West Virginia and Nebraska election results 2022

Another primary day, another test of the force of former President Trump’s grip on the Republican Party.

On Tuesday, a proxy battle over the governor’s office in Nebraska will be decided between a candidate backed by the state’s top Republican, term-limited Gov. Pete Ricketts, and Trump’s choice, a wealthy businessman facing a slew of sexual misconduct allegations.

In West Virginia, a clash of sitting Republican members of Congress — drawn against each other by mapmakers during redistricting — also pits a candidate armed with the former President endorsement against another supported by Republican Gov. Jim Justice and Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin.

The House nominating contests in Nebraska could also presage some November drama, as Democrats try — again — to flip a swing district that Joe Biden won in the 2020 presidential election and Republicans, defending a much safer seat, try to make sense of a ballot that includes a candidate who resigned earlier this year after being convicted of lying to the FBI. (They’ll also have to decide on who is going to fill his seat for the rest of the current Congress.)

Here are key things to watch in Tuesday’s primaries in West Virginia and Nebraska:

Is a Trump endorsement all that matters in a Republican primary?

That is the question on the ballot in the incumbent-vs.-incumbent Republican primary between Reps. Alex Mooney and David McKinley.

Because of West Virginia’s shrinking population, the state lost a seat in Congress, forcing the longtime colleagues to run against each other. The race has become one of the most vicious in the country, with Mooney running almost entirely on his Trump endorsement and slamming McKinley for his support of the bipartisan infrastructure package.

McKinley, a seventh generation West Virginian with deeper ties to the district he is seeking to represent, has argued his infrastructure vote helps the people of his state. He is labeling Mooney, who moved to West Virginia from Maryland in the last decade, a carpetbagger and is leaning on support from Justice and Manchin.

Still, even with McKinley’s structural advantages, Trump remains deeply popular in the state — the former President won every county in both 2016 and 2020, carrying more than 68% of the vote against Biden in 2020 — and his influence is seen everywhere.

If Mooney ousts McKinley on Tuesday, it will be yet another sign that Trump is the only endorsement that matters in the GOP.

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