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Effort to allow unaffiliated voters in the W.Va. GOP primary fails

West Virginia Republican Party Chairman Del. Joshua Holstein presides over Saturday’s state Republican Executive Committee winter meeting as the committee debated a motion over re-opening the party’s primary in May to unaffiliated voters. (Photo by Steven Allen Adams)

CHARLESTON – A last-ditch effort by some members of the West Virginia Republican Executive Committee to reopen their May 2026 primary to unaffiliated voters failed, requiring anyone to vote in the GOP primary to be a registered Republican.

The committee gathered Saturday for its winter meeting at the Four Points Sheraton in downtown Charleston.

Two years ago, members of the executive committee voted for an amended resolution to close the Republican primary to unaffiliated voters beginning in 2026 after an attempt to close the 2024 GOP primary failed.

State code 3-2-31 and 3-4A-20 allows political parties to determine whether unaffiliated voters – those registered as “no party” – can participate in primaries. Unaffiliated voters have been able to participate in Republican primary contests since 1986 and Democratic primaries since 2017.

Earlier this week, a resolutions committee of the state Republican Party met virtually to recommend four new resolutions for the full executive committee to consider Saturday. But a resolution that would have allowed those registered “no party” to vote in the May primary failed.

However, three members of that committee – one-third of its membership – petitioned the party secretary on Jan. 7 to offer an amendment to the resolution report to force a vote by the full committee on allowing unaffiliated voters to participate in the primary per the executive committee’s bylaws.

West Virginia Republican Party Chairman Del. Joshua Holstein, R-Boone, made a ruling on advice of the executive committee’s parliamentarian that the petition was not valid due to the resolutions committee not being constituted properly. But during the new business portion of the meeting, a member made a motion to rescind the January 2024 amended resolution that closed this year’s primary.

Another committee member made a motion to postpone indefinitely the motion to rescind, which was adopted by the executive committee in a voice vote. A motion to adjourn was then quickly passed.

Wood County Republican Party Chairman Del. Scot Heckert, R-Wood, said he believes it is too soon to close this year’s GOP primary to independent voters, who he said played a role in helping elect President Donald Trump, flipping the state’s congressional delegation to Republican and ushering in the Republican supermajorities in the House of Delegates and state Senate.

“(Independents) voted for Trump three times,” Heckert said. “They probably would have voted for JD Vance (in 2028). They brought us from way behind to the supermajority. And now we’ve turned our back on them. The party has spoken. It is what it is, but I believe it’s the beginning of the end of the supermajority for (the) Republican Party.”

According to the most recent voter registrations records from the West Virginia Secretary of State’s Office, there are 508,956 registered Republicans in the state, a 1,052 increase from the previous month. Democratic Party registration was 332,111, a decrease of 299. But those registering as other – which includes minor parties but mostly those registered as “no party” – was 357,425, which was up by 905 over November.

According to a polling memo released earlier this week by the West Virginia Leadership Fund, 64% of independent voters polled the week of Jan. 4 said they voted for Trump in 2024. Nearly 92% of independents polled said they should be allowed to vote in the Republican primary, with 70% saying they had no plans to switch their voter registration in order to do so in May.

Another two-thirds of independents said they would be less likely or unsure whether to vote for Republican candidates in the general election, while 57% said they had not read or seen any news reports that they would be unable to vote in the GOP primary this year.

Both the Wood County and Monongalia County Republican executive committees passed resolutions calling for the GOP primary to remain open this year to unaffiliated voters, while the Kanawha County Republican Executive Committee passed a resolution calling for the primary to remain closed to only registered Republicans.

Taylor County Republican Executive Committee Chairman and state Sen. Jay Taylor, R-Taylor, said keeping the primaries closed to independent voters would help prevent voters with more Democratic or liberal/progressive ideologies from manipulating Republican primaries to nominate more moderate candidates. Taylor cited recent comments from former Democrat-turned-independent U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin, who opposed closing the Republican primary during an appearance last week on WV MetroNews Talkline.

“This really has nothing to do with the independents or unaffiliated voters,” Taylor said. “Back when we were doing this, we messed with the Democrats and we’re in the big majority now, so we know how the game is played. Now that they’re trying to mess with us, we’re going to try to stop them from messing with us. With President Trump coming out and supporting closed primaries and with Joe Manchin coming out and supporting the open primaries, it was an obvious choice here.”

The 2026 primary campaign season in West Virginia begins Monday, with the candidate filing period that runs through midnight on Saturday, Jan. 31. The deadline for residents to register to vote or update their voter registration to participate in the May primary is Tuesday, April 21. In-person early voting for the primary will be Wednesday, April 29, through Saturday, May 9.

Speaking Saturday during his chairman’s report to the West Virginia Republican Executive Committee, Holstein urged committee members to not let the issue of closed primaries divide Republicans.

“What I want to make clear is, we’ve got a job to do,” Holstein said. “We’ve got to settle our differences, and we’ve got to come together and accomplish our goals, and that’s electing more Republicans, defending our Republican majorities in the Legislature, on the federal level, and at the state, county and local level as well.”

“No matter what decision has been made or what decision will be made today, I think it’s important that we have got to register people to vote as Republican,” Holstein continued. “No matter what your perspective is on that, we’ve got to register more people to Republican, and that’s very important.”

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