton says she served in the Air Force in the late 1970s. She says she saw Ojeda’s campaign commercials and liked his personality.
___
7:45 p.m.
Polls have closed in West Virginia in an election that came two years after voters overwhelmingly supported Donald Trump’s rise to the presidency.
The state’s high-profile U. S. Senate race topped the ballot, which also featured races for U. S. House, the Legislature, the state Supreme Court and two proposed constitutional amendments.
Democratic U. S. Sen. Joe Manchin tried to fend off a challenge from Republican state Attorney General Patrick Morrisey.
The 3rd District U. S. House race pits Democratic state Sen. Richard Ojeda against Republican state Delegate Carol Miller.
Republican Congressman David McKinley faces West Virginia University law professor Kendra Fershee in the 1st District. In the 2nd District, Congressman Alex Mooney takes on Talley Sergent, the state presidential campaign director for Hillary Clinton in 2016.
___
4:30 p.m.
Health insurance and the economy were foremost on Roger Malcomb’s mind as he went to vote Tuesday in his West Virginia hometown of Alum Creek in Lincoln County.
A lifelong Democrat, Malcomb typically votes a straight Democratic ticket. This year, he voted for Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin, but said he based his vote on individual candidates regardless of party affiliation.
Malcomb blames some of the economic problems in West Virginia on the energy policies of former President Barack Obama, which coincided with a downturn in the coal industry.
He says his hope is with a strong turnout in the election in West Virginia, „maybe we can turn this thing around and get the economy going the right way.“
The 74-year-old retired coal miner wants to see Congress tackle health care next year. He said the government should be responsible for making health care available to all Americans.
___
10:30 am
President Donald Trump’s agenda is high on the minds of West Virginia voters.
Joseph Hall works for the city of Clarksburg during the week and in the natural gas industry on the weekends. Hall says he likes the president’s job performance and wants to „support him as best as I can“ at the polling place.
By contrast, retired state lawmaker Larry Linch said after casting his early ballot last week in Clarksburg that Trump was „a national embarrassment.
