Patrick Morrisey pulls off upset in West Virginia Senate primary, beats Blankenship and Jenkins
Morrisey: Debate showed I'm the proven conservative
Republican Senate hopeful from West Virginia says the Fox News debate went 'very well.'
DEVELOPING... The Fox News Decision Desk can now project a winner in the West Virginia Republican Senate primary. State Attorney General Patrick Morrissey will beat Congressman Evan Jenkins and former coal executive Don Blankenship, who will come in third. The results are a victory for President Trump, who had urged voters to reject Blankenship as doomed to lose to incumbent Democratic Senator Joe Manchin in November.
ORIGINAL STORY... Indiana businessman Mike Braun and Ohio Rep. Jim Renacci will both win their state’s Republican Senate primaries, while it's too early to call the closely atched contest in West Virginia, according to the Fox News Decision Desk.
In all three states, voters are picking Republican nominees to take on some of the most vulnerable incumbent Senate Democrats in this year’s midterm elections. Republicans hold a slim 51-49 advantage in the Senate.
Braun, a former state legislator who poured his own money into the race, is projected to defeat Reps. Luke Messer and Todd Rokita. Braun will face incumbent Democratic Sen. Joe Donnelly.
In Ohio, Renacci, who has been endorsed by President Trump, will defeat businessman Mike Gibbons in the Buckeye State’s Republican Senate primary and will face Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown in November.
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In recent days, the contest in West Virginia has received the most national attention, with former coal executive Don Blankenship locked in a race with U.S. Rep. Evan Jenkins and state Attorney General Patrick Morrisey. Early returns show Blankenship trailing both Jenkins and Morrisey.
At his election night gathering on Tuesday, Blankenship told supporters he is not conceding yet but acknowledged his numbers aren’t looking good. He told Fox News that if current results hold, he thinks the “overhang” of bad headlines about the Upper Big Branch explosion had the biggest impact.
Blankenship served a year in prison on a misdemeanor conviction for conspiring to violate mine safety laws, in connection with the Upper Big Branch Mine explosion in West Virginia in 2010 that killed 29 workers.
On Monday, President Trump appealed to the state’s primary voters to oppose Blankenship, arguing he “can’t win” in the general election.
Blankenship has also made waves in recent days for airing a campaign ad referring to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., as “cocaine Mitch.”
Still, Blankenship has won over voters by portraying himself as a true conservative outsider, compared to Jenkins and Morrisey.
The West Virginia Senate race is considered a toss-up in the midterm elections, as Republicans hope to unseat incumbent Joe Manchin, a Democrat who first won the seat in a 2010 special election.
Fox News is projecting that Manchin will easily defeat challenger Paula Jean Swearengin to win the Democratic primary.
In Indiana, Braun spent millions on ads arguing he’s an outsider, but his primary rivals attacked him over voting records indicating he voted in Democratic primaries until 2012.
Braun has responded by saying he is a conservative Republican, but he voted in past Democratic primaries to have a say in local races dominated by Democrats. His rivals have asked who he voted for in the 2008 Democratic primary race between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, but Braun claims he voted for neither.
Braun was elected to the Indiana State House as a Republican in 2014.
In Ohio, Renacci had been favored to win the state’s Republican primary. Renacci ran against Marysville small business owner Melissa Ackison, Cincinnati-area financial management company founder Daniel Kiley and retired public administrator Don Elijah Eckhart from Galloway.
Meanwhile in Ohio, Republican Mike DeWine and Democrat Richard Cordray are projected to win their party’s primaries in the race to succeed term-limited GOP Gov. John Kasich.
Fox News’ Ellison Barber, Brooke Singman and The Associated Press contributed to this report.