CHARLESTON, W.Va. — A political science professor at West Virginia Wesleyan says politics in West Virginia are at a turning point.
“All hell’s going to break loose,” said Robert Rupp on Monday’s MetroNews “Talkline” when asked about his predictions for the race outcomes this fall.
With less than five months to go until the Nov. 4 general election, Rupp said it’s clear a major sea change is happening within the Mountain State — a longtime stronghold for the Democrats — from the State House all the way to Washington, D.C.
He said the leaders of the state Democratic Party can see it coming. “The Democrats are running scared and they’re doing what, I’d say is, the ‘Democratic two-step’ in West Virginia. They’re trying to separate the state party from the national party,” Rupp said.
At the state level, in 1928, Republicans filled two-thirds of the seats in the state House of Delegates. Two years later, Democrats claimed two-thirds of the House seats and have held control since then.
“We’re not just talking about one generation. We’re talking about, literally, almost three generations (when) we always knew the House would be controlled by the Democrats,” said Rupp.
“It was unchanging and highly partisan and now, in six months, we’re going to have the perfect storm in which on a series of levels, congressional and legislative, we’ve just got all kinds of history possible.”