mooney, alex Rep
<div><span class="markup--strong markup--blockquote-strong" style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" letter-spacing="letter-spacing" px="px" font-weight="font-weight"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></span></div><div><span class="markup--strong markup--blockquote-strong" style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" letter-spacing="letter-spacing" px="px" font-weight="font-weight"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">TRUMPED FLANKED</font></span></div><div><span class="markup--strong markup--blockquote-strong" style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" letter-spacing="letter-spacing" px="px" font-weight="font-weight"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" /><div role="note" class="hatnote navigation-not-searchable" style="padding-left: 1.6em; margin-bottom: 0.5em; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"> <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2022_United_States_House_of_Representatives_elections_in_West_Virginia#District_2" title="2022 United States House of Representatives elections in West Virginia" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; background: none;">2022 United States House of Representatives elections in West Virginia § District 2</a></font></div><p style="margin: 0.5em 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">As a result of the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2020_United_States_Census" class="mw-redirect" title="2020 United States Census" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; background: none;">2020 United States Census</a> and the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2020_United_States_redistricting_cycle" title="2020 United States redistricting cycle" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; background: none;">2020 redistricting cycle</a>, the West Virginia legislature divided the state into northern and southern districts, and abandoned its longtime practice of starting the numbering in the north, assigning the southern counties to the new 1st district. <span style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);">This resulted in McKinley and 2nd district Representative <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alex_Mooney" title="Alex Mooney" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;">Alex Mooney</a> being together in the new 2nd district, and both incumbents declared their intention to run in the district.</span><sup id="cite_ref-27" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_McKinley#cite_note-27" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; background: none rgb(255, 153, 0);">[</a><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_McKinley#cite_note-27" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; background: none;">27]</a></sup></p></span></div><span class="markup--strong markup--blockquote-strong" style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" letter-spacing="letter-spacing" px="px" font-weight="font-weight"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" /><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span class="markup--strong markup--blockquote-strong" style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" letter-spacing="letter-spacing" px="px" font-weight="font-weight">=</span></font></div><div><span class="markup--strong markup--blockquote-strong" style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" letter-spacing="letter-spacing" px="px" font-weight="font-weight"><a href="https://news.yahoo.com/trump-backed-rep-mooney-wins-011242372.html">https://news.yahoo.com/trump-backed-rep-mooney-wins-011242372.html</a></span></div><div><span class="markup--strong markup--blockquote-strong" style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" letter-spacing="letter-spacing" px="px" font-weight="font-weight">
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</div><div>NBC</div><div>Trump-backed Rep. Mooney wins W.Va. Republican House primary</div><div>
</div><div>NBC News</div><div>Allan Smith</div><div>Tue, May 10, 2022, </div><div>
</div><div>Rep. Alex Mooney defeated Rep. David McKinley in the GOP primary for West Virginia’s 2nd Congressional District on Tuesday, a victory for former President Donald <span style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);">Trump, who endorsed Moone</span>y.</div><div>
</div><div>In a rare matchup of incumbents, McKinley and Mooney faced off after the state lost one of its congressional seats amid declining population and their districts were combined.</div><div>
</div><div>Trump backed Mooney after McKinley voted for the bipartisan infrastructure package and the effort to create a commission to investigate the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol.</div><div>
</div><div>"Serving the people of West Virginia has been the honor of my life. I’m proud that I have always stood up for what’s right for West Virginia — even when it hurt me politically," McKinley said in a statement. "The groundwork we have laid over the last twelve years has paved the way for a more prosperous and diverse West Virginia economy."</div><div>
</div><div><b>At Trump’s rally in Pennsylvania last week, Mooney called McKinley “a total RINO,”</b> an acronym for "Republican in name only" frequently used as an insult to mean someone is insufficiently conservative or loyal to the party.</div><div>
</div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">“He voted for the January 6th commission to investigate Donald Trump and his allies,” Mooney said. “He was one of 13 so-called Republicans to vote for the Joe Biden-Pelosi non-infrastructure $1.2 trillion spending package. … He’s a liberal, RINO Republican. To be successful, we need to kick out these RINOs in primaries.”</span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">
</span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">At the same rally, Trump said McKinley is someone Mooney “should beat easily.”</span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">
</span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">“You better beat them easily,” Trump said. “Or I’m gonna look very bad. They’re gonna say, ‘Trump has lost it!</span>’”</div><div>
</div><div><b>McKinley has called Mooney a "carpetbagger,"</b> citing his move to West Virginia in 2014 to run for Congress after having served in the Maryland state Senate and chairing the Maryland GOP.</div><div>
</div><div>While Trump threw his support behind Mooney, <b>McKinley has the backing of West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice, a Republican who changed his party affiliation after Trump’s presidential victory, and Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin.</b></div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">
</span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">In a 30-second campaign ad released by the McKinley campaign, Manchin praised McKinley for backing the infrastructure deal and said it was an “outright lie” for Mooney to claim McKinley supported Biden’s “Build Back Better” social welfare proposals.</span></div><div>
</div><div>“Alex Mooney has proven he’s all about Alex Mooney,” Manchin said in the ad. “But West Virginians know David McKinley is all about us.”</div></span></div><div><span class="markup--strong markup--blockquote-strong" style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" letter-spacing="letter-spacing" px="px" font-weight="font-weight">
</span></div></span><div><span class="markup--strong markup--blockquote-strong" style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" letter-spacing="letter-spacing" px="px" font-weight="font-weight"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></span></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span class="markup--strong markup--blockquote-strong" style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" letter-spacing="letter-spacing" px="px" font-weight="font-weight">REP. ALEX MOONEY (R-WV)</span><span style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" letter-spacing="letter-spacing" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"> — A former Maryland state senator who also once ran for the New Hampshire House, Mooney has settled on West Virginia as his new political base. During his stint as state senator, Mooney garnered a virulently anti-gay reputation, warning that LGBT people were attempting to be legally recognized as minorities, according to </span><a href="http://talkingpointsmemo.com/dc/alex-mooney-west-virginia-maryland" data-href="http://talkingpointsmemo.com/dc/alex-mooney-west-virginia-maryland" class="markup--anchor markup--blockquote-anchor" rel="noopener" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;" times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" letter-spacing="letter-spacing" px="px" webkit-tap-highlight-color="webkit-tap-highlight-color" rgba="rgba" background-image="background-image" linear-gradient="linear-gradient" background-repeat="background-repeat" repeat-x="repeat-x" background-size="background-size" em="em" background-position="background-position">TPM</a><span style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" letter-spacing="letter-spacing" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">. He also warned that advocates of gay rights were trying to curb free speech. “If you actually speak against the homosexual lifestyle, maybe from the pulpit if you’re a pastor then you’re in trouble,” he </span><a href="http://cnsnews.com/news/article/abortion-and-gay-rights-still-high-conservative-agenda#sthash.rLvWQXJQ.dpuf" data-href="http://cnsnews.com/news/article/abortion-and-gay-rights-still-high-conservative-agenda#sthash.rLvWQXJQ.dpuf" class="markup--anchor markup--blockquote-anchor" rel="noopener" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;" times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" letter-spacing="letter-spacing" px="px" webkit-tap-highlight-color="webkit-tap-highlight-color" rgba="rgba" background-image="background-image" linear-gradient="linear-gradient" background-repeat="background-repeat" repeat-x="repeat-x" background-size="background-size" em="em" background-position="background-position">said</a><span style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" letter-spacing="letter-spacing" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"> in 2008.</span></font><div><span style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" letter-spacing="letter-spacing" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
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