Excellent prospect to flip a Congressional seat in WV 3rd District!

[Tanuki]

This was somewhat overlooked in all of the coverage of the senatorial race in the WV primary. Incumbent GOP Congressman Evan Jenkins chose to run (unsuccessfully) for the U.S. Senate, leaving his 3rd District Congressional seat a toss-up. We had a few threads here during the recent WV teachers' strike about the surging popularity of Democratic candidate Richard Ojeda, and now the results are in...he not only won the Dem. primary handily, but got more votes than the top several GOP candidates combined. We have an excellent chance of picking up this seat in November. This particularly gladdens my heart because I grew up in this district, when it was represented by the legendary progressive Democrat Ken Hechler. If you live in a safe blue district or have a few bucks to spare, please consider donating to Ojeda's campaign:

https://voteojeda.com/


Here are the results from last night:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_House_of_Representatives_elections_in_West_Virginia,_2018

Democratic primary results Party Candidate Votes %
Democratic Richard Ojeda 29,837 52.0
Democratic Shirley Love 14,251 24.9
Democratic Paul Davis 9,063 15.8
Democratic Janice Hagerman 4,176 7.3
Total votes 57,32 100



Republican primary results Party Candidate Votes %
Republican Carol Miller 8,936 23.8
Republican Rupert Phillips 7,320 19.5
Republican Marty Gearheart 6,833 18.2
Republican Conrad Lucas 6,812 18.1
Republican Rick Snuffer 4,032 10.7
Republican Ayne Amjad 2,791 7.4
Republican Philip Payton 861 2.3
Total votes 37,585 100

[sprinkleeninow]

1. Hello, dear one!

Wow, this is encouraging! Will offer some $$ his way.

I've been giving to out of state Dems. They're doing mostly remarkably well.

Will msg. you later today. You and yours came to me very strongly earlier. In my heart of heart always, you know. And now I see your post.
💛
~sprink

[Hortensis]

2. Wow to those voting numbers. Cook Report still has

this district "likely Republican" this morning, expect that to change?

Ojeda's been written up in a couple of things over the past year and is fun to read about.

Don't like that he's still lying about Hillary Clinton, pretending that her intensive plan didn't include bringing new jobs and industry to coal communities so families could stay right there and the communities grow healthy and vital. But that's understandable in a politician who needs to explain away having voted for Donald Trump, as a pack of WV Democrats did.

(For non-WVans, that haircut's apparently his own lifelong military style and nothing to do with the neo-Nazi "fashies." In these days of creeping fascism, I like to check these things out.)

Let's just hope yesterday's win will be part of a WV movement to finally put a stop to industry bleeding the state dry. His "WV's not a state, it's a colony" rhetoric doesn't appeal to me, but he looks like a symptom of a new mood, and if that gets WV's people on their feet and doing what they, and we all, always should have long before, great. It's a very beautiful state, and wouldn't be less so with the vast fields of pot he imagines. It's actually nicely positioned geographically and should have less impact from climate change than many.

I hope he wins, Tanuki, and it really sounds as if he should.

[Staph]

6. Ojeda retired from the U.S. Army in 2013.

I suspect the buzzcut is his standard haircut. From Wikipedia:

Ojeda served 24 years in the United States Army, rising to the rank of major. He earned two Bronze Stars. According to Ojeda, he came close to dying on five occasions. During his service, he spent time in Korea, Honduras, Jordan, Haiti, Afghanistan and Iraq.

He has worked as a high school teacher. He helped start a Junior Reserve Officers' Training Corps at a local high school. He established a nonprofit, the Logan Empowerment Action and Development, which engages in community cleanup and provides food, clothes and toys for the poor, elderly and children.

He was vocal and physically present at the teachers' walkout this year. He has the best chance of winning a House seat of any of the West Virginia's three districts.

[Wounded Bear]

3. K & R...for visibility...nt

[Techsan]

4. Your comment is incorrect

Ken Hechler represented WV's 4th District, not 3rd.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ken_Hechler

The 3rd district is heavily Republican. Went for Trump 50% more over Clinton. Going to be tough.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/West_Virginia%27s_3rd_congressional_district

[Tanuki]

5. No, I am quite sure of where I grew up! West Virginia has experienced a dramatic population decline

and loss of congressional districts. My home county was in Hechler's district, but WV now has fewer districts and my home county, which was previously in the 4th District is now in the 3rd District. There are currently only 3 congressional districts in WV, so there is no such thing as a 4th District today.

[appalachiablue]

7. Good luck to Richard Ojeda, I've read some about him.

We go way back to part of his district, Mingo and Logan counties.

How well I remember Ken Hechler when young in Htgn. Very good man esp. his long, progressive commitment to WVa.

[BlueDog22]

8. Good

We need to be competitive here. Even if we don't win, it's going to put them in a position to defend something and spend big to do it.