CHARLESTON, W.Va. — There will only be a total of 16 Democrats in the 134 member state legislature when next year’s regular session begins after Republicans picked up 7 seats in the state Senate and 10 seats in the House of Delegates in Tuesday’s General Election.
If all of the the preliminary results are confirmed, Republicans will control 30 of the 34 seats in the Senate and 88 of the 100 seats in the House.
“It is amazing,” West Virginia Republican Party Vice-Chairman Tony Hodge said Wednesday. “It is a resounding rejection of the Democratic Party and it’s embracing the conservatism, the commonsense conservatism, the Republican Party in West Virginia is bringing.
Republicans won 16 of 17 races in the state Senate. Senator Mike Woelfel, D-Cabell, was the lone Democrat to win. Woelfel said the Democrats who lost were good leaders but they fell victim to a perception of the national party.
“They were painted with a brush of Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer, unfairly, but that’s politics,” Woelfel said on MetroNews “Talkline” Wednesday. “It was a tsunami is what happened.”
There was only one Democrat on the ballot that won his race. That lone Democratic is @mawtrout. He discusses his race with @HoppyKercheval. WATCH: https://t.co/yCFQ3nm85Y pic.twitter.com/5YTH3e7RQM
— MetroNews (@WVMetroNews) November 9, 2022
Gains began in 2012
Ten years ago following the 2012 general election, Democrats held a 53-47 advantage in the House, Republicans grabbed the majority in both chambers two years later and majorities have grown each election since.
Hodge said it’s easy to explain.
“The direction the Democratic Party moved over the last few years is to an outright extreme. It’s left-wing extremism at its finest and the people of West Virginia just don’t relate to it,” Hodge said.
West Virginia Democratic Party Chairman Del. Mike Pushkin, one of a only a handful of Democrats to win Tuesday, said the election was more anti-Democrat than it was pro-Republican.
“A lot of people are upset with president (President Joe Biden), upset with a lot of things in the economy,” Pushkin said. “But in his first two years the President has passed some things that are going to help people in West Virginia. We haven’t really felt the effect of things yet.”
U.S. Senator Shelley Moore Capito, who was not on Tuesday’s ballots, said she believes the red wave at the statehouse is linked to the House going to single-member delegate districts for the first time.
“We always knew as Republicans that we could run a little better with our ideas and our candidates in single-member districts and that has happened,” Capito said.
Record-settle dominance
How dominant was it for Republicans? Only one Democrat statehouse candidate south of Charleston was victorious. There were also many down ballot wins by Republicans. Voters in Raleigh, Greenbrier and Monroe counties elected all Republicans on the ballot.
Hodge said in the end it’s about the candidates and the Republicans had better candidates.
“It’s about the candidates and how hard they work,” Hodge said.
Pushkin said the Republican wave didn’t happen overnight. He said he’s disappointed to see some “true public servants” defeated.
“They ran up against the perception of our party that is unfair and untrue but it is perception nonetheless,” Pushkin said. “Let’s hope they use this power for good and if they do we will be right there with them.”
According to the House clerk’s office, the 88-12 advantage by Republicans would be the largest since the modern-era of 100 members in the House which dates back to 1952.