Rep. Alex Mooney defeated Rep. David McKinley in GOP primary for West Virginia’s 2nd congressional district on Tuesday, a victory for former President Donald Trump, who Mooney endorsed.
In a rare matchup of incumbents, McKinley and Mooney faced each other after the state lost one of its congressional seats amid a dwindling population and their districts merged.
Trump backed Mooney after McKinley voted in favor of the bipartisan infrastructure package and the bid to create a commission to investigate the January 6 attack on the US Capitol.
“Serving the people of West Virginia has been the honor of my life. I’m proud to have always stood up for what’s right for West Virginia — even when it hurts me politically,” McKinley said in a statement. declaration. “The foundation we have built over the past 12 years has paved the way for a more prosperous and diverse economy in West Virginia.”
At Trump’s rally in Pennsylvania last week, Mooney called McKinley “a total RINO,” an acronym for “Republican in name only,” often used as an insult to indicate that someone is insufficiently conservative or loyal to the party.
“He voted for the Jan. 6 commission to investigate Donald Trump and his allies,” Mooney said. “He was one of 13 so-called Republicans who voted for the Joe Biden-Pelosi $1.2 trillion non-infrastructure spending package. … He’s a Liberal, RINO Republican. To be successful, we need to kick out these RINOs in primaries.”
At the same meeting, Trump said McKinley is someone Mooney “should easily beat.”
“You’d better beat them easily,” Trump said. ‘Otherwise I look very bad. They’re going to say, ‘Trump has lost it!’”
McKinley has called Mooney a “carpet bagger,” citing his 2014 move to West Virginia to run for Congress after serving in the Maryland State Senate and chairing the Maryland GOP.
While Trump supported Mooney, McKinley has the support of West Virginia Governor Jim Justice, a Republican who changed his party membership after Trump’s presidential victory, and Democratic Senator Joe Manchin.
In a 30-second campaign ad released by the McKinley campaign, Manchin praised McKinley for backing the infrastructure deal and said it was an “outright lie” by Mooney to claim that McKinley Biden’s “Build Back Better” social welfare proposals.
“Alex Mooney has proven that he is all about Alex Mooney,” Manchin said in the ad. “But the people of West Virginia know that David McKinley is all about us.”
