Weekly West Virginia “Battle Royale” Senate Primary Update

Unpaid debts, environmental violations, outside fundraising, and name-calling: here’s what you might have missed this week in West Virginia’s “messy,” “costly,” and “bruising intraparty fight”:

• Mooney attacked Justice for the “litany of scandals following him, including the reputation of a businessman who doesn’t pay his bills,” citing recent reporting detailing “Justice has been dogged by allegations that his family businesses haven’t paid their debts, including fines for environmental violations at their coal plants.”

• West Virgina Republicans’ money race is on: Justice “still lags” behind his “primary rival” Alex Mooney in cash on hand, even after he “was the subject of a June fundraiser in Washington, D.C., hosted by Senate GOP leaders including Mitch McConnell.” The Club for Growth Action and Protect Freedom PAC also “reported spending thousands of dollars against Justice” already and raised $13.55 million to support Mooney’s campaign. This follows previous reporting that West Virginia is a “major front” in the multi-million dollar “looming ‘proxy war’” between national Republicans and the Club for Growth.
  

• This week, Mooney called Justice a  “deadbeat” and “swamp member” who “has broken nearly every promise he made to West Virginia” and “will bend the rules to accommodate himself and leave Americans out to dry” in the U.S. Senate.
  

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