West Virginia 2018 Election Results

West Virginia held its general election on November 6, 2018, deciding 101 legislative seats across 84 districts. No chamber changed party control.

Highlights

• Republicans kept both majorities but lost both of their majority leaders, and their edge in each chamber shrank as Democrats gained ground in a handful of districts.
• In Senate District 1, former federal prosecutor William Ihlenfeld (D) unseated Senate Majority Leader Ryan Ferns (R) by about 2,000 votes. In the 67th District, former Del. John Doyle (D) beat Del. Riley Moore (R) by about 900 votes. Moore, Sen. Shelley Moore Capito's nephew, had been in line to become House majority leader. Democrats also took Senate District 8, where Richard David Lindsay II (D) ousted Sen. Ed Gaunch (R) by about 165 votes.
• The biggest Democratic gains came in Monongalia and Marion counties, where a blue wave really hit. Democrats won all five seats in the 51st District, ousting Republican Dels. Joe Statler (R) and Cindy Frich (R), and Michael Angelucci (D) took a seat from Del. Guy Ward (R) in the 50th. Local teachers' unions backed candidates who stood by them through the statewide teachers' strike earlier that year, and Ihlenfeld said "the teachers were with me 100 percent." The trend ran the other way in Harrison County's multi-seat 48th District, where Republicans unseated Del. Richard Iaquinta (D) and turned three-fourths red a historically Democratic delegation, leaving House Minority Leader Tim Miley (D) as its only Democrat.
• Across the legislature, 17 seats changed party, most of them toward Democrats. One of the closest finishes came in the three-seat 32nd District, where Margaret Anne Staggers (D) won the last seat by 70 votes over Austin Haynes (R).
• Voters approved both constitutional amendments on the ballot. Amendment 1 declared that nothing in the state constitution protects a right to abortion or requires its funding, ending state Medicaid funding for elective abortions. Amendment 2 gave the Legislature power over the judiciary's budget, including authority to reduce it up to 15 percent, after spending controversies that led the House of Delegates to impeach four justices that August. The same day, voters filled two court seats left open by resignations.

Legislature

• House of Delegates (100 seats): 36 D, 64 R before the election, 41 D, 59 R after; control stayed with Republicans.
• Senate (34 seats): 12 D, 22 R before the election, 14 D, 20 R after; control stayed with Republicans.

Legislative races

Ballot measures