While the 2026 primary election won’t be truly observed for another five months, the reality is the election season will get fully under way in just about four weeks.

We’ve already heard from a few individuals who have filed pre-candidacy paperwork, but the official filing period for the 2026 election cycle in West Virginia is scheduled from Jan. 12 to Jan. 31.

There are other deadlines for write-in candidates, as well as those seeking certain offices as a non-partisan candidate. All of that information can be found through the West Virginia Secretary of State’s Office, which keeps a variety of informational booklets, calendars and other guides and information available through its website.

This election, while not featuring the presidential race, or certain high-ranking state offices, will still offer a variety of options for our local voters, including all members of the West Virginia House of Delegates, some members of the West Virginia Senate, typically one member of each county commission, some members of our local boards of education, and some of our Congressional representatives.

For statewide offices, we have a few individuals currently set as pre-candidates for 2026.

Those include Pat McGeehan, the current Republican incumbent representing District 1 in the House of Delegates. In District 2 of the House, there currently are three pre-candidates. They include incumbent Republican Mark Zatezalo, Republican challenger Tony Viola, and Democrat challenger Olivia Dowler.

The only pre-candidate listing for the House District 3 race, as of Friday morning, was David Cantrell of Wheeling, who is listed as an Independent. This is the seat currently held by Republican Jimmy Willis, who is listed as being undeclared for any particular office. Typically, if a person files pre-candidacy as undeclared, there are a few options. They either plan to run for re-election and just don’t want to make it official yet, they haven’t fully made up their mind but want to put the paperwork in just in case, or they may be considering seeking a different office than the one they currently hold.

In the District 1 race for West Virginia Senate, there currently are two candidates set to face off in May’s primary election. Incumbent Laura Wakim Chapman is set to be challenged by Wheeling’s Joe Eddy. Both are filed as Republicans. District 1 includes all of Hancock, Brooke, and Ohio counties, and a portion of Marshall County.

As for the local offices – the school boards, county commission’s, etc. – those will all go through the offices of the county clerks in their respective counties, and typically won’t be available on the Secretary of State’s Office until later on.

So, the countdown has officially begun.

If you are considering the possibility of seeking public office in the Legislature or on the county levels, in particular, you have about six weeks to make a decision.

I’m not going to delve into the quality of the candidate pool at this point, for a number of reasons. But I will say, I always prefer to see some competition when it comes to elections.

As it stands right now, the legislative seats representing our area will be all but decided once the May primary election is wrapped up. Unless someone else files in the House District 1, the incumbent will return for another two-year term. While there are two candidates for Senate 1, they are both Republicans, with the winner, essentially, elected to the office (pending any sudden challenges for November’s general) House 3 may or may not be set, depending on what the incumbent decides to do.

That leaves House 2 with the only sure-fire contest in both the 2026 primary and general.

Again, none of this counts the county elections.

Sure, we, as journalists, would have more people to track down and interview as part of our election coverage, but I would rather do that and you, as voters, have an actual choice when stepping into the ballot box, than to have situations of pass-through elections and it feeling as if you have no options.

Hopefully, we see others willing to step forward in the coming weeks.

(Howell, a resident of Colliers, is managing editor of The Weirton Daily Times, and can be contacted at chowell@weirtondailytimes.com or followed on Twitter/X @CHowellWDT)