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Open Invitation: West Virginia Republican Party keeps primary open to unaffiliated voters for 2024

Vienna man chosen as party chairman

Dr. Matt Herridge, right, was selected by the West Virginia Republican Executive Committee Saturday as the new chairman of the state Republican Party. (Photo by Steven Allen Adams)

CHARLESTON – Members of the West Virginia Republican Executive committee on Saturday voted for an amended resolution to close the Republican primary to unaffiliated voters beginning in 2026, allowing unaffiliated voters to vote this May.

The committee also selected Dr. Matt Herridge, a Vienna businessman and finance chairman of the West Virginia Republican Party, to succeed Chairwoman Elgine McArdle.

The committee gathered for their winter meeting on Saturday afternoon at the Four Points by Sheraton Hotel in Charleston. The meeting had been scheduled for Jan. 20, but was delayed due to last week’s snowstorm.

Committee members voted 65-54 for the amended resolution to close future Republican primaries beginning in 2026 to independent and unaffiliated voters. The vote still allows independent and unaffiliated voters to participate in the upcoming GOP primary in May.

State Code 3-2-31 and 3-4A-20 allows political parties to determine whether unaffiliated voters can participate in primaries. Unaffiliated voters have been able to participate in Republican primary contests since 1986 and Democratic primaries since 2017.

At primary polling locations, poll workers are required to give unaffiliated voters a nonpartisan ballot unless they request a specific political party’s primary ballot. Voters have already been able to submit applications for absentee ballots since Jan. 1, with the deadline for absentee ballot requests on Wednesday, May 8.

The state party’s resolutions committee adopted the resolution to close the primary this year in a 4-3 vote with one member abstaining in a Jan. 12 meeting. The resolution’s sponsor was Del. Jim Butler, R-Mason.

“The purpose of the Republican Party in our bylaws is to grow the Republican Party,” Butler said. “Now is the time there is excitement to bring people to our party. Let’s make this a positive thing. … We have the opportunity to grow our party.”

An amendment was offered to move closing the Republican primary to the 2026 midterm elections by the three members of the resolutions committee that voted against the original measure. Supporters of the amendment argued that closing the primary with more than four months until the primary elections would harm the party’s standing with unaffiliated voters.

“Independent voters have been with the Republican Party for years,” said state Sen. Jack Woodrum, R-Summer. “We cannot take the right from them to vote in primary elections. Now that we’re in the supermajority, we can’t just kick them to the curb.”

The West Virginia County Clerk’s Association has come out against closing the Republican primary to unaffiliated voters, stating it would cause chaos at polling locations in May. Del. Josh Holstein, R-Boone, is the chair of the party’s resolutions committee and said the Trump campaign was neutral on whether the West Virginia GOP primary should be closed to unaffiliated voters.

Senate President Craig Blair, R-Berkeley, said committee members need to think about how closing the GOP primary to unaffiliated voters would affect different parts of the state where some counties have only recently become majority Republican registration counties.

“What applies to one area of the state doesn’t apply to the other,” he said. “It gives you time enough to garner the resources and the understanding what to do to make sure you don’t disenfranchise voters. This election has started.”

The deadline to change or update voter registration information for the May primaries is Tuesday, April 23, which can be done in person with county clerks or online with the Secretary of State’s Office at GoVoteWV.com. Early voting for the May primary runs from Wednesday, May 1, to Saturday, May 11, with primary election day on Tuesday, May 14.

The committee also chose new leadership Saturday, electing Herridge to take the chairman’s seat after McArdle announced earlier this month her plans to resign following the winter meeting.

“We have tremendous potential here. I absolutely would want each and every one of you by my side in that dark alley,” Herridge said. “As I take the role on, I actively commit to you that I will listen, I will actively study, and I will make decisions.”

McArdle, who won election as chairwoman in August 2022, gave an emotional farewell to committee members as she chaired her final meeting.

“Eighteen months have passed since this body gave (Vice Chairman) Tony (Hodge) and I the opportunity representing the WVGOP,” McArdle said. “We wanted to restore confidence, competence and respect for the state party. … We accomplished those initial goals.

“I love the feeling the leadership team has experienced every time a decision has come before this body. We are all on the same page, and we must remember that,” McArdle said. “We need to continue rowing in the same directions, because we really do share the same values of faith, freedom and family.”

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

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