Free Republic

Saira Blair will graduate from a West Virginia high school later this month. She posts photos of her smoothie habit on Instagram, volunteers at the Martinsburg VA hospital and helps raise money for the Make-a-Wish foundation. She will not be eligible to vote until July. But on Tuesday, she beat a sitting state delegate who was seeking a third term in office. With all 13 precincts in her Martinsburg-area district reporting, Blair beat state Del. Larry Kump (R) by an 872-728 vote margin. Blair campaigned on an antiabortion, pro-Second Amendment platform, offering her cellphone number to constituents and pledging not...

Former Maryland GOP Chairman Alex Mooney has won the Republican primary for West Virginia’s second congressional district, according to the Associated Press, beating pharmacist Ken Reed and former U.S. International Trade Commissioner and state legislator Charlotte Lane.With 74.9 percent of precincts reporting, Mooney had 35 percent of the vote to Reed’s 22 percent, and Lane was running third with 18.4 percent.Those were the three leading candidates, but it was a seven-way brawl to replace Rep. Shelley Moore Capito who is leaving her House seat to run for the Senate. This is a clear victory for the tea party as Mooney...

Capito will be the republican nominee for the US Senate (and likely the next senator from WV).

THIS IS FOR THE MIDWEST (NORTHEAST and SOUTH is in a separate thread and West coming later, see links below) There are numerous important House Primary Races! And places where we can WIN! PLEASE contribute! And if you can't contribute money ... the least we can do is go to their pages and give them a "like" or a tweet. All of these candidates are involved in primaries that are close (or could be close) against generally more moderate or liberal Republicans. All of these districts are winnable in November. West Virginia: ALEX MOONEY, WEST VIRGINIA-2, May 13th .... Open...

CHARLESTON, W.Va. – The U.S. House seat Rep. Nick Rahall (D-W.Va.) has held since 1977 is now considered one of the most “vulnerable” in the country during the November general election. “In the past, Rahall boasted one of the best local brands in politics, effectively keeping enough distance between himself and a national party that’s increasingly unpopular in West Virginia,” according to a Tuesday article in Roll Call, a Capitol Hill newspaper. But Shira Center, who contributed to that Roll Call report, said times are changing and so is the political climate in West Virginia, especially in Rahall’s 3rd District....

Sen. Jay Rockefeller unloaded on lawmakers Tuesday, accusing some of blocking efforts to solve urgent problems during Barack Obama’s presidency “because he’s the wrong color.” Rockefeller (D-W.Va.), who will retire at the end of the year, made his comments during a Senate Finance Committee hearing on transportation funding, saying he’s confounded by the “lack of will to keep ourselves from dropping into rivers and rolling over bridges that are no longer there.” “It’s an American characteristic that you don’t do anything which displeases the voters, because you always have to get reelected here,” he added. “I understand part of it....

House Dem: Climate change bigger health threat than AIDS, malaria By Andrew Restuccia - 04/06/11 12:25 PM ET Just hours before a vote Wednesday on a GOP plan to block Environmental Protection Agency climate regulations, Rep. Lois Capps (D-Calif.) called climate change a bigger public health threat than AIDS, malaria and pandemic flu. Capps and several other liberal Democrats spoke out Wednesday morning in opposition to the legislation, authored by House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Fred Upton (R-Mich.). The lawmakers, who were joined by officials from the American Lung Association and the Union of Concerned Scientists, said the Upton...

The American coal industry is accusing the Obama administration of using the Environmental Protection Agency to end the use of coal despite the president's claim of having an "all of the above" energy policy. ... the EPA's MATS rules, which go into effect in January 2016, will devastate coal production in America and .. about 60 gigawatts of coal-fired generation coming off-line .. One of Monseu’s issues is the way she said the administration is targeting coal, which currently fuels around 40 percent of the electricity produced in the U.S. "Increasingly we face a situation where policy is dictated not...

Watching the celebration at the NRA convention over the defeat of background checks was the most nauseating experience of the day. I am not a New York gun control liberal, either. I support a shotgun for home defense, a handgun for limited conceal/carry, and an assortment of hunting rifles to balance West Virginia's exploding deer population (as evidenced by hourly collisions with cars). So, I am hardly out of the mainstream. But, the gun safety debate is B.S. This foaming at the mouth, Obamar is coming for the guns, Nanny Bloomberg is a bad billionaire, and most despicable of all,...

In a bizarre op-ed in The Charleston Gazette last week, journalism professor Christopher Swindell argued that the National Rifle Association “advocates armed rebellion against the duly elected government of the United States of America.” Stirring words, to be sure, but Swindell was hardly done — not even close. He also said that the NRA is guilty of “treason” “worthy of the firing squad.” “To support the new NRA president’s agenda of arming the populace for confrontation with the government is bloody treason,” Swindell charged in his wacky essay. After briefly playing the race card and alluding to the Civil War,...

