CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Three candidates have been submitted to Gov. Jim Justice to fill a Senate vacancy created by the departure of Sen. Ron Miller.
The candidates include Delegate Stephen Baldwin who was elected in 2016 to the House of Delegates, Matthew Detch who was the Democratic nominee for Congress in West Virginia’s 3rd Congressional District in 2016 and Margaret Staggers who is a former delegate.
The deadline was Tuesday to submit names. Interested applicants from Greenbrier, Fayette, and Summers counties were to submit their resume and cover letter to the 10th Senate District Democratic Executive Committee.
Governor Justice, a Greenbrier County resident, will now select among the names submitted to fill the Senate seat.
The district covers parts of Greenbrier, Summers, Fayette and Monroe counties.
Senator Kenny Mann, who also represents District 10, is from Monroe County so the committee did not accept names from there.
Miller resigned at the end of September to take a job as an agricultural liaison for the Justice administration.
He’d already decided not to run for re-election this coming election.
“I had decided a couple of years ago not to run again,” Miller said. “I figured two terms was long enough for me. The senator before me did two terms, the senator before him did two terms. It just seems to fit our area, and how we feel about it. We’re not career political people.”
This is one of several legislative seats Justice has selected someone to fill in recent months.
On Tuesday, Justice named Buck Jennings of Preston County to a House of Delegates seat that was vacated after the death of Delegate Tony Lewis.
Earlier last month, Justice announced the selection of Dianna Graves to represent District 38, which includes parts of Kanawha and Putnam counties, after the resignation of Delegate Nancy Foster.
Early last month, Justice selected Mark Drennan to fill the District 4 Senate seat vacated by longtime Sen. Mike Hall, who was leaving to become Justice’s chief of staff.