An acting governor is a person who acts in the role of governor. In Commonwealth jurisdictions where the governor is a vice-regal position, the role of "acting governor" may be filled by a lieutenant governor or an administrator.
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.
From the time of the Great Depression through the 1990s, the politics of West Virginia were largely dominated by the Democratic Party. In the 2000 presidential election, George W. Bush claimed a surprise victory over Al Gore, with 52% of the vote; he won West Virginia again in 2004, with 56% of the vote. West Virginia is now a heavily Republican state, with John McCain winning the state in 2008, Mitt Romney in 2012 and Donald Trump in 2016, and 2024.
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.
West Virginia's 2012 general elections were held on November 6, 2012. Primary elections were held on May 8, 2012.
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.
United States gubernatorial elections were held in four states in October and November 2011, with regularly scheduled elections in Kentucky, Mississippi, and Louisiana; and a special election in West Virginia. None of these four governorships changed party hands, with Democratic incumbents Steve Beshear and Earl Ray Tomblin winning in Kentucky and West Virginia, respectively; and Republicans re-electing Bobby Jindal in Louisiana and holding the open seat in Mississippi.
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.
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. The primary election was held on May 14. Tomblin and Republican Bill Maloney won their respective primaries.
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.
The 2014 United States Senate election in West Virginia was held on November 4, 2014, to elect a member of the United States Senate to represent the State of West Virginia, concurrently with other elections to the United States Senate in other states and elections to the United States House of Representatives and various state and local elections. This election was the fifth consecutive even-number year in which a senate election was held in West Virginia after elections in 2006, 2008, 2010, and 2012.
Glen B. Gainer III is an American politician and member of the Democratic Party who served as the 19th State Auditor of West Virginia from 1993 until he resigned in 2016.
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.
James Conley Justice II is an American businessman and politician who is a United States senator-elect from West Virginia. A member of the Republican Party, he has served as the 36th governor of West Virginia since 2017. Justice was once a billionaire, but his net worth had declined to $513.3 million as of 2021. He inherited a coal mining business from his father that included 94 companies, including the Greenbrier, a luxury resort and National Historic Landmark in White Sulphur Springs.
The 2018 United States Senate election in West Virginia took place on November 6, 2018, to elect a member of the United States Senate to represent the State of West Virginia, concurrently with other elections to the United States Senate, elections to the United States House of Representatives, and various state and local elections. This was one of ten Democratic-held Senate seats up for election in a state won by Donald Trump in the 2016 presidential election.
