KANAWHA COUNTY, W.Va. –The Kanawha County Republican Executive Committee is reaffirming its support for keeping West Virginia’s Republican primary closed, limiting participation to registered Republican voters.

The committee adopted the resolution Tuesday, two years after the West Virginia Republican Party voted to move to a closed Republican primary beginning this year.

Committee Chair Donna Caruthers said the resolution was adopted in response to opposition to the closed primary and to make the committee’s position clear to the state party.

“We felt that it was important for our committee to make a stand to share that with the other people that are on the state executive committee and to let them know how we stand as a grassroots committee,” Caruthers told MetroNews Wednesday.

The resolution also affirms that West Virginia law allows political parties, through action of their state executive committees, to decide whether voters not affiliated with the party may participate in its primary. Committee members said closed primaries help safeguard the integrity of the Republican nomination process, protect grassroots participation and ensure candidates reflect the principles and priorities of Republican voters.

Caruthers said the committee has 32 members, though only 15 were in attendance at the meeting. She said the group still had a productive discussion about the resolution.

“We had a really good discussion about it, and people were free to say how they felt and so forth, and several people spoke and, in the end, we had a motion that passed with the majority of people voting,” she said.

Caruthers said only about two members objected to the resolution.

The resolution was adopted a few days ahead of the West Virginia Republican Party State Executive Committee meeting Saturday, where members are expected to vote on whether to keep the party’s primaries closed or open them.

Caruthers said she does not believe the committee has the support to reopen the primaries but added that anything can happen.

“Well, of course anything can happen but at this point in time I don’t think they have enough support to overturn that,” she said. “They have to have a two-thirds majority, and I don’t believe at this time that they have that much support.”

She said if they do vote to re-open it would go into effect for this year.

Former U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin addressed the resolution in a post on X.

Caruthers said his comments were inaccurate, particularly his claim that “closed primaries serve parties, not people.”

“I think it’s ironic that former Senator Manchin would say that closed primaries serve parties, not people when he actually backed the Democrat party candidate every election, even when people of his own state leaned more towards the Republican candidate, President Trump, he still supported Hillary Clinton & Joe Biden. This suggests that he prioritized the Democrat Party over his constituents. Now that he’s an Independent he’s free to express those views,” Caruthers said.

Caruthers also responded to Manchin’s claim that closed primaries block thousands of West Virginia voters. She said voters can easily change their party affiliation through the West Virginia Secretary of State’s office if they want to participate in Republican primaries.

“If they want conservative republicans elected to continue the great work that’s already been done, which is why really they should be requesting a republican ballot anyway, then we welcome them to the Party.” she said.

Voter registration deadline, including party affiliation changes is April 21.

Republican primary election is set to be held on May 12.