PARKERSBURG, W.Va. — A tight race for the Republican nomination for the 3rd Senatorial District is a snapshot of the rivalry which has developed within the Republican Party during this election year.
Incumbent Senator Mike Azinger, R-Wood, faces a challenge for his seat from 11th District Delegate Bob Fehrenbacher.
Fehrenbacher, R-Wood, said he’s running because he doesn’t believe the super majority in the Senate has done enough to take advantage of their numbers and advance the state forward economically.
“In these last two years, the Senate has not advanced enough legislation to help the state, particularly in the areas of economic development and job creation,” he said.
Fehrenbacher, like one faction of the Republican party, believes the majority has gotten sidetracked with social issues and allowed those matters to distract from the potential to implement more business friendly legislation and bring more investment and jobs to the state.
“They’ve been focusing on a lot of other topics, including social issues. We can’t let the progress we’ve made in prior years get away from us. It’s a competitive environment and we’ve got to shift the focus back to helping all of West Virginians with jobs,” Fehrenbacher added.
However, Azinger defends the work done by the Senate to address social issues.
“Social issues are fundamental and should be first, then you build everything else off that,” he explained. “Those have to be first. They have to be bedrock or you don’t have a culture.”
But Azinger added his goals moving forward are focused as much on business and improving the conservative climate as anyone.
“I would love to follow what the Governor is doing in terms of making West Virginia a no income tax state. I think that would be a huge accomplishment and I think we’re on our way there,” said Azinger.
At the same time, Fehrenbacher doesn’t completely dismiss social issues. He said he voted for a bill to put “In God We Trust” posters in schools. But he is frustrated when other legislation dealing with economic development issues have been tabled or haven’t advanced. He wants to see the change if elected to the Senate.
Both agree the party is currently fractured, which has been magnified by this year’s campaign.
“There are parts of the party that are kind of focused on ‘red meat’ almost litmus test, conservative topics of either limited value or potentially negative value other than serving as that litmus test as to whether you can claim to be conservative,” said Fehrenbacher.
“Everyone wants to be a Republican now and that’s exciting, except that I think you have a lot of Democrats coming into the party saying ‘I’m a Republican too.’ But they don’t change philosophically, they just change from ‘D’ to ‘R’,” said Azinger.
Fehrenbacher is finishing his second term in the House and attempting to move to the upper chamber. Azinger was first elected to the House in 2014 and served one term before he was elected to the Senate. He is finishing his second term. Azinger has the endorsement and backing of Governor Patrick Morrisey for reelection.