WHITE SULPHUR SPRINGS — Gov. Jim Justice is used to landslide elections, and Tuesday night was no different, with Justice securing a victory to become West Virginia’s next U.S. Senator.

The Associated Press called the race Tuesday night in favor of Justice shortly after polls closed. Justice watched the results come in Tuesday night with friends, supporters, and his loyal English bulldog Babydog in the Colonial Hall at the historic Greenbrier Resort.

“Absolutely with all in me, it’s an honor. I proudly…accept the honor beyond belief this absolute opportunity to serve as your United State Senate,” Justice said, surrounded by First Lady Cathy Justice, adult children Jay and Jill Justice, and other family members.

According to unofficial election results Tuesday night reported by county clerks to the West Virginia Secretary of State’s Office, Justice carried 65% of the vote at press time, with 100,504 votes cast, compared to his Democratic opponent, two-term former Wheeling mayor Glenn Elliott, who carried 32% of the vote with 49,562 votes.

Justice – who will succeed U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin, I-W.Va. – is the first Republican to hold this Senate seat since the brief tenure of Chapman Revercomb from 1956 to 1959. Justice told reporters after leaving the stage that he will be a different senator than what people are used to.

“I’m just humbled,” Justice said. “The way I did this all along, it’s going to be different. I can’t do this the way that it’s been done in D.C. I’ve got to do this my way, and really and truly my way has surely proven to be really, really fruitful. Now, with all that being said, the great people of the State of West Virginia believed in me. They stepped up.”

Wrapping up his second and final four-year term as West Virginia’s 36th governor, Justice first announced for U.S. Senate in April 2023 at the Greenbrier to challenge Manchin, the previous two-term governor who succeeded the late Democratic U.S. Sen. Robert C. Byrd in a special election in 2010. Manchin went on to serve the remainder of Byrd’s six-year term and was elected for two more terms in 2012 and 2018.

Manchin announced in November 2023 that he would retire from the U.S. Senate following the conclusion of his term at the end of 2024, later switching from a registered Democrat to unaffiliated earlier this year.

Justice was recruited for a U.S. Senate run by outgoing Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., and the National Republican Senatorial Committee. U.S. Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, expected to become the fourth ranking member of Senate Republican leadership next year, introduced and endorsed Justice at his April 2023 campaign announcement along with U.S. Sen. Lindsay Graham, R-S.C.

“Are you better off now than you were four years ago? Resoundingly, a lot of people are answering that question with a big fat no,” Capito said Tuesday night. “They want something different, and the path to that is President Donald Trump and Senator Jim Justice to get us the majority in the United States Senate.

“From my family to yours, we stand ready to help not just the Justice family…to not just make West Virginia a great place, but this country the place we aspire to, that we want our children in and want to fight for and believe in the liberties and freedoms that we have,” Capito continued.

First elected as governor as the Democratic nominee in 2016 after defeating former Republican Senate President Bill Cole of Mercer County, Justice switched to the Republican Party in 2017 at the behest of Trump. He easily defeated businessman and former Justice cabinet official Woody Thrasher in the 2020 GOP primary for governor and Democratic Kanawha County Commissioner Ben Salango in the 2020 general election.

Justice easily defeated five-term U.S. Rep. Alex Mooney, R-W.Va., in the May Republican primary, by more than 35 points. Despite putting none of his own money in his race, Justice was able to pull significant amounts of campaign donations, and Justice maintained wide leads in opinion polls over Mooney and Elliott. And in the later days of the campaign, Justice and Babydog hit the road not for himself, but on behalf of former Republican President Donald Trump.

In other federal races, Republican State Treasurer Riley Moore received enough votes to succeed Mooney in the 2nd Congressional District. Moore carried 62% of the vote at press time, receiving 51,941 votes.

His Democratic challenger, retired U.S. Navy Cmdr. Steven Wendelin, had 38% of the vote, for #31,188 votes.

Moore — the nephew of Capito and the grandson of the late Republican governor and congressman Arch Moore – is a former member of the House of Delegates who defeated long-time Democratic State Treasurer John Perdue in 2020.

In the 1st Congressional District covering the southern half of West Virginia, three-term U.S. Rep. Carol Miller, R-W.Va., easily secured her victory with 69% of the vote for 46,397 votes as of press time.

Her only significant challenger, independent candidate Wes Holden, only had 7% of the vote for 4,386 votes. Democratic opponent Chris Bob Reed had 25% of the vote for 16,630 votes.