GOP tightens its strong grip on the West Virginia Legislature, where women also lost seats

Associated Press

CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) — Republicans have tightened their hold on the West Virginia Legislature, notching election wins that will relegate Democrats to an even smaller fraction of the chamber’s 134 seats and giving themselves one of the country’s largest legislative supermajorities. Just two out of West Virginia’s 34 state senators will be Democrats come January, down from three this year. At least nine of the state’s 100 delegates will be Democrats, down from 11, with the results of one race still pending. With the passing of a U.S. Senate seat from independent Joe Manchin to Republican Jim Justice, the GOP will control every statewide elected office for the first time in nearly a century.