Charleston Attorney Carte Goodwin has decided NOT to run for the Democratic nomination to the U.S. Senate in West Virginia in 2014.
Goodwin tells Metronews that his decision to stay out of the race was driven by family concerns. He and his wife have two young children.
The seat is opening up because long-time Senator Jay Rockefeller has decided not to run for re-election. Speculation had focused on Goodwin as a possible candidate since he served for several months as U.S. Senator in 2010, filling the vacancy created by the death of Senator Robert Byrd.
Republican Congresswoman Shelley Moore Capito has already announced that she’s running for the seat.
So far, no Democrats have entered the race. However, attorney and businessman Ralph Baxter says he is seriously considering it.
Baxter is retiring as Chairman and CEO of Orrick, Herrington and Sutcliffe, an international law firm based in San Francisco. Baxter has strong West Virginia connections; he spent part of his youth in the northern panhandle, opened a branch of his law firm in Wheeling in 2002 and is relocating to Wheeling.