Justice, Morrisey Lead Rivals in W.Va. Senate, Gubernatorial Polls

West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice and state Attorney General Patrick Morrisey are leading their rivals for the Republican nomination for the U.S. Senate and West Virginia governor, respectively, according to new polls from WMOV and American Pulse.

Justice leads his closest competitor for the GOP nomination to replace outgoing Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., West Virginia Rep. Alex Mooney, by more than 30 points in the poll, which was released Wednesday.

• Justice: 55.7%
• Undecided: 22.1%
• Mooney: 19.9%

“With the recent retirement announcement from Senator Joe Manchin and the strong Republican tilt of the state, Jim Justice is the catbird seat to be West Virginia's next senator,” Dustin Olson of American Pulse Research & Polling, the lead pollster for this survey, said in a statement.

In the state’s race for governor, Morrisey outpaces his rivals for the nomination with support from just under one-third of Republican voters, though he is closely followed by state Delegate Moore Capito, the son of current West Virginia Republican Sen. Shelley Moore Capito.

• Morrisey: 30.5%
• Undecided: 22.8%
• Capito: 22.6%

Morrisey’s campaign told Newsmax in a statement the survey shows that the attorney general has “the right formula” to win in 2024.

“Yet another poll shows Patrick Morrisey with a sizable lead as West Virginians’ choice to be their next Governor,” said Jai Chabria, senior strategist for the Morrisey campaign. “His conservative record of fighting for, and winning for West Virginia is clearly the right formula.”

Republican voters are mostly undecided about the West Virginia attorney general’s race, with no candidate garnering more than 20% support.

• Undecided: 67.9%
• State Auditor JB McCuskey: 16.1%
• State Senator Mike Stuart: 10.6%

WMOV and American Pulse surveyed 414 people from across the state of West Virginia on November 13-14, 2023; the margin of error is +/- 4.8 percentage points.

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