Fox News projects Justice victory in West Virginia as GOP flips Senate seat

The Fox News Decision Desk has projected that Republican Gov. Jim Justice of West Virginia will defeat the Democrat Party's nominee-Wheeling mayor Glenn Elliott.

After Manchin announced last year that he wouldn't seek re-election in a one-time Democrat-leaning state that then-President Trump won by nearly 40 points in the 2020 election, political pundits pointed to an extremely likely pickup by Republicans as they aimed to win back the Senate majority at the ballot box this year.

With Justice's victory, Republicans will control both of West Virginia's two Senate seats for the first time in nearly a century.

Justice, with the support of Trump, easily defeated conservative Rep. Alex Mooney, R-W.Va., in a contentious GOP primary earlier this year. Elliot, who had the backing of Manchin, won a three-way battle for the Democrat Party nomination.

The governor this year grabbed national attention for BabyDog Justice, his English bulldog who has regularly accompanied Justice at public and political engagements.

Manchin, known as a centrist or moderate Democrat, was elected governor in 2004 and easily re-elected in 2008.