Republicans added one seat to their supermajority in the state Senate.
That’s because Republican Scott Fuller defeated Democrat Ric Griffith, who had been a delegate, in a Cabell and Wayne counties district that had been held by Senator Robert Plymale, a Democrat who retired from the Legislature.
Half of the 34 seats in the state Senate were up this election cycle. Senators serve four-year terms with half of those seats up for election every two years.
Most recently, the Senate had just three Democrats and 31 Republicans.
Democrats managed to hold another seat that had been held by Senator Mike Caputo, who is also retiring from the Legislature. In the district that includes Marion and Monongalia counties, Democrat Joey Garcia defeated Republican Rebecca Polis.
“We worked until the very last hour to try to make sure people knew about the choice they had, and thank goodness we came out on top,” Garcia said on MetroNews election coverage.
The other Democrat in the Senate is Minority Leader Mike Woelfel, D-Cabell, who was not up this cycle.
In the General Election, seven Senate races are uncontested. Those will be won by Republicans Ryan Weld, Chris Rose, Donna Boley, Rupie Phillips, Glenn Jeffries, Jack David Woodrum and Patrick Martin.
Republicans who won contested Senate races included Amy Nichole Grady who defeated Democrat Dwayne Russell, Brian Helton over Democrat Christy Cardwell, Robbie Morris defeating Democrat Mandy Smith Weirich, Randy Smith over Betsy Orndorff-Sayers, Tom Willis over Anthony Murray and Patricia Rucker over John Doyle.
Republican Craig Hart of Mingo County was defeating Democrat Craig Disibbio of Mercer County. And Republican Eric Nelson was leading Democrat Bil Lepp.
The Senate President, Craig Blair of Berkeley County, was defeated in the primary election by Willis. So the next group of senators will be selecting a new leader.
Senate Judiciary Chairman Charles Trump, a Republican, was not up for re-election this cycle. But Trump ran for and won a seat on the state Supreme Court. So once he resigns, the governor will name a replacement to serve in the Senate.
The House of Delegates, which is composed of 100 members from 100 delegate districts throughout the state, most recently had 11 Democrats and 89 Republicans.
Delegates serve two-year terms with all of the seats in the House up for election every two years.
There were 43 races in the House of Delegates this cycle where candidates were unopposed.