ICYMI: West Virginia’s high-stakes Senate race turns into a GOP proxy war [NBC News]

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NBC News: West Virginia’s high-stakes Senate race turns into a GOP proxy war

By Allan Smith and Sahil Kapur

April 9, 2023

• Some of the most powerful forces in Republican politics are on course for an explosive — and expensive — collision in West Virginia’s Senate primary.
  
  
• On one side, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, the National Republican Senatorial Committee and the Senate Leadership Fund, the McConnell-aligned super PAC, are pushing for Gov. Jim Justice, a former Democrat who switched parties in 2017, to jump into the race.

• On the other, the big-spending anti-tax group Club for Growth just announced its support for Rep. Alex Mooney, a member of the ultraconservative House Freedom Caucus, who has pledged to spend $10 million.

• The jockeying by Washington power brokers signals the primary could be one of the most expensive in West Virginia history.
  
  
• There’s a creeping fear among some pro-Justice Republicans that they could fumble. 

Read more: Daily Caller: ‘Big RINO’: GOP Rep Goes After His Own Governor As Senate Race Heats Up; WBOY 12 News: Mooney campaigning ‘full steam’ ahead for Senate; POLITICO: Club for Growth moves to stop Jim Justice for Senate coronation; The Cook Political Report: The Looming Senate GOP Primary Wars.

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