According to the country’s paper of record, people in West Virginia are just too damn dumb and racist to know that they need savior Obama’s healthcare law. They say that those that would benefit the most are so dead set in their hatred for President Obama, that they’re willing to go without healthcare coverage. Three conservative groups (even one backed by the dreaded Koch brothers) are blamed for running ads in West Virginia that has “stigmatized” the law. Obama is so unpopular in hayseed, hick town, that they’re willing to lay down and die before they’d sign up for Obamacare.

Inside the sleek hillside headquarters of Valley Health Systems, built with a grant from the health care law, two employees played an advertisement they had helped produce to promote the law’s insurance coverage for young, working-class West Virginians. Health professionals, state officials, social workers, insurance agents and others trying to make the law work for uninsured Americans say the partisan divisions and attack ads have depressed participation in some places. They say the law has been stigmatized for many who could benefit from it, especially in conservative states like West Virginia that have the poorest, most medically underserved populations but...

NEW BRIGHTON, Pa. (AP) - Authorities say a Pennsylvania bride allegedly fatally shot her niece after an argument that took place during a wedding party. Police allege that 30-year-old Christina George-Harvan of Conway used her husband's handgun to shoot 21-year-old Katelyn "Kaytee" Francis of Fairmont, West Virginia during Thursday night argument in a New Brighton bar. That's about 30 miles north of Pittsburgh.

SURFSIDE BEACH, SC -Commotion at the Surfside Walmart Thursday afternoon led to a West Virginia couple being escorted from the store in handcuffs. What started as a shoplifting case ended with a car being towed with drugs and ammo inside. James Ferguson, 26, and his wife, Leeza Ferguson, 19, both of West Virginia were stopped on suspicion of shoplifting. An employee noticed the couple because the woman had a very large handbag. The report indicates they put a phone charger and swimsuit in the handbag and then they moved to the register where they purchased a few small items but...

WV State Regional Jail Authority Director, Joe DeLong, confirms that four correctional officers and four other inmates are now charged after they plotted to kill another inmate. DeLong, who is currently Boston attending the marathon, says the information surrounding the investigation came out Friday when the indictment was unsealed in Cabell County, WV. DeLong adds the correctional officers involved in the incident which occurred in October of 2013 are no longer with the West Virginia Regional Jail Authority. Steven D. Adkins of Milton, WV is one of the correctional officers charged. He has been charged with accessory before the fact...

To win the Senate, Republicans must win North Carolina. While it’s mathematically possible to take the Senate without ousting Democratic senator Kay Hagan, the chances of that happening are close to zero. For Republicans, North Carolina is necessary. It’s the key to control of the Senate. Obama Hagan It’s number six on my list. That is, there are five states where capturing Democratic seats appears more likely—West Virginia, South Dakota, Montana, Louisiana, Arkansas. Then comes North Carolina. Assuming Republicans don’t lose any of their own seats, those six pickups would give Republicans a 51-49 majority. And with it, the political...

The 60 Plus Association today released TV and radio advertisements in seven states targeting Senate Banking Committee Members who are sponsoring recently introduced legislation that will allow the government to take over the mortgage industry in an action 'disturbingly similar' to Obamacare. 60 Plus targeted three Democrat and four Republican U.S. Senators supporting this government take-over, including Joe Manchin (D-WV), Mark Warner (D-VA), Kay Hagan (D-NC), Mike Crapo (R-ID), Dean Heller (R-NV), Mark Kirk (R-IL), and Jerry Moran (R-KS).

The Wisconsin congressional district represented by Rep. Tom Petri (R) stands to lose nearly 2,000 jobs because of the Obama Administration’s “War on Coal,” but Petri has twice voted to let some of those more controversial – and burdensome – regulations stand. A nationwide analysis by the Heritage Foundation concludes that Wisconsin will lose an estimated 11,702 jobs thanks to Obama environmental regulations. The sixth district alone will lose more jobs than any other congressional district in the country the study concludes. ... Petri was the only Republican from Wisconsin to vote against suspending the rule. Voting with Petri was...

CHARLESTON, West Virginia - Charleston police executed a search warrant on a downtown Charleston business Wednesday evening following an 8 month investigation. According to officers, it happened at the Middle East Mart, located by the Transit Mall around 6 p.m. Authorities told 13 News that undercover officers were made aware that the business had been receiving stolen property, as a result, the investigation was launched. Undercover officers had been selling employees at the business items that those employees believed were stolen. Those items were marked. During the raid of the business, officers located those stolen items, marijuana, and an undisclosed...

Last Friday, the Democrat, formerly self-proclaimed pro-life Governor of West Virginia, Earl Ray Tomblin, vetoed a late-term abortion bill, the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act (HB 4588). This commonsense bill bans abortions after 20 weeks when preborn children have been scientifically proven to feel excruciating pain during an abortion. Despite passing with 80% support from both the Democrat-led West Virginia House and Senate, Governor Tomblin shamefully vetoed the late-term abortion ban, obliterated his pro-life record, and aligned himself with a small minority of Americans who believe abortion should be legal in all 9 months of pregnancy, for any reason. With...