On Tuesday, Republicans in West Virginia cast their votes for whom they wanted to be the GOP Senate nominee that will face Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin in November.
After a brief scare from GOP outsider Don Blankenship, West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey pulled out the victory — a major relief for the Republican Party.
The race was highly anticipated due to the emergence of Blankenship, who served a year in prison for his involvement in a deadly mining accident. Republicans worried that his prior conviction and recent racially-charged remarks that he made against Asians would all but doom the GOP’s chances of knocking off Manchin.
Looking to avoid another disaster like the recent debacle in Alabama, President Donald Trump weighed in on the race, encouraging West Virginians not to vote for Blakenship.