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County results Tomblin: 40–50% 50–60% 60–70% 70–80% 80–90% >90% Maloney: 40–50% 50–60% 60–70% 70–80% | |||||||||||||||||
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Elections in West Virginia |
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The 2011 West Virginia gubernatorial special election was a special election held on October 4, 2011 to fill the office of the West Virginia Governor, which became vacant upon the resignation of Joe Manchin, who resigned after he won a U.S. Senate special election. Lieutenant Governor and Senate President Earl Ray Tomblin, first in the line of succession to the Governorship, subsequently became acting governor. On January 18, 2011, the West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals ruled that a special election for the Governorship must be held so a new governor can be in place by November 15, 2011, exactly one year after Manchin resigned. [1] The primary election was held on May 14. Tomblin and Republican Bill Maloney won their respective primaries. [2]
Tomblin defeated William Maloney by a slim margin, notably winning over 90% of the vote in his home county of Logan County. Tomblin was declared the winner of the election by the Associated Press on October 4, 2011 and was inaugurated on November 13, 2011. [3] [4] With a margin of 2.5%, the special election was the closest race of the 2011 gubernatorial election cycle. Tomblin was re-elected in 2012 in a rematch with Maloney.
Poll source | Date(s) administered | Sample size | Margin of error | Jeff Kessler | Arne Moltis | John Perdue | Natalie Tennant | Rick Thompson | Earl Ray Tomblin | Other/ Undecided |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Public Policy Polling | May 11–12, 2011 | 742 | ± 3.6% | 4% | 1% | 11% | 17% | 20% | 33% | 12% |
Public Policy Polling | April 21–24, 2011 | 590 | ± 4.0% | 5% | 1% | 17% | 16% | 15% | 32% | 14% |
Party | Candidate | Votes | % | |
---|---|---|---|---|
Democratic | Earl Ray Tomblin (incumbent) | 51,348 | 40.4% | |
Democratic | Rick Thompson | 30,631 | 24.1% | |
Democratic | Natalie Tennant | 22,106 | 17.4% | |
Democratic | John Perdue | 15,995 | 12.6% | |
Democratic | Jeff Kessler | 6,665 | 5.2% | |
Democratic | Arne Moltis | 481 | 0.4% | |
Total votes | 127,111 | 100.0% |
Poll source | Date(s) administered | Sample size | Margin of error | Clark Barnes | Mitch Carmichael | Ralph Clark | Cliff Ellis | Larry Faircloth | Betty Ireland | Bill Maloney | Mark Sorsaia | Other/ Undecided |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Public Policy Polling | May 11–12, 2011 | 314 | ± 5.5% | 8% | 4% | 1% | 0% | 6% | 31% | 32% | 4% | 14% |
Public Policy Polling | April 21–24, 2011 | 274 | ± 5.9% | 8% | 8% | 2% | 1% | 2% | 31% | 17% | 4% | 28% |
Party | Candidate | Votes | % | |
---|---|---|---|---|
Republican | Bill Maloney | 27,871 | 45.0% | |
Republican | Betty Ireland | 19,027 | 30.7% | |
Republican | Clark Barnes | 5,891 | 9.5% | |
Republican | Mark Sorsaia | 3,177 | 5.1% | |
Republican | Larry Faircloth | 2,400 | 3.9% | |
Republican | Mitch Carmichael | 2,073 | 3.3% | |
Republican | Ralph Clark | 1,164 | 1.9% | |
Republican | Cliff Ellis | 283 | 0.5% | |
Total votes | 61,886 | 100.0% |
Source | Ranking | As of |
---|---|---|
Rothenberg Political Report [25] | Lean D | November 4, 2011 |
Governing [26] | Lean D | November 4, 2011 |
Cook [27] | Lean D | November 4, 2011 |
Sabato [28] | Likely D | November 4, 2011 |
Poll source | Date(s) administered | Sample size | Margin of error | Earl Ray Tomblin (D) | Bill Maloney (R) | Undecided |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Public Policy Polling | September 30 – October 2, 2011 | 932 | ± 3.2% | 47% | 46% | 7% |
Public Policy Polling | September 1–4, 2011 | 708 | ± 3.7% | 46% | 40% | 14% |
Public Policy Polling | May 11–12, 2011 | 723 | ± 3.6% | 45% | 30% | 25% |
Public Policy Polling | April 21–24, 2011 | 850 | ± 3.4% | 56% | 23% | 21% |
Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Democratic | Earl Ray Tomblin (incumbent) | 149,202 | 49.55% | -20.26 | |
Republican | Bill Maloney | 141,656 | 47.05% | +21.32 | |
Mountain | Bob Henry Baber | 6,083 | 2.02% | -2.44 | |
Independent | Marla Ingels | 2,875 | 0.95% | ||
American Third Position | Harry Bertram | 1,111 | 0.37% | +0.37 | |
write-in candidate | Phil Hudok | 76 | 0.03% | ||
write-in candidate | Donald Lee Underwood | 54 | 0.02% | ||
write-in candidate | John R. "Rick" Bartlett | 27 | 0.01% | ||
Margin of victory | 7,546 | 2.51% | -41.57% | ||
Total votes | 301,084 | 100.00% | |||
Democratic hold | Swing | ||||
Betty Ireland was the 28th Secretary of State of West Virginia from 2005 to 2009, as the first woman elected to the executive branch of West Virginia state government. She was also the first Republican elected to that position since 1972. Ireland did not seek a second term in 2008 due to her parents' health. On December 30, 2010, Ireland announced she would run in the 2011 West Virginia gubernatorial special election, where she came in second place in the Republican primary.
