The red political wave washing over West Virginia just gets bigger.
The outcomes of most of the state races in Tuesday’s election were predictable, but the magnitude of the wins by the GOP is what gets your attention.
(See full results here.)
Republican Senate candidate, Governor Jim Justice, and Republican Gubernatorial candidate, Attorney General Patrick Morrisey, each carried all 55 counties.
Republicans picked up an open seat in the Senate, giving the GOP 32 of the 34 seats. Republicans had two flips in the House of Delegate races, giving the party 91 of the 100 seats.
The races for Attorney General, Auditor, Commissioner of Agriculture, Secretary of State and Treasurer all remained in Republican hands, even though only one of those races—the Ag Commissioner—featured an incumbent.
The state’s two congressional seats stayed Republican, meaning that now all of West Virginia’s four representatives in Washington will be Republicans. Both of the state’s U.S. Senators will be Republican for the first time since 1958.
What also stands out are the margins of victory.
The average margin of victory in the races for U.S. Senate, the two congressional seats, Attorney General, Secretary of State, Auditor, Treasurer and Ag Commissioner was a whopping 40 points. Patrick Morrisey won by 31 points.
Donald Trump dominated the top of the ticket for the third consecutive presidential election with 70 percent of the vote, slightly more than the previous two elections. That set the standard for down ballot races. The Republican candidates in seven of the statewide and congressional races received between 67 percent and 71 percent of the vote.
The belief that all politics is local has given way to a nationalization of our process. West Virginia Republican strategist Greg Thomas said on Talkline Wednesday that state and local races are now more closely linked to the top of the ticket.
“It was definitely more of a national election, right? Not only is it a presidential but it’s a Trump presidential. And of course, Trump gets a higher percentage of votes in West Virginia than any other state in the country. So this is not a home base, but it may as well have been,” Thomas said.
Indeed. Trump’s 70 percent vote total in West Virginia was only exceeded by Wyoming, where he received 72 percent of the vote. But even Wyoming had one county that voted for Kamala Harris, while no county in West Virginia gave her a majority.
The shift in West Virginia from Democrat to Republican that began with the 2000 election is near complete. A few more elections like the one Tuesday and the West Virginia Democratic Party will be little more than an afterthought, not unlike what the Republican Party was for decades.