project representative alex mooney has defeated representative david mckinley in the gop primary in west virginia s 2nd congressional district. representative mooney had the endorsement of former president trump. dana, what does this tell about you the fact that a trump-endorsed candidate, yet another one, has now become a primary victor? that is the trump endorsement matters a lot in places like west virginia, where the trump brand, the trump persona, is one of the most if not the most important aspect of the gop. you ve got to remember that west virginia is the place where donald trump did the best except for wyoming. so he had an enormous, enormous lead at the end, after election day 2020, over joe biden.
it has become an increasingly red state, an increasingly trump state. and his endorsement of congressman mooney clearly mattered. and it is noteworthy that the democratic senator, joe manchin, as we talked about earlier, put himself on the line by endorsing the congressman s opponent, somebody he said he had a relationship with for 40 years, and in his words to manu raju, lies that were being told about the record. and it came down to feel alty o january 6th and on the election and more recently about having the notion of voting for a bipartisan compromise bill on infrastructure, which you would think, especially in a stated like west virginia, laura, which has a very long history of bringing home the bacon, that
dominant force in one of america s two leading political parties and he s proving it again in this year s primary campaigns. for the people out there who want to stop talking about trump, that s not up to us, we have to cover these races where trump s endorsement is making a difference. we ll have the nebraska governor s race later tonight as those results come in and pennsylvania senate race, georgia, the governor s race, the secretary of state s race there, arkansas there are some trump factors as well. he is a factor in the party. for those at home who don t want to talk about him and wish he would go away, he s not going to go away and he s the dominant force in the republican party right now. what we ll learn tonight and throughout the month is how dominant. this is not about congressman mooney or congressman mckinley. this is about the men and women who vote in these republican parties like west virginia and elsewhere, do they still want donald trump? do they still take their cue
him overturn the 2020 election. that s alex mooney. and not david mckinley who voted for a bipartisan january 6th commission. who will come out on top? and what could it all mean for trump not only in november but also beyond? let s go to john king live at the magic wall. john, what are you seeing there? laura, what we re seeing in west virginia where we have results, about 55% right now, is that trump-backed candidate, republican congressman alex mooney, opening a lead over david mckinley. these two republican incumbents are running against each other in the northern half of the state. mckinley has the backing of most of the republican establishment including the republican governor. he has the backing of democratic senator joe manchin who shot a tv ad for mckinley. but here you have, again, just like last tuesday night when we spoke, laura, proof of the power of a trump endorsement, at the moment. we haven t called this race yet, it s still at 55%, but over the
last hour or so this lead has gradually increased. 53% for mooney. we re not down counting yet, but this was one of trump s best states, he won every county against joe biden in west virginia two years ago. it certainly looks like yet again the power of a trump endorsement, whether you like him or not, at home still has a lot of sway in republican primaries, especially in these very pro-trump states like west virginia. we re still waiting for votes to come in in be in be in. in nebraska. john, the counties still coming in to report, those went to trump previously in the election, they re probably going to go in the same direction, those that he endorsed? you have to be careful about that in the west virginia race because you do have two established republican incumbents. most of the new district in west virginia is actually mckinley s old district. it shows you the power of trump without a doubt. i switched over to the nebraska governor s race just to get a sense, brett lindstrom,