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PARKERSBURG -- The West Virginia Republican Party celebrated victories across West Virginia on election day, leading to a sweep of all statewide offices and its largest majority in the Legislature since the Great Depression.
Republicans picked up three seats in the state Senate, giving them a 23-11 super majority. In the House of Delegates, Republicans saw a gain of 17 seats, giving them a 76-24 super majority in the lower chamber.
President Donald Trump received 69 percent of the vote in West Virginia, over 538,000 votes, compared to Democratic Joe Biden's 30 percent and 232,610 votes.
U.S. Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., had the strongest win of any statewide candidate and the largest margin of victory of any candidate running for U.S. Senate in the country, taking 70 percent of the vote and over 540,000 votes.
Gov. Jim Justice enjoyed a win by a large margin, beating Democrat Ben Salango, a Kanawha County Commissioner, by a margin of 65 percent to 31 percent. The Republican governor carried all 55 counties and won Kanawha County by a 5 percent margin.
"Voters sent a strong message tonight that they support Republican leadership in West Virginia. President Trump overwhelmingly won the state. U.S. Sen. Shelley Moore Capito was strongly re-elected and will be West Virginia's leader in the U.S. Senate, and led the way along with the decisive re-election of Reps. David McKinley, Alex Mooney and Carol Miller," said Melody Potter, chairwoman of the West Virginia Republican Party.
State Treasurer John Perdue was the only Democrat in statewide office, but lost a re-election bid to Republican Riley Moore by a 12 percent margin.
It was more the same in Wood County, with only two races Republicans didn't win (Parkersburg City Council Districts 4 and 5). State Sen. Donna Boley, R-3rd, won a 10th term, Delegate Bill Anderson was re-elected to the House in District 8, Republican Shannon Kimes won a first term to the House in District 9, Delegates John Kelley and Vernon Criss were re-elected to the 10th District where Republican Roger Conley was elected to his first term in the Legislature.
Robert Tebay won re-election to the Wood County Commission, Tom Joyce was re-elected for mayor of Parkersburg where the winning Republicans were Jessica Cottrill (Council District 1), Chris Rexroad (Council District 7) and Austin Richards (Council District 9).
"Yesterday was a phenomenal day in Wood County for the Republican party. It's been coming for several weeks, the enthusiasm level has just been at a fever pitch. The activity that we've been seeing over the past several weeks has just been off the chart and equally so throughout the state of West Virginia," Conley, who is the chairman of the Wood County Republican Party, said. "You keep hearing the saying of a red wave, West Virginia truly yesterday had a red wave, there's just absolutely no question. It was just a phenomenal day."
Contact Tyler Bennett at tbennett@newsandsentinel.com