“It’s too early.”
First District Congressman David McKinley says state residents are not ready to talk about the 2014 midterm elections since the 2012 election cycle wrapped up less than a month ago.
“I think West Virginians are a little bit war weary of elections,” Congressman McKinley, a Republican, said on Friday’s MetroNews Talkline.
“Just let everything settle down for a while and we’ll come back out, at the right time, and find out who’s the best candidate to challenge an incumbent U.S. Senator.”
Earlier this week, Second District Congresswoman Shelley Moore Capito, also a Republican, announced her plans to run for the U.S. Senate in 2014.
She could potentially face U.S. Senator Jay Rockefeller, a Democrat, who is up for reelection two years from now.
Congressman McKinley says, in the past, he has had general discussions with Congresswoman Capito about that U.S. Senate seat and the characteristics a Republican U.S. Senate candidate would have to have to successfully challenge Senator Rockefeller or another Democrat, if the Senator opts not to run.
He says he was surprised by Capito’s announcement. “I was a little shocked with it, that she came out so early with it,” McKinley said. “It was news to me.”
On the timing of her announcement, Congresswoman Capito said the following: “I have decided to make my intentions for 2014 known now so that I can get back to work in Washington and to avoid disruptive political speculation.”
Congressman McKinley was reelected to a second term in the U.S. House on November 6th. Congresswoman Capito will begin her seventh U.S. House term in the New Year.