Global Courant 2023-04-16 17:00:03
A fight over the direction of the GOP is brewing deep in ruby red West Virginia as Republicans ponder what they believe is their best shot at firing moderate Senator Joe Manchin, DW.Va.
Although it’s early in the 2024 cycle, Republicans already see West Virginia as a reasonable pick-up opportunity in a Senate electoral map widely expected to favor them over the Democrats. Manchin hasn’t said what he’s up to yet.
Rep. Alex Mooney, RW.Va., is the only declared major candidate in the race to date. His campaign recently received a boost from conservative group Club For Growth, which pledged to spend at least $10 million on the House Freedom Caucus member.
Mooney has also been endorsed by Senator Rand Paul, R-Ky.
But GOP Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., appears to be looking for a more moderate candidate in the state’s popular governor, Jim Justice, who switched parties from Democrat to Republican in 2017. Justice told Fox & Friends last month that he was “seriously considering” a Senate bid, but did not enter the race.
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Rep. Alex Mooney, RW.Va., is widely expected to challenge his 2024 Senate bid from West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice (Getty/AP Photo/Chris Jackson)
Without commenting on Mooney’s campaign, the McConnell-aligned Senate Leadership Fund called Justice the “strongest” candidate to run against Manchin in November 2024.
“Governor Justice is an extremely popular figure in West Virginia, and our polls show he already dominates the Republican primary field and would be by far the strongest general election candidate to beat Joe Manchin,” Senate Leadership Fund spokeswoman Torunn Sinclair told Fox News Digital.
Senate National Republican Committee (NRSC) chair Steve Daines, R-Mont., leader of the Senate GOP’s campaign arm, has “recruited Justice,” according to a source familiar with the NRSC’s thinking.
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The source pointed to Justice’s popularity with West Virginians and Republican-friendly policies, such as the sweeping tax cuts he passed this year. “He just has a strong track record in the state. West Virginians love him,” the source said. Justice also has more name recognition in the state than Mooney.
The battle lines being drawn in West Virginia are similar to those across the country in 2022, when Democrats pinned the Senate while several GOP candidates, many of them hardliners and backed by former President Donald Trump, lost races that were by one point to expected to lean to the right.
Senator Joe Manchin, a Democrat from West Virginia, has not yet said if he will run for re-election in 2024 (Gaelen Morse/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
But in an interview with Fox News Digital, Mooney — who is close to Trump — pointed out that the ex-president’s politics have proved overwhelmingly popular in both 2016 and 2020.
It also had a test run in the Mooney’s House primary last year when it faced Rep. David McKinley, RW.Va., after West Virginia lost a seat in the redistricting process. McKinley was endorsed by Justice and Manchin, while Mooney was endorsed by Trump.
During his interview, Mooney pointed to Justice’s past affiliation as a Democrat and dismissed him and Manchin as “big spending liberals”.
“I’m the only conservative (in the running),” Mooney said.
“Jim Justice and Joe Manchin both tried to beat me in my last race. They both ran TV ads attacking me, and one of the reasons why – I didn’t vote for Joe Biden’s ($1 trillion bipartisan infrastructure bill). Specifically, she attacked me for that,” Mooney said. “So I think if you want a big spender that will bankrupt America, you have different choices than I do — you have Jim Justice or Joe Manchin.”
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A source told Fox News Digital that NRSC Chairman Steve Daines, R-Mont., Gov. Justice “recruited” to run for Senate (Tom Williams)
A source familiar with Mooney’s campaign told Fox News Digital that they had also met with the NRSC.
The GOP rift was evident in Club For Growth Chairman David McIntosh’s statement to Fox News Digital about why his group supported Mooney.
“Jim Justice comes from the big spending, Mitch McConnell wing of the Republican Party,” McIntosh said. “With inflation running rampant, Republican primary voters no longer want to elect senators who will support out-of-control radical spending like Manchin and Justice, and instead want principled, pro-growth conservatives like Alex Mooney.”
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The conservative group spent more than $14 million in the 2022 North Carolina Senate GOP primary, where a similar split between the parties occurred. In that state, little-known Donald Trump-backed Representative Ted Budd, RN.C., defeated popular former Republican Governor Pat McCrory.
Recent polls put Justice in the lead. According to this month’s National Public Affairs poll, the governor has a 55% lead over Mooney’s 24%. A poll commissioned by the Senate Leadership Fund, shared by McConnell earlier this year, also has Justice in the lead.
Senator Ted Budd, a Republican from North Carolina, won his GOP primary against a better-known candidate after being endorsed by former President Donald Trump. Photographer: Al Drago/Bloomberg via Getty Images (Al Drago/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
Brand new poll commissioned by Mooney’s campaign and shared with Fox News Digital gives the House Freedom Caucus legislator a four-point lead over Justice, 45-41.
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But even with the backing of the Club For Growth, Mooney’s fundraising operation is still far behind Manchin’s, though it’s still early in the race.
Mooney’s campaign raised more than $500,000 in the first quarter and ended the period with nearly $1.4 million in cash.
Between 2019 and 2022, an inactive cycle for Manchin after winning re-election in 2018, the Democratic senator raised more than $8.5 million.
Elizabeth Elkind is a political reporter for Fox News Digital.
