November 6, 2024 - West Virginia’s well-liked Republican Gov. Jim Justice has won a seat in the U.S. Senate.

The Associated Press called the race at 7:30 p.m. when polls closed.

In a live-streamed celebratory speech at The Greenbrier in White Sulphur Springs, Justice touted his work as governor on tourism, road funding and personal income tax cuts.

“I truly believe that God above blessed me beyond belief because we made the right decisions and we pushed the right buttons,” he said. “And then all of a sudden, the world started to awaken to just how unbelievable this state was.”

Justice began his first term as the state’s governor in 2017 as a Democrat and switched parties that same year.

A confident candidate, Justice preemptively declared his win as a done deal more than a month before the election, refused to debate his Democratic opponent Glenn Elliott and in the following weeks, moved on to traveling to swing states to campaign for Donald Trump.

The coal company owner stressed the need for continued reliance on West Virginia’s declining coal industry and said he wanted to influence nationwide energy policy. 

As governor, Justice refused to live in Charleston, the state capital, despite a constitutional requirement that he do so. Congressional experts say it will be important for him to stay in Washington, D.C. while Congress is in session to build relationships.

Justice promoted West Virginia’s recent and dramatic personal income tax cuts. He has been an advocate of cutting spending. The state’s unemployment rate dropped from 5.4% to 4.2% over his two-term administration.

He will take the seat of Sen. Joe Manchin, who was influential in Congress because of his moderacy and tendency to vote outside the party lines.

Elliott, a two-term Wheeling mayor who was endorsed by Manchin, had predicted the governor would be an absentee senator and criticized media coverage that focused less on policy differences and depicted Justice’s win as inevitable.

He also knocked on doors in all 55 counties and held town hall meetings, saying he was focused on listening to potential constituent concerns, and in the final days, appealed to Republicans for votes by affirming his support for capitalism and bipartisanship. 

Election results aren’t official until final counts are in and certified in the coming weeks. The AP “calls” races based on vote counts, historical voting trends and other data, when their analysis shows a trailing candidate can’t come back to win.