Earl Ray Tomblin is an American politician who served as the 35th governor of West Virginia from 2011 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, he previously served in the West Virginia Senate from 1980 to 2011 and as president of the West Virginia Senate from 1995 to 2011. Tomblin became acting governor in November 2010 following Joe Manchin's election to the U.S. Senate. He won a special election in October 2011 to fill the unexpired term ending on January 14, 2013, and was elected to a full term as governor in November 2012.
John Reeves Raese is an American businessman and perennial Republican Party candidate for political office in West Virginia. He lost campaigns to represent West Virginia in the United States Senate in 1984, 2006, 2010, and 2012. He was also defeated in the Republican primary in the election for Governor of West Virginia in 1988.
Jeffrey Vincent Kessler is an American politician and former Democratic member of the West Virginia Senate in the United States, representing the 2nd district from 1997 to 2017. He is the former President of the Senate/Lieutenant Governor, Minority Leader of the Senate, Acting President of the Senate and Chairman of the Judiciary Committee. Kessler is also involved in private practice, where he is a partner in the law firm Berry, Kessler, Crutchfield, Taylor & Gordon.
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Natalie E. Tennant is an American politician who served as the Secretary of State of West Virginia from 2009 to 2017. She is a member of the Democratic Party. Tennant was the 2014 Democratic Party nominee for West Virginia's open U.S. Senate seat, which she lost to Republican Shelley Moore Capito. In 2016 she was defeated for re-election by Republican Mac Warner, and left office on January 16, 2017.
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The 2012 United States Senate election in West Virginia was held on November 6, 2012, to elect one of West Virginia's two members of the U.S. Senate for a six-year term. In a rematch of the 2010 special election, incumbent Democratic U.S. Senator Joe Manchin won re-election to a first full term against the Republican nominee, John Raese. Notably, Manchin outperformed Barack Obama in the concurrent presidential election by 25.06 percentage points in vote share, and by 50.86 percentage points on margin.
The 2010 United States Senate special election in West Virginia was held on November 2, 2010. Incumbent Democratic Senator Robert Byrd died in office on June 28, 2010. Democratic Governor Joe Manchin appointed Carte Goodwin to temporarily fill the vacancy. Goodwin pledged to not run for election to the seat in exchange for the appointment. This was the first open U.S. Senate seat in West Virginia since 1984 and the first in this seat since 1956. Manchin won the open seat and served out the remainder of Byrd's elected term, which ended on January 3, 2013.
Bill Maloney is an American businessman and politician. He was a two-time candidate for the governorship of West Virginia. He was the Republican nominee in the 2011 West Virginia gubernatorial special election, in which he lost by 7,546 votes, and again for the regular election in 2012, which he lost by 31,434 votes.
The 2012 West Virginia gubernatorial election was held on November 6, 2012, to elect the governor of West Virginia. Democratic incumbent Earl Ray Tomblin, who was elected governor in a special election in 2011, was elected to a full four-year term. The election was a rematch of the 2011 special election.
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Arthur "Art" E. Kirkendoll is an American politician and former Democratic member of the West Virginia Senate. He represented District 7 from November 14, 2011, when West Virginia Governor Earl Ray Tomblin appointed him to fill the vacancy caused by Tomblin's resignation from the seat in order to assume the position of governor, until January 7, 2017. He was defeated for reelection in the 2016 primary election by Richard Ojeda.
William Paul Cole III is an American businessman, politician and a former Republican member of the West Virginia Senate, representing the 6th district from 2013 to 2017. He was the President of the Senate from 2015 to 2017. Cole also served in the West Virginia House of Delegates from May 28, 2010, to January 12, 2011, to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of Delegate John Shott.
Mitchell Carmichael is an American politician. He is a former Republican member of the West Virginia Senate representing District 4 from 2012 until his defeat in 2020. Prior to his service in the Senate, Carmichael served in the West Virginia House of Delegates representing District 12 from 2000 through 2012. Carmichael was also a candidate for Governor of West Virginia in the 2011 West Virginia gubernatorial special election. As President of the state Senate from January 2017 to January 2021, he held the title Lieutenant Governor of West Virginia. After his defeat in 2020, Governor Jim Justice appointed Carmichael as West Virginia's economic development director.
The 2016 West Virginia gubernatorial election took place on November 8, 2016, to elect the Governor of West Virginia, concurrently with the 2016 U.S. presidential election, as well as elections to the United States Senate in other states and elections to the United States House of Representatives and various state and local elections. The primaries were held on May 10.
The 2016 United States House of Representatives elections in West Virginia were held on November 8, 2016, to elect the three U.S. representatives from the state of West Virginia, one from each of the state's three congressional districts. The elections coincided with the 2016 U.S. presidential election, as well as other elections to the House of Representatives, elections to the United States Senate and various state and local elections.
The 2020 West Virginia gubernatorial election was held on November 3, 2020, to elect the governor of West Virginia, concurrently with the 2020 U.S. presidential election, as well as elections to the United States Senate, elections to the United States House of Representatives and various state and local elections.