WELCOMED — U.S. Rep. Alex Mooney, left, welcomes U.S. Sen. Rand Paul to the stage at a rally in Huntington Friday in support of Mooney’s U.S. Senate race. -- Steven Allen Adams

HUNTINGTON – U.S. Rep. Alex Mooney showed Friday night that he also has support among Republicans in the U.S. Senate as he campaigns for U.S. Senate against Gov. Jim Justice.

Mooney, R-W.Va., was joined for a rally Friday evening for his 2024 U.S. Senate Republican primary campaign at VFW Post 9738 in Huntington with U.S. Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky.

“Some people say to me, ‘Why are you running? What’s your main issue?’ There’s a theme by it. The main issue is really freedom,” Mooney said to a packed room. “There’s one political party that believes government should control you, make your decisions for you, run your life. There’s another political party — Republicans — who believe you should be free men and women to make your own choices. That’s the theme.”

Paul, an eye surgeon with two six-year terms under his belt in the U.S. Senate, endorsed Mooney’s U.S. Senate campaign in March. Paul is the son of former Republican Texas U.S. Rep. Ron Paul.

Paul is one of three U.S. senators to endorse Mooney in the U.S. Senate race to see which Republican can run in the 2024 general election for the seat held by U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va. Mooney has received the endorsements of Sens. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, and Mike Lee, R-Utah.

“The Governor has huge notoriety, so (Mooney) will have to work hard, but he’s going to need you. If you are here today committed … It takes a committed group of people to really win something like this,” Paul said.

Speaking before Friday’s rally, Paul said Mooney is needed in the U.S. Senate to help like-minded conservatives fight again expanding the national debt and other actions by fellow Republican U.S. senators. Paul and 31 Republican senators voted against the debt ceiling deal in June, while 17 Republicans senators voted for it. Mooney cast a nay vote against the deal in the U.S. House of Representatives.

“I think the greatest threat to our national security is our debt,” Paul said. “The conservatives in Congress — Alex Mooney, Rand Paul, Ted Cruz, Mike Lee — we all voted against that. But in the Republican Party, there’s also a big government caucus that’s about equal to the conservative caucus. It’s my feeling that Alex Mooney has proven that he’ll be part of the conservative caucus.”

Mooney has also been endorsed by the Conservative Political Action Conference, the Senate Conservatives Fund created by former South Carolina U.S. senator and former Heritage Foundation president Jim DeMint, and conservative advocacy group the Club for Growth, which pledged at least $10 million toward Mooney’s campaign.

“I have time to make the case that I’m the only proven of conservative running for this seat,” Mooney said. “I have a voting record that shows that. I’ve been a proud member of the Freedom Caucus my entire time here in Congress. I’ve been underestimated before, but I’ve never lost a primary.”

Mooney has also been endorsed by 29 Republican members of the West Virginia House of Delegates. Several of those lawmakers were on hand Friday.

“As veterans, we know that we can count on the people who are in front of us, and especially those who are behind us, supporting us as we go into a conflict,” said Del. Jim Butler, R-Mason, a U.S. Marine Corps veteran. “It’s important for us at the state level that we know that the people who are serving ahead of us or at a level above us have our backs … It’s time for us to have two conservative senators in West Virginia, and I think that Alex Mooney definitely needs to be one of those.”

Mooney’s endorsements by some of the more conservative members of the Republican U.S. Senate minority is setting up a clash with Republican leadership in the U.S. Senate, which is backing Gov. Jim Justice in the 2024 Republican primary in West Virginia.

That clash spilled out onto social media Friday, with a Justice campaign Twitter account attacking Mooney and Paul for voting against a bill that included funding for health care for veterans exposed to toxic burn pits, and Paul attacking Justice on Twitter for supporting tax increases to fill a $500 million budget hole in 2017 when he was first a Democrat.

“I guess you see the governor has already greeted me on Twitter,” Paul said to the crowd. “I will tell you what: I’m not taking any guff from some warmed-over tax-and-spend former Democrat. Bring it on.”

During Mooney’s opening remarks, several women rose to attack Mooney for his vote on the PACT Act, which included the additional funding for burn pit health care, with the women being escorted out of the event.

“They want to shout you down and interrupt you,” Mooney said in response to the outbursts. “Yeah, they’re very organized. They sit in certain parts, they’re all professionally organized how they do this.”

“The governor today took a cheap shot on veterans affairs. Nobody should do that,” Paul said. “If Jim Justice thinks he knows what’s important, here’s what’s important. We have on the books a war resolution for 9/11 in 2001 … If you really care about the soldiers instead of this gratuitous stuff he’s throwing at us, tell us will he vote to end the 9/11 proclamation.”

U.S. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., Minority Whip John Thune, R-S.D., Republican Policy Committee Chairwoman Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, Republican Conference Chairman John Barrasso, R-Wyo., Republican Conference Vice Chairwoman Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., and National Republican Senatorial Committee Chairman Steve Daines, R-Mont., recently held a fundraiser for Justice in Washington, D.C.

The NRSC and the Senate Leadership Fund — McConnell’s PAC arm — spent months recruiting Justice as a U.S. Senate candidate, formally announcing his campaign at the end of April. Both Capito and Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., were in attendance at Justice’s announcement, introducing the governor as he took the stage. Another McConnell-connected group, One Nation, spent more than $1 million in April attacking Manchin for his support of the Inflation Reduction Act.

Mooney announced his U.S. Senate candidacy shortly after winning re-election last November to the new 2nd Congressional District covering the northern half of the state. Mooney, first elected to Congress in West Virginia in 2014, defeated six-term 1st District Congressman David McKinley in the 2022 Republican primary after the state dropped from three to two congressional districts.

“I’m going to make the case on my record, on the issues, the differences between someone like me who’s willing to vote against even my own party when I have to and against out-of-control spending bills to save our country from going bankrupt,” Mooney said. “There’s a whole lot of issues that matter to West Virginians, and I’m going to make it clear I’m the only one who is conservative.”