Gov. Jim Justice speaks at The Greenbrier Resort in White Sulphur Springs, W.Va., on April 27. (AP Photo)

WHEELING — The political dogfight has already started for the 2024 Republican nomination to a U.S. Senate seat in West Virginia.

The barking has already begun in the race between Gov. Jim Justice, often accompanied by his English bulldog Babydog, and incumbent U.S. Rep. Alex Mooney for the GOP nomination for Senate in 2024.

The contest will be among the most watched across the nation as Republicans, hoping to gain the majority in the Senate, see West Virginia where they can gain a seat that has been in Democratic hands between Sen. Joe Manchin, former Sen. Carte Goodwin and the late Sen. Robert C. Byrd since 1959.

Mooney’s campaign released this statement following Justice’s announcement for Senate: “Jim Justice gave a low-energy announcement of his U.S. Senate candidacy so boring he had to beg Babydog to stay awake. Since Jim Justice’s lips were moving, he was lying.”

Justice told The Intelligencer during a recent stop in Wheeling that catcalls won’t bother him.

U.S. Rep. Alex Mooney addresses a campaign rally at the Westmoreland Fair Grounds in Greensburg, Pa, in May 2022. (AP Photo)

“I’m a competitor. To be perfectly clear and honest, I’m not the least bit concerned about the mean-spirited (campaigning),” Justice said. “I’m probably not going to go there myself. But at the end of the day, this world of politics has gotten crazy now. That’s all there is to it. You just have to ask yourself one question: are we worth it? And we are. So whatever the crap may be, we’re worth it. And that’s what we’re going to do.”

Justice said on West Virginia radio he isn’t concerned Mooney has the endorsements of many West Virginia legislators.

“I’m glad that some of our legislators know that Alex Mooney is somewhere remotely connected to West Virginia,” Justice said. “I mean, who in the world in the state of West Virginia knows that Alex Mooney is a West Virginian. I mean, the truth of the matter is, Alex Mooney is from Maryland and absolutely, totally in every way connected to Maryland. He’s in the U.S. Congress and at the end of the day, I’ll promise you from Clarksburg south nobody’s hardly seen him. I’ve seen him one time.”

Mooney’s campaign said it wanted to stay focused on what’s happening in Washington and the nation.

“Congressman Mooney is talking about the issues, such as inflation and fighting the drug epidemic,” John Findlay, Mooney’s campaign manager, said. “Meanwhile, his opponent, Jim Justice resorts to personal attacks because he knows that Congressman Mooney’s values align with the people of West Virginia and he’s 100% conservative, unlike himself and Joe Manchin who were both cheerleaders for Biden’s reckless spending.”

Manchin has yet to say whether he will seek re-election in 2024.

Sam Workman, professor of political science and director of the Institute for Policy Research and Public Affairs in the John D. “Jay” Rockefeller School of Policy and Politics at West Virginia University, doesn’t believe the winner of the Republican nomination will come out of the primary as a wounded candidate for the general election. He compared Mooney’s political style to former President Donald Trump, whom Mooney supports.

“What you will find is they are on the offense more often than they are not,” Workman said.

He next compared Justice’s style to that of Manchin’s in that they come in on the middle on most issues facing the nation, one of these being immigration.

“But I think Justice will be increasingly less able to do that as the primary progresses,” Workman said. “He will have to take positions and be more outspoken on them than if it were left to him.”

Workman also doesn’t believe it will make much difference to Manchin who wins the GOP nomination or whether there’s a mean-spirited campaign for him next year.

“He has been around a long time and his calculation will depend on what the race looks like at the end of the year,” Workman said. “Manchin is now advanced in age and his decision on whether to run for re-election or president will depend on what he sees as being his last act and how he wants to write his last chapter.”