CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Months spent on the campaign trail will come to an end for political candidates across West Virginia on Tuesday when the polls will be open for the November General Election from 6:30 a.m. until 7:30 p.m. throughout the Mountain State.
Secretary of State Natalie Tennant, the Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate, visited Ceredo, Huntington and Fairmont on Monday — the last day before Election Day. She was encouraging voters to get to those polls.
“This is how this race is going to be won for me, it’s going to be won on the ground,” said Tennant who has trailed 2nd District Congresswoman Shelley Moore Capito, the Republican U.S. Senate candidate, in the polls throughout the campaign for the seat U.S. Senator Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.) currently holds.
Tennant said polls don’t decide elections.
“It’s the people who win tough races like this, not the polls, not the pundits and not all the talking heads,” she said. “I feel good about the engagement, the excitement of how voters all across the state feel and (how they) are getting involved.”
Capito, though, was confident on Monday.
“I’ve gotten a lot of positive encouragement everywhere I’ve been, all throughout the race, so I feel like I’m going to have a solid victory, but that doesn’t mean I’m stopping the work,” she said from Martinsburg.
Along with her stop in Martinsburg, Capito was scheduled to lead rallies Monday in Beckley, Wheeling, Bridgeport and Charleston.
She predicted Republicans would win control of both the U.S. Senate and the West Virginia House of Delegates on Tuesday.
As for the state House, “We’re going to make history here. There’s been a lot of grassroots organizing. There’s a lot of get out the vote, the enthusiasm that I see. We’ve got great candidates,” Capito said. “I do believe, by a narrow margin, Republicans are going to take over the House of Delegates for the first time since the 1920s.”
Both Tennant and Capito were guests on Monday’s MetroNews “Talkline.”
On Tuesday, voters in West Virginia will choose a new U.S. senator, three U.S. House members, half of West Virginia’s state senators and all of West Virginia’s delegates along with many county and local officials.
On Tuesday, voters in West Virginia will choose a new U.S. senator, three U.S. House members, half of West Virginia’s state senators and all of West Virginia’s delegates along with many county and local officials.
A proposed Constitutional amendment is on ballot. If approved, it would let the Boy Scouts of America rent out parts of the Summit Bechtel Family National Scout Reserve in Fayette County for private events without losing the organization’s exemption for property taxes.
Voters in Mason County and Roane County will revisit the Sunday hunting issue while, in parts of the state, levies are also on the ballot.
MetroNews coverage of Decision 2014 begins at 7:06 p.m. Tuesday on the MetroNews Radio Network and here online.