U.S. Congressional 2nd District

MIDDLEBOURNE – With the May 10 primary defeat of incumbent Rep. David McKinley, when the 118th U.S. Congress convenes in Washington, D.C., in January 2023 this region will be represented by a different member of the House of Representatives for the first time since 2011.
Because of redistricting from the decline in the Mountain State’s population one of the three existing Congressional Districts was eliminated and portions of the current Second District were combined with First District to form the new Second District.

In the Republican primary, voters witnessed a contentious battle between Rep. David McKinley, 74, who has represented West Virginia’s First Congressional District since 2011, and Second District Congressman Alex Mooney, 51, who was first elected to Congress in 2014.

Mooney was endorsed by former President Donald Trump while McKinley was endorsed by Gov. Jim Justice and received a late endorsement by Democrat U.S. Senator Joe Manchin.

Mooney won the primary district-wide with 44,832 votes, or 54.2 percent versus 29,448 votes, or 35.6 percent for McKinley. Mooney carried all but three of the 27 counties that make up the new district. McKinley won Ohio County, his home county, with 60 percent of the vote and won in Pleasants and Marshall counties.

According to FEC filings, through the April 20 filing period Mooney out-raised and outspent McKinley. Mooney’s campaign distributed $5,139,051.08 to McKinley’s $1,929,406.42 through April 20.

Coming in third in the Republican primary was Green Party-turned-Republican Susan Buchser-Lochocki with 3.99 percent. West Union’s Mike Seckman, running his first political campaign, came in fourth with 3.69 percent and Constitutional activist Rhonda Hercules finished last with 2.5 percent.

Locally, in Tyler County Mooney carried the county by 46 votes. He received 564 to McKinley’s 518. Seckman came in third with 239, followed by Hercules with 52 and Buchser-Lochocki with 12.

In Wetzel County Mooney beat McKinley, 500 to 433 votes. Seckman received 47, Hercules 27 and Buchser-Lochocki 26.

In the Democrat Party primary for the Second Congressional District, former Morgantown City Councilman Barry Wendell won district-wide with 22,022 votes, or 57.17 percent, over Angela Dwyer, who received 16,498 votes, or 42.83 percent. This was Dwyer’s first entry into politics.
In Tyler County Wendell received 169 votes to Dwyer’s 116. In Wetzel County Wendell had 654 votes to Dwyer’s 259.

WV House of Delegates

In the Republican Primary in the newly created West Virginia House of Delegates District 8, incumbent Del. David Kelly beat back a challenge from Sistersville’s Dave Shelton. Kelly currently represents District 6 but the lower chamber of the West Virginia Legislature previously approved switching from multi-member districts to single member. Starting in 2023 Kelly will represent District 8, which still includes all of Doddridge County, most of Tyler County and a slice of Wetzel.

In the primary Kelly won with 74.23 percent of the vote to Shelton’s 25.77 percent. District-wide – Kelly received 1,671 to Shelton’s 580. In Tyler County Kelly 682, Shelton 229; Doddridge, Kelly 754 to Shelton’s 247 and in Wetzel County, Kelly 235 to 104.

No Democrat filed to run for Delegate in District 8.

Tyler County

In election night results, Republican primary for county commission, incumbent Eric Vincent bested David “PJ” Wells with unofficial election night totals of 780 for Vincent and 549 for Wells.

In the Tyler County clerk’s race, incumbent Clerk Neil Archer II defeated political newcomer David Stoller 988 to 383.

No Democrat filed to run for Tyler County clerk or county commission.

Board of Education

In Tyler County’s nonpartisan Board of Education election the total votes cast, including by absentee ballot, for candidates were: Katrina Byers 627, Jason Suter 587, Larry Thomas 753, Scott Strode 687, Andy Shreves 199, David “D-Bob” Roberts 685, Renee Glover 287, Camille Mace 572 and three write-in votes. The winners for their respective districts were Byers, Thomas and Strode.

Overall turnout in Tyler County was of 32.64 percent of registered voters. Out of 5,484 voters 1,790 ballots were cast. Party-wise: Republicans have 2,952 and 1,424, or 48.24 percent voted; Democrats have 1,138 and 325 ballots cast, a 28.56 percent turnout; ,394 Tyler County voters are not affiliated with either major party and 41 of them, just under 3 percent, voted.

Wetzel  County

In county-wide races in Wetzel County, none of the Democrat incumbents faced primary challenges and the Republican Party failed to field any candidates.

Board of Education

In the nonpartisan Wetzel County Board of Education race, Bob Christen received 1,052 votes, Christine Nice 920, Jimmy Glasscock 840, Linda Duke 786 and Carolyn Yoho 775. Christen, Nice and Glasscock were the winners.

For New Martinsville Police Chief incumbent Timothy Cecil trounced challenger Daniel Eastham 724 to 143.

Wetzel County has 9,624 registered voters with 3,237 registered as Republicans and Democrats have the edge with 4,070; another 2,317 are not declared as a major party.

A total of 2,259 ballots were cast in the primary, 1,061 as Republican, 1,127 as Democrat and 71 as non-partisan.