By Joselyn King

For The Inter-Mountain

WHEELING — The 2024 primary election is about a year away, and growling signaling the start of a political dogfight already can be heard in the race for the Republican nomination to a U.S. Senate seat in West Virginia.

Current Gov. Jim Justice — often accompanied by his English bulldog Babydog — and U.S. Rep. Alex Mooney have announced they will file to run for the GOP nomination in 2024.

The barking has already begun in a race that is likely to be among the most watched across the nation next year. As Republicans seek to regain the U.S. Senate majority, they see West Virginia as a state where they can gain a seat that has been in Democratic hands between current Sen. Joe Manchin, former Sen. Carte Goodwin and late Sen. Robert C. Byrd since 1959.

Mooney’s campaign released this statement following Justice’s announcement for Senate: “Jim Justice gave a low-energy announcement of his U.S. Senate candidacy so boring he had to beg Babydog to stay awake. Since Jim Justice’s lips were moving, he was lying. ”

Justice, meanwhile, has said on West Virginia radio he isn’t concerned Mooney has the endorsements of many West Virginia legislators.

“I’m glad that some of our legislators know that Alex Mooney is somewhere remotely connected to West Virginia,” Justice said. “I mean, who in the world in the state of West Virginia knows that Alex Mooney is a West Virginian. I mean, the truth of the matter is, Alex Mooney is from Maryland and absolutely, teatotally in every way connected to Maryland.

“He’s in the U.S. Congress and at the end of the day, I’ll promise you from Clarksburg south nobody’s hardly seen him. I’ve seen him one time.”

Justice indicated to The Intelligencer during a recent stop in Wheeling that catcalls in the dogfight won’t bother him.

“I’m a competitor. To be perfectly clear and honest, I’m not the least bit concerned about the mean-spirited (campaigning),” Justice said. “I’m probably not going to go there myself. But at the end of the day, this world of politics has gotten crazy now. That’s all there is to it.

“You just have to ask yourself one question – are we worth it? And we are. So whatever the crap may be we’re worth it. And that’s what we’re going to do.”

Mooney’s campaign indicates they want to stay focused on what’s happening in Washington and the nation.

“Congressman Mooney is talking about the issues, such as inflation and fighting the drug epidemic,” said Mooney’s Campaign Manager, John Findlay. “Meanwhile, his opponent, Jim Justice resorts to personal attacks because he knows that Congressman Mooney’s values align with the people of West Virginia and he’s 100% conservative – unlike himself and (Democrat and incumbent U.S. Senator) Joe Manchin who were both cheerleaders for Biden’s reckless spending.”

Manchin has yet to indicate whether he will seek re-election in 2024.

Sam Workman, professor of political science and director of the Institute for Policy Research and Public Affairs in the John D. “Jay” Rockefeller School of Policy and Politics at West Virginia University, said the real race in the contest for the U.S. Senate seat will be between Mooney and Justice.

While many pundits have suggested the winner of the Republican nomination will come out of the primary election as a wounded candidate for the general election, Workman doesn’t think that will be the case.

He compared Mooney’s political style to that of former President Donald Trump, whom Mooney supports.

“What you will find is they are on the offense more often than they are not,” Workman said.

He next compared Justice’s style to that of Manchin’s in that they come in on the middle on most issues facing the nation, one of these being immigration.

“But I think Justice will be increasingly less able to do that as the primary progresses,” Workman continued. “He will have to take positions, and be more outspoken on them than if it were left to him.”

Workman also doesn’t think it will make much difference to Manchin which candidate wins the GOP nomination, or whether there might be a mean-spirited campaign for him next year.

“He has been around a long time, and his calculation will depend on what the race looks like at the end of the year,” Workman explained. “Manchin is now advanced in age, and his decision on whether to run for re-election or president will depend on what he sees as being his last act, and how he wants to write his last chapter.”