Not since the Civil War has something been burnt so badly in the hills of West Virginia. After 83 years in power, Democrats have fallen apart across the state as Republicans made historic gains in both the state house and senate.
“We knew this was going to be a special night two weeks ago,” GOP consultant Rob Cornelius told The Daily Caller. “West Virginians have elected Republicans to federal office for years,” Cornelius continued, but claimed he had never seen such a massive shift at state level. “It started about two years ago and we have seen the Democrats’ registration numbers fall under 50 percent.”
Cornelius explained why the numbers were shifting heavily in the GOP’s favor, “Older Democratic voters are passing away,” he claimed, “and the state is stagnant without an influx of young people.”
In addition, the mood against Democrats was foul, “People were so fed up with the last 83 years that they wanted to punish the Democrats. After 83 years of failure that they punished the entire ticket, all the way down.”
Cornelius also gave credit to the Get Out The Vote campaign in WV, saying stating that their registration was up a third and the state was pushing hard for straight ticket voting. (RELATED: Drugs, Murder, Blackmail, Sex Abuse And Extortion In Wild And Wonderful West Virginia)
TheDC asked Cornelius about the results of this punishing blow to Democrats statewide. “It is incredible,” he answered. “We went into this election down 24-10 in the State Senate and managed to flip 17-17, but after the beating, a Democrat switched making it 18-16 Republicans. It’s the first time since 1932,” Cornelius stated about the lead.
The House also flipped drastically. “We came into the election down 53-47 in the State House, but flipped it +17 for near supermajority 64-36,” Cornelius added.
TheDC also asked Cornelius about the future of both the Republican and Democratic Parties in West Virginia. “The GOP will do ok if they govern responsibly,” Cornelius answered. The Democrats were a different story. “[Senator] Manchin is the last man standing and he didn’t switch parties. Tennant’s favorability was sub 30 percent. They’re a lost party.”
When asked about Tennant’s unsuccessful campaign for senate, Cornelius stated, “They ran on the idea that they were not the Democrats in D.C. They claimed that they were different. Clearly that did not resonate.” In addition, he alluded to the shrill, embarrassing campaign the Democrats ran, he said many voters found distasteful. (RELATED: WV Dems Reenact Animal House In Donor’s House)
TheDC also reached out to another victorious Republican campaign in West Virginia. Alex Mooney beat his Democratic challenger Nick Casey in Tuesday’s election. In an emailed statement to the TheDC, Nick Clemens, a spokesman for the campaign stated, “West Virginians are tired of the out-of-touch, job-killing policies of President Obama and his liberal allies in Congress. West Virginians are standing up and saying that being last or near last in many categories, from education to job creation, is not right and we’ve had enough.”