Trump wins West Virginia

CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Businessman Donald Trump, the only remaining Republican presidential candidate in the race for the White House, took another step toward the GOP nomination with an overwhelming win in West Virginia’s primary election on Tuesday.

As the polls closed, MetroNews was projecting Trump would easily win the Mountain State in what was the first statewide primary contest since U.S. Senator Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and Ohio Governor John Kasich suspended their presidential campaigns.

Trump was one of 11 Republicans on a ballot that also include Jeb Bush, Ben Carson, Chris Christie, Cruz, Carly Fiorina, David Hall, Mike Huckabee, Kasich, Rand Paul and Marco Rubio.

“Today, voters all across the state were able to express their support, because West Virginians want change in Washington,” said Conrad Lucas, chair of the West Virginia Republican Party. “They want pro-coal policies; West Virginians want to work and Donald Trump is the man who is going to make America great again and get coal miners back to work.”

In the latest MetroNews West Virginia Poll conducted from Apr. 22 to May 2 before Cruz and Kasich got out the race, Trump garnered 57 percent of likely Republican voters to Cruz’s 25 percent, 14 percent for Kasich and four percent undecided.

In West Virginia, “Trump leads among men and women, voters of all age categories and among independents,” said Rex Repass, CEO of Repass Research and director of the MetroNews West Virginia Poll, when the poll was released Friday.

A day earlier, a Trump rally at the Charleston Civic Center drew upwards of 11,000 people.

“We’re going to put the miners back to work,” the presumptive GOP presidential nominee pledged to a cheering crowd. “We’re going to get those mines open.”

Lucas said he had no concerns that Trump wouldn’t be able to unite the GOP as its nominee.

“We know we don’t need four more years of Barack Obama’s policies, and that’s exactly what Hillary Clinton would bring,” he said. “When you put Hillary Clinton versus Donald Trump, it’s such an easy vote to cast for conservatives.”

During the past two presidential election cycles, the Republican presidential nominees have found a lot of support in West Virginia.

Mitt Romney, a Trump critic and former Massachusetts governor, won the 2012 GOP primary in the Mountain State with nearly 70 percent of the vote and went on to beat President Barack Obama that November, 62 percent to 36 percent, according to official results from the Secretary of State’s Office.

In 2008, U.S. Senator John McCain (R-Arizona) picked up 76 percent in the GOP primary in West Virginia and went on to win West Virginia in November, 55 percent to 43 percent, over then-U.S. Senator Barack Obama (D-Illinois).

“I just don’t think there are Democrat strongholds in West Virginia anymore,” said Lucas. “We can win anywhere, as we’ve proven in legislative cycle after legislative cycle. This year will be the year that we absolutely add the exclamation point onto West Virginia’s comeback story.”

West Virginia has 34 presidential delegates who will represent the state during the Republican National Convention which runs from July 18 – July 21 at Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland, Ohio.

For an explanation of how those delegates are allocated, click here.

As Trump looked ahead to November, “I’ll be back. And I’ll be back more than once or twice even. Because this is a very important state to win,” he said in West Virginia’s Capital City last week.

“America will be great again. We’ll be America first. We’ll start winning, winning, winning… And for those miners, get ready. Because you are going to be working your a**** off.”