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CHARLESTON -- The Republican race for attorney general in West Virginia is already heated, but the latest entrant into the race has a significant monetary advantage.
Pre-candidates for attorney general filed third-quarter campaign finance reports Tuesday with the West Virginia Secretary of State. The candidate filing period for the 2024 primary election races doesn't begin until Jan. 8, but pre-candidates are allowed to raise money to see if they wish to file for office.
Leading the three announced Republican candidates for attorney general was State Auditor J.B. McCuskey, who joined the race at the end of July having previously been an announced Republican candidate for governor.
McCuskey raised $149,425 between the months of July and September, which was more than 79% more than his closest Republican competitor and more than 24% more than the $120,374 McCuskey raised during the second quarter when he was still a candidate for governor. More than $75,000 was raised by McCuskey from four fundraisers in September across the state.
"From Lewisburg, to Elkins, to Huntington to Ripley, our message is resonating," McCuskey said on X, formerly called Twitter. "People from every corner of West Virginia understand that our future is bright, but it starts with protecting our values and bringing young families home."
McCuskey's election year-to-date contributions were $797,658, much of that raised from his short campaign for governor he began on Feb. 28. McCuskey left the governor's race on July 24.
State Senate Majority Whip Ryan Weld, R-Brooke, raised $83,170 for the third quarter, bringing his election year-to-date contributions to $195,292. Weld, the vice chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, in April announced his candidacy for attorney general from West Virginia Independence Hall in Wheeling.
Weld is heading into the fourth quarter and the remainder of 2023 with $162,785 in cash-on-hand.
State Sen. Mike Stuart, R-Kanawha, came in dead last in quarterly donations, raising $45,731 between July and September. Stuart, who served between 2017 and 2021 as former president Donald Trump's appointed U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of West Virginia, raised $797,658 election year-to-date and has $107,798 in cash-on-hand, buoyed by a $62,002 loan to his campaign.
Stuart, who is barely into his first year of a four-year term in the West Virginia Senate, announced his campaign for attorney general on May 2. Stuart has made it a point to attack Weld and McCuskey by accusing them of not being true conservatives. In a social media post Wednesday, Stuart accused McCuskey of taking campaign donations from known Democrats.
"Money can't buy love, but it's trying to buy the attorney general's office," Stuart said. "J.B.'s fundraising haul? Magnificent list of Democrats … Democrats buying weakest candidate?"
The winner of the May 14 Republican primary for attorney general will go on to the 2024 general election, which will decide who succeeds three-term Republican Attorney General Patrick Morrisey, who is seeking the Republican nomination for governor of West Virginia.
Steven Allen Adams can be reached at sadams@newsandsentinel.com.