CHARLESTON — A group backing Attorney General Patrick Morrisey shows him in the lead in the 2024 Republican primary for governor of West Virginia, while an internal poll from Gov. Jim Justice shows him far in the lead for the GOP nomination for U.S. Senate next year.

A poll released Thursday by the West Virginia chapter of Americans for Prosperity, a conservative grassroots organizing organization, shows Morrisey 10 points ahead of his nearest Republican competitor.

According to the poll, 29% of respondents said they would vote for Morrisey in the 2024 Republican primary on May 14. House Judiciary Committee Chairman Moore Capito has 18%, Secretary of State Mac Warner has 8%, Huntington businessman Chris Miller has 6% and Martinsburg resident Rashida Yost has 1%. Another 18% of respondents said they support other candidates, 19% were undecided or unsure and 1% refused to answer.

When 19% of undecided respondents were asked which candidate they were leaving towards, 12% said Morrisey, 5% said Capito, 2% said Warner, 4% said Miller, 4% said they lean toward other candidates, 1% refused to answer, and 72% said they remain undecided.

“This poll reaffirms what conservatives across West Virginia already understand – that Patrick Morrisey will serve as their next governor,” said Jai Chabria, a senior strategist for the Morrisey Campaign. “With fundraising numbers that dwarf his competitors, and the most conservative record as an attorney general in the state’s history, West Virginians know that Morrisey is a fighter who has actually gotten results and will deliver even more victories for the state as governor.”

When asking respondents about the favorability of certain candidates and elected officials, Morrisey’s favorability was 50%, with 21% having an unfavorable view of Morrisey, 15% having no opinion and 14% saying they were unfamiliar or had never heard of Morrisey. Capito, Morrisey’s closest competitor, had a favorability rate of 37%, with 29% saying they were either unfamiliar with Capito or had never heard of him, 18% had an unfavorable view, and 16% had no opinion.

“With 50% of respondents having a favorable viewing of Attorney General Patrick Morrisey, it is clear that the Governor’s race is his race to win,” said Jason Huffman, the state director for AFP-WV.

The poll, conducted by national polling firm i360 between Oct. 3 and Oct. 4 with 811 likely Republican primary voters through live phone calls, has a margin of error of 3.4%. Of those polled, 88% said they were registered as Republicans and 12% said they were either unaffiliated or non-partisan, with 36% saying they were very conservative, 32% saying they were somewhat conservative, and 22% saying they were moderate.

AFP-WV is openly supporting Morrisey for governor, including social media posts boosting the candidate and door-to-door operations handing out flyers and other printed material.

In the Republican primary race for the U.S. Senate seat held by U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., months of stories on Justice’s business woes and controversies within executive branch departments have not weakened his standing among likely Republican voters.

The Justice campaign released an internal poll Wednesday from Fabrizio, Lee and Associates, a firm used frequently by former president Donald Trump. According to the poll, 62% of respondents support Justice for Senate, with 23% saying they support Rep. Alex Mooney, R-W.Va., and 15% undecided.

“These polling numbers show that Governor Jim Justice is in command of the race and dominating Alex Mooney,” the campaign said in a press release Wednesday. “West Virginians overwhelmingly support Jim Justice; they know he is the strongest Republican candidate for the U.S. Senate because of his strong conservative record.”

When looking at support for Justice within the congressional districts, Justice enjoys 58% support in the 2nd Congressional District covering the northern half of the state. Only 27% of 2nd District likely Republican voters said they would vote for Mooney, who won election to the redrawn 2nd District in 2022 by defeating former Republican Congressman David McKinley 54% to 36%. Mooney was first elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 2015.

“Jim Justice is firmly in command of this race,” wrote Tony Fabrizio, David Lee and Travis Tunis in a memorandum. “The combination of his superior ratings, Mooney’s anemic scores and Mooney’s inability to even be competitive in his home Congressional District boldly underscores the magnitude of Justice’s advantage and Mooney’s long odds.”

The poll was conducted Sept. 11 through Sept. 13 with 600 likely Republican primary voters in a combination of live landline interviews, live cell phone interviews, and text message responses. The margin of error on the poll was 4%.

The Mooney campaign pushed back against the poll, accusing the Justice campaign of being too afraid to poll likely primary voters on their thoughts about the many business issues and debts facing Justice-owned businesses or Justice’s past support for recent federal spending packages, including the $1.2 trillion Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act and the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan Act.

“Jim Justice is running as a Washington D.C. insider, waiting in the wings to do their bidding if he gets to Washington,” said John Findlay, Mooney’s campaign manager. “Jim Justice is already on the record supporting Joe Biden’s reckless big government spending and he will continue that support in Washington. And who better to join the big government Washingtonians than someone who has run businesses into the ground and corrupts everything he touches.”

In the Republican primary for president next year, both the AFP-WV poll and Justice internal poll showed strong support among likely Republican voters for Trump’s effort to seek another term as president. Fabrizio, Lee and Associates showed Trump with 63% support, with his nearest competitor, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, with 10%. In the AFP-WV poll, Trump enjoyed a 76% favorability rating.

Steven Allen Adams can be reached at sadams@newsandsentinel.com.