During Tuesday’s primary elections in West Virginia, Republican voters removed the state Senate president as well as an incumbent doctor who garnered criticism for opposing his party’s school vaccination policy.
In the state’s eastern panhandle, U.S. Army Special Forces Green Beret veteran Tom Willis upset Republican Senate President Craig Blair, who had led the chamber since 2021. Chris Rose, a veteran coal miner and power utility business electrician, defeated Sen. Mike Maroney, the state’s health and human resources chair.
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The Republican caucus’ bill, which would have exempted some students who do not attend traditional public schools or participate in group extracurricular activities like sports from the vaccinations normally required for children starting daycare or school, led to Maroney’s defeat.
West Virginia is one of a few states in the United States that only allows medical exemptions from immunization mandates. Maroney, a Marshall County radiologist, labeled the bill “an embarrassment” on the Senate floor, claiming that politicians were damaging the state.
Willis, Blair, Maroney, and Rose did not immediately respond to messages left for them on Wednesday.
All 100 seats in the state House of Delegates were up for election, as were 17 of the 34 seats in the state Senate. Fourteen Republican incumbents were running for reelection, with nine facing challengers. Four incumbents lost to challengers: Blair, Maroney, Sen. Robert Karnes, and Sen. Chandler Swope.
At least four Republican incumbents in the House of Delegates lost their primaries: Diana Winzenreid, David Adkins, Heather Tully, and Don Forsht.
In one of the night’s most heated battles, Republican incumbent Sen. Patricia Rucker narrowly defeated Del. Paul Espinosa. After Rucker announced her intention to challenge Blair for the Senate presidency, they recruited Espinosa to run for the state Senate. Blair and other Senate leaders pressured her to withdraw from the Senate president campaign, despite her dismissal as the chair of the Senate education committee.
Rucker supported Willis in his battle against Blair.
Unaffiliated voters have been able to vote in Republican primaries in West Virginia since 1986, but this year was the last time they could do so. The state GOP voted in January to limit the primary to registered Republicans beginning in 2026. According to the secretary of state’s website, 24.7% of West Virginia registered voters do not have a party affiliation.
Unaffiliated people’s final opportunity to vote in the GOP primary may have contributed to this year’s apparent increase in voter turnout. Unofficial totals show that over 224,000 West Virginia adults voted in the GOP presidential contest. This stands in contrast to the 198,000 votes cast in the 2020 Republican presidential primary and the 157,000 votes cast in 2016.
Rose received support from West Virginians for Health Freedom, a group that opposes vaccine requirements.
Maroney declared, “I took an oath to do no harm,” during the debate over this year’s vaccine measure, which Republican Gov. Jim Justice eventually vetoed. There’s no way I can vote for this bill.”
Children in West Virginia are required to receive immunizations for chickenpox, hepatitis-B, measles, meningitis, mumps, diphtheria, polio, rubella, tetanus, and whooping cough unless they have a medical exemption. West Virginia does not require COVID-19 vaccines.
Living in a nearby district to Maroney’s, Alicia West Fancher, a mother and member of West Virginians for Health Freedom, advocated for Rose’s election, believing that families, not legislators, should determine vaccine decisions.
“To me, they’re playing God over the health of my children,” she stated. “They don’t get to decide what’s best for my kids. I get to make a decision with God’s guidance. It makes me angry to see all these politicians choosing health care over my family.”
Blair spent three terms in the Senate, including the last three years as president. Blair previously served seven years in the House of Delegates.
Willis has been in the National Guard for almost 20 years and works as a real estate attorney. The Hedgesville resident co-owns the Glen Ferris Inn, which overlooks the scenic Kanawha Falls in Fayette County. Willis finished fourth out of six candidates in a 2018 Republican primary for the United States Senate.
