What to expect in GOP-dominated WV elections, with one-fourth of races not having a Democratic candidate

West Virginia, a state that was previously a Democratic stronghold, has become increasingly red in the past years. In the upcoming election, Democrats hope to turn things around.

But it will be a tall task — one-fourth of the races on the ballot have no Democratic candidates.

West Virginia Democrats, powered on the strength of their strong union presence and a clear identity as the party of working people, held supermajorities in both chambers as recently as 2008.

But in the 2014 general election, voters in the coal-dependent state steered their disgust toward Democratic President Barack Obama’s efforts to cut carbon emissions from coal-fired power plants. In the 2016 and 2020 presidential elections, West Virginia was one of only two states where voters in every single county supported Donald Trump.