The race for West Virginia’s open senate seat is heating up, and Governor Jim Justice directly responded to ads attacking his run for the senate seat in a press briefing on Tuesday.
The ads point to his campaign donations to Democratic candidates, but Justice says that his record speaks for itself.
“I sure do appreciate President Trump’s endorsement in every way,” Justice said.
Justice currently leads the senate race by almost 30 points, according to a recent poll by WMOV radio and American Pulse. His next closest opponent, Alex Mooney, has campaigned on what Mooney sees as Justice’s lack of conservative credentials.
“Justice is Republican in name only. As governor, he supported Biden’s reckless spending which caused inflation to skyrocket, he pushed liberal gun control measures that would restrict the Second Amendment, and he even criticized those who refused to submit to COVID-19 vaccine mandates,” Mooney said in an op-ed published Tuesday in the West Virginia Daily news. “If Justice is elected, you will be disappointed when he votes with Senator Chuck Schumer and the Democrats when it matters most. This is not just about Justice’s record, remember he was elected as a Democrat. Previously, Justice donated heavily to the DNC, Joe Manchin, and he supported Manchin before switching parties.”
Justice was a registered Democrat until 2017, and he made campaign contributions to several democratic candidates before that point, such as Joe Manchin and Nick Rahall. That information is publicly available in the Federal Election Commission database.
In the press briefing, Justice defended his record, saying he never donated to Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama, even though he was a Democrat then.
“If you really believe that Jim Justice supported Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton, you have to be totally out of your mind. That’s all there is to it,” Justice said.
According to the Federal Election Commission contribution database, Justice never sent a donation to the Obama or Clinton campaigns directly.
He did donate money to both state and national Democratic committees.
Those donations ended when Justice switched his party affiliation to Republican. Notably, he contributed to the Trump campaign directly after that point.
