Manchin, Raese Poised to Face off in November

CHARLESTON, WV -  

Gov. Joe Manchin and Republican John Raese claimed victory in securing their parties' nominations during an Aug. 28 special primary election for the seat once held by U.S. Sen. Robert C. Byrd.

According to unofficial, preliminary results with 87 percent of precincts statewide reporting at 10 p.m., Manchin received 73 percent of the Democratic vote, and Raese received 71 percent of the Republican vote.

Both candidates defeated their primary challengers by healthy double-digit margins, and will now advance to the November elections. Also advancing to November is Jesse Johnson, who was the sole candidate for the Mountain Party.

Manchin fended off two challengers for the Democratic nomination: Sheirl Fletcher and Ken Hechler. While he had raised the most of any candidate during the election with more than $500,000 in campaign contributions, Manchin barely spent any of it. That money now is available for the November election.

Raese, on the other hand, had to defeat nine challengers to capture the nomination. He raised roughly half of what Manchin has, much of it his own money, and spent some of the money before the Aug. 28 election on radio ads and campaign expenses.

Byrd died in June, leaving open the Senate seat that he had occupied for more than 50 years. Manchin appointed Carte Goodwin, D-W.Va., the governor's former legal counsel, to Byrd's seat in the U.S. Senate, but Goodwin's appointment was meant to be temporary.

Polls opened at 6:30 a.m. and remained open until 7:30 p.m. The Secretary of State's Office said it was hoping for a voter turnout of 25 percent, but instead had a turnout of about 12 percent.

’I am disappointed about that,’ Secretary of State Natalie Tennant said in a news release. ’I was really hoping for a higher number. We were all excited to see the voting registration and early voting numbers. Every election is important, but there was a great deal of interest in this one from the beginning. I expected it to be higher, but I am very glad there continues to be very dedicated citizens in West Virginia who vote in every election.’

More than 30,000 people cast their votes prior to election day during the state's in the five day early voting period.