KANAWHA COUNTY, W.Va. — West Virginia Republican leaders are reacting to the news of two more counties flipping red in recent voter registration numbers.
Kanawha and Fayette counties now have more registered Republican voters than Democrats, and Kanawha County Republican Party Chair Dianna Graves says West Virginia Democrats are tired of far-left trends in the party.
“I believe that West Virginia Democrats have just gotten fed up with the far left, very progressive trend that has been happening in the Democrat Party for some time now,” Graves said on MetroNews Talkline last week.
Graves also says the Democratic values in Washington D.C. have made their way to the state’s capital city, but they don’t align with most West Virginian Democrats.
“The values of Washington Democrats has filtered down,” Graves said. “Charleston seems to have embraced that progressive mindset with their whole heart, and quite frankly, those are not the kind of values that West Virginia Democrats have always held dear.”
While there are a lot more people in these counties flipping to the Republican Party, Graves says it could be an avenue for political figures to switch parties in order to have a better chance on election day.
“You’re going to see more and more people switching to Republican, who don’t hold Republican values, but just want to win,” Graves said. Graves continued, “You’re going to have people who, in both parties, who are only in that party because it’s the winning party and they want to be in power.”
Republican voters now outnumber Democratic voters in 44 of West Virginia’s 55 counties.