MORGANTOWN — The West Virginia Republican Party will have a new leader to take it into the 2026 midterm election cycle.

The party Executive Committee elected Del. Joshua Holstein, R-Boone, at its summer meeting Saturday at the Erickson Alumni Center at West Virginia University.

The committee selected Holstein over Pocahontas County resident, businessman and author Michael T. George and Brooke County resident and U.S. Army veteran Wes Parry.

Holstein and Parry are members of the state committee. George is not.

None of the three nominees had a clear majority during the first round of voting. George received the least number of votes on the first round, so he was dropped from consideration for the second round. In the second round, Holstein prevailed over Parry 63 votes to 57 votes.

Holstein, 23, was first elected to the House of Delegates in 2020 and is in his third two-year term. He is vice chairman of the House Legal Services Subcommittee and is a member of the House Energy and Public Works Committee and the House Judiciary Committee. He is a 2022 graduate of Marshall University.

Holstein came into Saturday’s meeting with the endorsement of U.S. Sen. Jim Justice, R-W.Va. The former governor of West Virginia expressed his support for Holstein earlier this month in a social media post.

During his nomination speech, Holstein talked about why he chose to become a Republican in Boone County, what was once a Democratic stronghold known for coal mining.

“I grew up in the southern coal fields of West Virginia in Boone County during a time when everything was good,” Holstein said. “Then the Obama administration came, and my dad lost his job. My uncles lost their jobs. My cousins lost their jobs. My school started being depleted completely of all of our resources. Our teachers moved. We lost population. We were devastated.”

That happened because of liberal policies that were implemented on a federal level,” Holstein continued. “The folks of Southern West Virginia and the folks of all of West Virginia who had consistently voted for Democrats over and over and over and over for 87 years were being cast aside like they were meaningless by federal policies. And that is what really inspired me to become a Republican, and that’s what formed my values as a conservative.”

Holstein’s platform included improving communications with committee members to foster improved relationships, a renewed focus on flipping local and county elections to Republican and conservative candidates, improving fundraising and expanding outreach to unaffiliated voters who will need to switch their registration to Republican to participate in the 2026 GOP primary.

“I do believe it is our responsibility to let folks know that we made that decision, and I believe the way that we do that is by me as chair…going out and speaking and sharing that information with folks, doing digital outreach, a mail campaign, and I believe that we will be able to get the resources together to do that,” Holstein said.

Holstein succeeds Matthew Herridge, the secretary of the Department of Commerce. Herridge said he will instead focus on his duties as secretary under Gov. Patrick Morrisey

Herridge, in a letter this month to the committee, said he delayed his resignation until a new executive director for the state party could be hired. Ryan Jacinto is now the state party’s executive director.

Holstein will serve the remainder of Herridge’s term, which is up in 2026.

Gov. Patrick Morrisey addressed the Executive Committee at the start of Saturday’s meeting.

“You folks are the true leaders of the party,” Morrisey said. “You’re on the ground every single day. You’re working hard. I am so deeply grateful for you. I work for you, and I want to make sure we’re carrying that message, that party platform message, further and further along so that West Virginians get the benefits, the best type of governance built on conservative principles. That’s certainly what we need to do here in West Virginia.”

The next statewide election cycle begins with the May 2026 primary elections when one U.S. Senate seat, both U.S. House of Representatives seats, an unexpired West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals seat, an Intermediate Court of Appeals seat, 100 House of Delegates seats and at least 17 state Senate seats will be on the ballot.

Republican voter registration in West Virginia exceeded Democratic registration at the beginning of 2021, the first time since 1933. As of June, Republican Party registration was 499,237, 42.16 percent of the state’s 1.18 million registered voters. The Republican Party’s June registration numbers were a 17 percent increase over June 2020 registration numbers of 426,851.

“Let’s go get them,” Morrisey said. “We’ve got some big elections coming up in 2026, big midterms. This is a time where you get to actually put your stamp on it, not just a Republican supermajority, but a conservative Republican supermajority, with the right race.”