CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Republican Mac Warner defeated Democrat incumbent Natalie Tennant in the Secretary of State’s race.
With 1,600 of 1,742 precincts reporting, Warner had 308,329 votes to Tennant’s 301,893.
This was one of few races in West Virginia where the incumbent Democrat didn’t shy away from supporting presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.
Tennant was a super-delegate to the Democratic National Convention, supporting Clinton. That support was leveraged against her in campaign ads by Warner, a former attorney for the Department of Defense in Afghanistan.
Law clerk John Buckley was the Libertarian candidate in the race.
When Tennant took the office, she replaced Republican Betty Ireland, who had served from 2005 to 2009.
Secretary of State is West Virginia’s chief elections officer, a position that pays $95,000 annually.