'Caved to the far-left': Entrenched red state GOP incumbent loses primary after PAC hammers him on key issue (WV Senate president)

Fox News ^ | 5/15/24 | Andrew Miller

[cotton1706]

A stalwart in the West Virginia Republican Party for decades lost his primary race on Tuesday night due in part to his support of a controversial bill that critics say would provide healthcare for illegal immigrants, according to a group that actively campaigned against him.

West Virginia GOP State Sen. Craig Blair, the president of the state senate who has served as a state senator since 2013 and in the legislature for years before that, lost to his primary challenger Tom Willis on Tuesday night, WV Metro News reported.

Stand For Us PAC, a group that put $1 million into defeating incumbents who they deemed weak on illegal immigration, says Blair lost because of his support of subsidizing healthcare for illegal immigrants.

"It’s simple: Craig Blair caved to the far-left on illegal immigration and turned his back on the people of West Virginia...and Stand for Us PAC held him accountable," Katie Miller, Chair of Stand for Us PAC, said in a statement to Fox News Digital on Wednesday.

[combat_boots]

Gotta love me some hillfolk.

[Skwor]

I would not call supposed republican politician who wants to give free anything to illegals a stalwart member of the party, they should gave labeled him as a rino or uniarty.

[combat_boots]

Agreed.

The waters are muddied like the 2 rivers that meet up in Fairbanks.

We’re in the feasting on the carcass phase.

[Alberta's Child]

West Virginia Republicans are pretty much RINOs by definition. You’re not going to find very conservative politics in a highly dysfunctional state that has more white people on welfare than any place on the planet outside Ukraine.

[for-q-clinton]

Sorry but he is the republicam part. The gop is more left than right today

[muskah]

There is much more to the story than this one bill, as there always is.

[PermaRag]

Blair got spanked, and so did his little toady (Paul Espinosa) whom he personally recruited to run against a conservative incumbent Senator because she dared to say she might challenge Blair for the Senate presidency.

It wasn’t all good news though, and it usually isn’t ALL good.

While know-nothings cheer for the defeat of any incumbent (they’ve never heard of) and simply assume that those who are defeated must be RINOs, it’s not always the case.

As one example: Robert Karnes, possibly the most staunch conservative in the WV Senate (and a major foe of Blair), unfortunately lost to a squishy challenger in Tuesday’s primary. Giving liberal/RINO something to celebrate, and they are.