West Virginia U.S. Senate- Race of the Day
22 Days Until Election Day
West Virginia U.S. Senate
Status: Republican Incumbent
Republicans have tremendous anxiety about several seats they hold in red states that may be on the cusp of being flipped this year, but that is definitely not the case in West Virginia. What was once one of the most reliable states for Democrats, at least in non-Presidential elections, the state has become one of the most reliable demographically and politically for Donald Trump and his brand of politics. The Senator who is up for reelection this year is not really a MAGA diehard but has taken pains to not run too far astray of the current President, and has retained the support of her party.
Shelley Moore Capito has been around politics most of her life. Her father served a total of 12 years as Governor, in two separate stints, one of the few Republicans to have had political success in the Mountaineer State back then. Before that, Arch Moore also served six terms in Congress and one in the federal penitentiary for white collar crimes after he left office. He lived long enough to see his daughter win politically though, as Shelley, a state legislator was elected to the U.S. House in 2000 and easily to the Senate in 2014. She was such a strong candidate and West Virginia had moved so much to the GOP that the veteran Democrat incumbent retired. In the first race, Capito took 62 percent against a credible female statewide office holder, and in 2020 won 70 percent against a female liberal activist. The next generation of Moores and Capitos have also been involved in West Virginia Republican politics. Her nephew Riley Moore was State Treasurer who was elected to one of the state's two Congressional districts in 2024 and is considered far more MAGA than his aunt. The Senator's son, who is named Moore Capito was a State Delegate who came in second in the 2024 Gubernatorial primary. He will not follow in the footsteps of his grandfather for now but last year was confirmed as US Attorney. I assume his mother voted for him.
When she served in the House, Capito was considered a socially moderate Republican but has seemingly moved to the right a bit once she ran statewide. In a May primary this year, she took 67 percent, which was a bit more than I might have expected, but the incumbent ran with the Trump endorsement. Finishing a distant second with 19 percent was State Senator Tom Willis, whom two years earlier had knocked off the State Senate President in a Republican primary. The more conservative Willis, an Army veteran, also had run for the Senate in 2018, where he took about 10 percent and finished in fourth place. While other candidates running to Capito's right took the remainder of the vote, one who was not on the ballot was Derrick Evans, who had been elected as a State Delegate in 2020 and then livestreamed himself storming the Capitol on January 6, 2021. He had quickly resigned from the office he had just been sworn into and plead guilty to federal charges. Of course, he was pardoned by Donald Trump and launched a U.S. Senate primary bid, before dropping out to run for the U.S. House instead, as he had also done in 2024. This time he did not qualify for the ballot.
Democrats also held a primary and elected the most liberal candidate. Capito will for the third time face another female in a Senate general election. Former Morgantown City Councilwoman Morgan Fetty Anderson took 33 percent and upset establishment favorite Jeff Kessler, who had once been the President of the State Senate, followed by a couple of unsuccessful Gubernatorial primary bids and a finally a loss for the Supreme Court of Appeals. Three other Democrats also took double digits in this primary, but none with more than 16 percent. I apologize sincerely if any of them are reading this and might be disappointed that I will not be typing out their name and background description. The candidate who finished last with 11 percent is now running as a write-in for the general election.
Kessler, despite all his difficulty in statewide primaries, was not going to be someone that posed much of a threat against Senator Capito, but he could have at least theoretically gotten some more votes from traditional Democrats and taken advantage of any sort of disunity among Republicans. Anderson is simply too far to the left to even be in the game against the 72 year old Senator. However, the Constitution Party has nominated S. Marshall Williams, a veteran and former Republican State Representative. He had run as a write-in for the 2020 Gubernatorial election and as the Constitution Party nominee for that office in 2024, took two percent.
There does not seem to be much in the way of polling here and a lot of West Virginia conservatives may not be enamored with Capito, but she will coast this November. The real action in the state may be between the incumbent and his predecesor, who is now Capito's junior colleague in the 2028 Republican primary for Governor.
posted by Corey @ Monday, October 12, 2026
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