ICYMI: Senate ‘dog fight’ gets underway [The Inter-Mountain]

West Virginia’s “battle royale” Senate primary between Alex Mooney and Jim Justice continues to escalate. New reporting from The Inter-Mountain highlights that West Virginia Republicans’ “political dogfight” is already underway as the two candidates continue to jab at one another.

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT

The Inter-Mountain: Senate ‘dog fight’ gets underway
By Joselyn King
May 15, 2023

Key points:

• The 2024 primary election is about a year away, and growling signaling the start of a political dogfight already can be heard in the race for the Republican nomination to a U.S. Senate seat in West Virginia.

• The barking has already begun in a race that is likely to be among the most watched across the nation next year. 

• Mooney’s campaign released this statement following Justice’s announcement for Senate: “Jim Justice gave a low-energy announcement of his U.S. Senate candidacy so boring he had to beg Babydog to stay awake. Since Jim Justice’s lips were moving, he was lying.”

• Justice, meanwhile, has said on West Virginia radio he isn’t concerned Mooney has the endorsements of many West Virginia legislators.

• “I’m glad that some of our legislators know that Alex Mooney is somewhere remotely connected to West Virginia,” Justice said. “I mean, who in the world in the state of West Virginia knows that Alex Mooney is a West Virginian. I mean, the truth of the matter is, Alex Mooney is from Maryland and absolutely, totally in every way connected to Maryland.”

• “He’s in the U.S. Congress and at the end of the day, I’ll promise you from Clarksburg south nobody’s hardly seen him. I’ve seen him one time.”

• Justice indicated to The Intelligencer during a recent stop in Wheeling that catcalls in the dogfight won’t bother him.

• “I’m a competitor. To be perfectly clear and honest, I’m not the least bit concerned about the mean-spirited (campaigning),” Justice said. 

• “Congressman Mooney is talking about the issues, such as inflation and fighting the drug epidemic,” said Mooney’s Campaign Manager, John Findlay. “Meanwhile, his opponent, Jim Justice resorts to personal attacks because he knows that Congressman Mooney’s values align with the people of West Virginia and he’s 100% conservative – unlike himself.”

• Sam Workman, professor of political science and director of the Institute for Policy Research and Public Affairs in the John D. “Jay” Rockefeller School of Policy and Politics at West Virginia University, said the real race in the contest for the U.S. Senate seat will be between Mooney and Justice.

See also: West Virginia Republicans’ “Battle Royale” Senate Primary Continues to Escalate: “Let the Mud Fly”; DSCC Releases New Video Highlighting West Virginia Republicans’ “Battle Royale” Senate Primary; ICYMI: West Virginia Republicans’ “Battle Royale” Senate Primary Escalates & Justice Faces Scrutiny Over Debt; What They’re Saying About  West Virginia Republicans’ “Battle Royale” Senate Primary; DSCC Statement on West Virginia Republicans’ “Battle Royale” Senate Primary; Republicans Brace For “Battle Royale” as GOP Infighting Escalates in West Virginia Senate Primary: “It’s Only Going To Get Uglier From Here”.

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