A Republican-on-Republican feud is developing in West Virginia over a single seat in the House.
The outcome of the primary election this week between Representatives David McKinley and Alex Mooney will signal the direction being taken of a potential Republican majority in Congress. Will the Republican Party be one of governance, or of ideology, driven by former President Donald Trump?
A combination of redistricting and a shrinking population in the state’s Republican Legislature has meant that a six-term Republican, McKinley, is now pitted against Mooney, who served four terms with a more conservative rhetoric than actual legislative achievements.
McKinley has the backing of a lot of powerful people within the state, including West Virginia Governor Jim Justice, and even its Democratic senator, Joe Manchin.
But Mooney’s backer is Trump. And Trump’s endorsement in this state, which gave him a 69 percent of the 2020 presidential election vote, may be the biggest weight of them all.
Neither candidate, experts say, can really be called a “moderate” in the Republican view. But McKinley thought that his election would focus more on his technocratic accomplishments, his support for the bipartisan infrastructure bill. The bill was co-written by Manchin, and West Virginia is in need of federal attention.
Mooney’s campaign is built exclusively around Trump’s endorsement.
Trump sided with Mooney after McKinley voted for the infrastructure bill, as well as a piece of legislation that creates a bipartisan commission to examine the insurrection on the capitol on Jan. 6 of last year.
Trump says in a radio advertisement that blankets the state the Mooney is the “only candidate” that has his “complete and total endorsement.”
He then blasts McKinley as a “RINO” which means Republican In Name Only.
A TV ad that features Trump tells its viewers that Mooney defended the former president from Pelosi’s “Jan. 6 witch hunt.”
The political race is being called one of the most nasty and “down and dirty” races yet.
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