CHARLES TOWN, W.Va. — The mudslinging between West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice and Rep. Alex Mooney is pitting the Republican establishment against the conservative wing in the party’s bid to unseat one of the most vulnerable Senate Democrats, Joe Manchin III.
Mr. Justice, the leading candidate and a former Democrat who underwent a Trump-inspired party flip in 2017, is the coveted recruit of Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell and is backed by his top deputies.
The governor’s pitch is blunt: His big lead in the polls means only he, as the Republican nominee, can stop Mr. Manchin from cruising to reelection and likely keeping Democrats in control of the Senate.
“If I go out here tomorrow or today and get run over by a truck in the middle of the road, and Mooney is the candidate, Manchin will run for the Senate for absolute certainty because he would absolutely beat Mooney to death,” Mr. Justice told The Washington Times. “I’m not being critical of Alex Mooney. I’m just telling you that nobody in this state knows Alex Mooney.”
Mr. Mooney, a member of the conservative House Freedom Caucus who has the support of the Club for Growth, sells himself as the more pure Republican candidate. He called Mr. Justice nothing more than a “liberal Republican version of Joe Manchin.”
“This man is a tax-and-spend liberal,” Mr. Mooney told The Times. “He’s, frankly, not much different than Joe Manchin. The establishment wants somebody who will go along and get along with all this out-of-control spending.”
Mr. Mooney wants Republicans in Washington to butt out of his primary race. He refuses to step aside despite polls showing Mr. Justice better positioned to unseat Mr. Manchin.
“I think they’ve misjudged. And, frankly, I’m a little disappointed,” Mr. Mooney said. “I’m the only proven conservative in this race. I’m the Trump candidate in this race.”
The Senate Republicans’ campaign arm, the National Republican Senatorial Committee, declined to comment.
Mr. Manchin, a former West Virginia governor, narrowly won reelection to the Senate in 2018 by fewer than 20,000 votes, or just 3.3 percentage points. His seat is key for Republicans to flip control of the chamber.
The conservative Democrat has yet to announce whether he will seek another term or rule out a third-party presidential run, but he has threatened to become an independent. Mr. Manchin frequently lambastes President Biden after initially supporting his agenda. As the 2024 elections draw near, he is positioning himself as a middle-of-the-road candidate if he runs again.
A July survey from the West Virginia Chamber of Commerce showed Mr. Justice up 56% to Mr. Mooney’s 19% in the Republican primary race. An internal poll in February from a McConnell-aligned super PAC, the Senate Leadership Fund, showed Mr. Justice winning against Mr. Manchin 52% to 42% in a hypothetical matchup and Mr. Mooney losing to Mr. Manchin by 40% to 55%. An East Carolina University poll from May showed Mr. Justice up 22 percentage points over Mr. Manchin but Mr. Mooney roughly tied with Mr. Manchin.
“West Virginians trust Jim Justice,” Senate Leadership Fund spokeswoman Torunn Sinclair said in a statement to The Times. “While Justice has delivered time and again for West Virginia, Joe Manchin and Democrats in Washington voted for a radical climate agenda that could kill 100,000 West Virginia jobs.”
Mr. Mooney has raised more than $2 million and had $1.5 million cash on hand at the end of June, according to the most recent campaign filings available with the Federal Election Commission. Club for Growth, a group that advocates for limited government and lower taxes, and the Protect Freedom PAC tied to Sen. Rand Paul, Kentucky Republican, are putting $13.5 million behind Mr. Mooney.
Mr. Justice has raised $935,000 and had less than $809,000 in the bank but will receive financial backing from the National Republican Senatorial Committee.
Despite his reelection uncertainty, Mr. Manchin has raised a whopping $10.5 million with nearly $10.8 million in cash on hand.
Mr. Justice is a billionaire coal baron who has self-funded previous campaigns, but he says he has no intention of doing so this time. He will have his own set of weaknesses to overcome that aren’t related to money.
Mr. Justice endorsed Mr. Biden’s $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief program in 2021, putting him at odds with his party over the behemoth spending package. He didn’t vote for Donald Trump in the 2016 presidential election, when he was a Democrat, and his policy fights with Republicans in the Legislature have created enemies. Roughly 30 state lawmakers have endorsed Mr. Mooney.
“If the Republican [nominee] is someone that voters trust, I think the Republican would beat Joe Manchin,” said West Virginia state Sen. Patricia Rucker, who has endorsed Mr. Mooney. “If they don’t, then I think Joe Manchin has the chance to beat the Republican.”
In addition to his poor polling, Mr. Mooney suffers from a lack of name recognition statewide. He is also the subject of House Ethics Committee investigations into potential violations of federal law with the use of campaign funds for personal expenses and allegedly breaking House rules by improperly accepting a trip to Aruba. Mr. Mooney has denied any wrongdoing.
Neither man has earned Mr. Trump’s endorsement, though both received his official stamp of approval in prior elections. An endorsement from the former president could influence the hotly contested primary.
A spokesperson for Mr. Trump did not respond to a request for comment.
Mr. Justice and Mr. Mooney laid bare their credentials for how conservative and closely aligned they are with Mr. Trump.
Mr. Mooney noted that he been endorsed by conservatives such as Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio and Sens. Rand Paul of Kentucky, Ted Cruz of Texas and Mike Lee of Utah. He said his defense of House ethics charges could help his campaign just as criminal indictments have for Mr. Trump.
“Jim Justice didn’t even vote for President Trump in 2016. He ran as a Democrat,” Mr. Mooney said. “Trump won, and then [Mr. Justice] kind of led with Trump after that for pragmatic purposes. But in principle, he was never with Donald Trump or anything conservative.”
Mr. Justice called those assertions “just plain garbage.”
“I strongly believe that President Trump will endorse me, but I won’t ask him to do that because that’s not my ‘plights,’” he said. “In my world, he’s the king. He’s got plenty of time to decide what he wants to do in regard to me.”
• Ramsey Touchberry can be reached at rtouchberry@washingtontimes.com.
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