CHARLESTON, W.Va. — The West Virginia Republican State Executive Committee voted Saturday to disavow former Fayette County Delegate Elliott Pritt from the party and his November candidacy representing the GOP.
The vote came during the executive committee’s summer meeting Saturday afternoon in Charleston.
Pritt is currently in federal custody charged with allegedly grooming and exploiting a 15-year-old girl. He resigned his seat in the House of Delegates earlier this week, but remains a candidate in the November election.
The vote by the state committee was unanimous and the first time the WV GOP has taken such a step.
“Today the West Virginia Republican Party made the right and moral decision to put aside partisan politics and side with basic human dignity,” West Virginia GOP Chairman Josh Holstein said. “Our actions today prove that we are serious about our convictions and hold true to those core values.”
The motion was made by Tony Hodge, the newly-elected co-chairman of the party.
“This is a matter that none of us wished to face, but that all of us have a duty to address,” Hodge told the Committee. “These allegations are detailed, they are serious, and they describe conduct that has no place near public trust, no place in this party, and no place in the life of any child in West Virginia. This body has never in its history voted to disavow a candidate. That fact alone tells you how rare, and how necessary, this moment is.”
“Our vote today would formally remove Elliott Pritt as a candidate and representative of this party. It is also our intent, and our expectation, that this action be presented to the State Election Commission as clear evidence that Mr. Pritt no longer carries this party’s endorsement, in fact, that we are disavowing him, so that the Commission may act with the full knowledge of where we stand as the West Virginia Republican Party,”
The State Election Committee meets Friday to take up two letters calling for Pritt’s disqualification as a candidate. If he’s removed he can be replaced but if he withdraws he can’t be.
|