STEPPING UP — West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey speaks with reporters in Charleston, W.Va., May 4, 2023. According to unofficial results, Morrisey is projected to receive the Republican nomination to be West Virginia’s next governor following Tuesday’s primary election.

CHARLESTON — In a nailbiter of an election contest for the Republican nomination for governor of West Virginia, Attorney General Patrick Morrisey secured a victory over former state lawmaker Moore Capito, denying him the office once held by his grandfather, the late Republican Gov. Arch Moore.

According to Tuesday’s unofficial election results from the West Virginia Secretary of State’s Office and statewide election results compiled by West Virginia MetroNews, Morrisey led Capito 33 percent to 28 percent, with Morrisey receiving more than 68,000 votes and Capito receiving more than 58,000 votes.

Morrisey greeted supporters Tuesday night at the Holiday Inn in Martinsburg, thanking them for their support over the past year.

“Thank you, West Virginia,” Morrisey said to cheers. “We did it. When I talk about fighting and winning, this is what I’m talking about. We never gave up. I’ve got exciting news for you: we won.”

Morrisey is in the final year of his third four-year term as the state’s top attorney after defeating Democratic Attorney General Darrell McGraw. A former congressional staffer and lobbyist, Morrisey has spent the last nearly 12 years defending West Virginia’s interests, including victories over federal environmental regulations at the U.S. Supreme Court.

The GOP primary for governor was one of the costliest races in West Virginia history, with Morrisey spending more than $3 million as of the end of April and pro-Morrisey groups – such as Black Bear PAC (Club for Growth) and Americans for Prosperity – spending more than $10 million since the beginning of January to promote Morrisey and attack Morrisey’s opponents. But Morrisey swore to unite the party ahead of the November elections.

“We’re going to go into November unified as a party,” Morrisey said. “We’re ready to win. We’re ready to have a conservative party in West Virginia, and we’ll have Donald J. Trump as our next President.”

Capito, who spent three two-year terms in the House of Delegates and chaired the powerful House Judiciary Committee, first jumped into the race for governor as a precandidate at the end of 2022, resigning from the House in December 2023 and officially filing for the office in January.

Speaking to supporters at the Charleston Marriott Tuesday night, Capito thanked his friends, family, and the voters for casting a ballot for him.

“Well, friends, this didn’t go as we had planned, but I want to start by thanking each one of you from the bottom of my heart,” Capito said. “When we began this journey, we promised to run a campaign about the issues, and we did that. We traveled across our great state driving nearly 100,000 miles on all of those West Virginia country roads. And we met countless people. And I was inspired by each visit.”

Capito is an attorney with the Babst Calland law firm in Charleston. He has two children, Arch and Eliza, and is engaged to statistician Liberty Vittert. He is the son of U.S. Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., and the grandson of Arch Moore, who served three terms as governor between 1969 to 1997 and from 1985 to 1989.

“I’ve seen a lot of campaigns in our family,” Sen. Capito said. “Some of them go the way you want. Some of them just don’t. But I can tell you one thing. Moore assembled an incredible team.”

Coming in third place behind Capito was Huntington businessman Chris Miller, who had more than 42,000 votes, or 20 percent of the vote. Miller, the owner of several businesses – including the Dutch Miller auto dealership chain – spent more than $5 million of his own money on the race, spending big on statewide TV ad buys.

Miller is the son of U.S. Rep. Carol Miller, R-W.Va., who secured her fourth term Tuesday night for the 1st Congressional District after defeating former Wayne County lawmaker and convicted Jan. 6 rioter Derrick Evans.

Secretary of State Mac Warner came in fourth behind Morrisey, Capito, and Miller with more than 33,000 votes (16 percent), followed by Mitch Roberts and Kevin “KC” Christian both with less than 3,000 votes each.

The race became one of the nastiest in recent memory, with airwaves and mailboxes dominated by negative ads accusing some candidates of not endorsing former GOP President Donald Trump as fast as others, others of being RINOs (Republicans In Name Only), and nearly every candidate for being part of promoting the transgender community and supporting gender affirming care for teens.

The winner will face Huntington Mayor Steve Williams who was unopposed in the Democratic primary for governor.

“We’re at a pivotal moment in West Virginia’s history, and it’s time for decisive, bold leadership,” Williams said in a statement. “That’s why I am running to be your next governor. This campaign is about making real changes that matter to all of us.”