United States Senate elections in West Virginia, 2012

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2012 U.S. Senate Elections in West Virginia

Candidates • Polls • Election History

November 6 Election Winner: Joe Manchin

Incumbent prior to election: Joe Manchin

Cook Political Report Race Rating      Likely D (Prior to election)

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2012 U.S. House Elections

Voters in West Virginia elected one member to the U.S. Senate in the November 6, 2012 elections.

Incumbent Joe Manchin (D) won re-election on November 6, 2012.

Candidate Filing Deadline	Primary Election	General Election
January 28, 2012	May 8, 2012	November 6, 2012

Primary: West Virginia has a mostly closed primary system, in which the selection of a party's candidates in an election is limited to registered party members, although unaffiliated voters may pick which party's primary to vote in.

Voter registration: Voters had to register to vote in the primary by April 17. For the general election, the voter registration deadline are October 16.

See also: West Virginia elections, 2012

Incumbent: The election will fill the Class 1 Senate seat, which is currently held by Joe Manchin (D). First elected in a special election in 2010, Manchin is running for re-election in 2012.

Election results

U.S. Senate, West Virginia, General Election, 2012
Party		Candidate	Vote %	Votes
	Democratic	Joe Manchin III Incumbent	60.5%	391,669
	Republican	John R. Raese	36.5%	236,620
	Mountain	Bob Henry Baber	3%	19,232
Total Votes				647,521
Source: West Virginia Secretary of State "Official Election Results, 2012 General Election"

Candidates

Note: Election results were added on election night as races were called. Vote totals will be added when official election results are certified. For more information about Ballotpedia's election coverage plan, click here. If you find any errors in this list, please email: Geoff Pallay.

General election candidates

Joe Manchin

John Raese

Bob Henry Baber

May 8, 2012 primary results

Democratic primary

• Joe Manchin:163,891 Incumbenta
• Sheirl Fletcher:41,118

Republican primary

• John Raese:88,510a

Mountain Party

• Bob Henry Baber

Primary Results

Democratic Primary

U.S. Senate-West Virginia Democratic Primary, 2012
Candidate	Vote %	Votes
Joe Manchin III Incumbent	79.9%	163,891
Sheirl Fletcher	20.1%	41,118
Total Votes		205,009

Race background

Democratic incumbent Joe Manchin was first elected to the U.S. Senate in a 2010 special election. Manchin is running for re-election in 2012.

Manchin easily defeated former Republican Sheirl Fletcher 80-20 for the Democratic nomination in the May 8th primary contest. He will face Republican John Raese, who ran unopposed in his party's primary, in the general election on November 6th.

The November contest presents a rematch between Manchin and John Raese (R), who first faced off in the 2010 special election to fill the vacancy left by the death of Sen. Robert Byrd- the election that won Manchin his current seat.

Competitiveness

According to The New York Times analysis of the 2012 Senate elections, West Virginia's Senate race is rated as solid Democratic.

Race rating

Cook Political Report

Each month the Cook Political Report releases race ratings for President, U.S. Senate, U.S. House (competitive only) and Governors. There are seven possible designations:

     Solid Democratic
     Likely Democratic
     Lean Democratic

     Tossup

     Lean Republican
     Likely Republican
     Solid Republican

Cook Political Report Race Rating -- West Virginia Senate
Month	Rating
October 4, 2012
September 13, 2012
August 21, 2012
July 12, 2012
May 31, 2012
May 10, 2012
March 22, 2012
March 1, 2012
January 26, 2012
December 22, 2011
December 1, 2011

Polls

Joe Manchin vs. John Raese

Joe Manchin vs. John Raese
Response	Daily Mail (August 31, 2012)	Average
Joe Manchin	66%	66%
John Raese	27%	27%
Unsure	7%	7%
Number polled	401	401
Margin of error	+/-4.9	4.9%
Note: The polls above may not reflect all polls that have been conducted in this race. Those displayed are a random sampling chosen by Ballotpedia staff. If you would like to nominate another poll for inclusion in the table, send an email to editor@ballotpedia.org

Election history

2010

Manchin was elected to the senate by a special election on November 2, 2010, to fill the late Robert Byrd's seat. Between Byrd's death in July and the special election, Byrd's seat was temporarily held by his chief counsel, Carte Goodwin. Manchin defeated John R. Raese (R), Jesse Johnson (Mountain Party), and Jeff Becker (Constitution).

U.S. Senate, West Virginia, 2010
Party		Candidate	Vote %	Votes
	Democratic	Joe Manchin III	53.5%	283,358
	Republican	John R. Raese	43.4%	230,013
	Mountain	Jesse Johnson	1.9%	10,152
	Constitution	Jeff Becker	1.2%	6,425
Total Votes				529,948

2008

On November 4, 2008, Jay Rockefeller won re-election to the U.S. Senate, defeating Jay Wolfe (R), John R. "Rick" Bartlett (Write-in), and Chad Shaffer (Write-in).

U.S. Senate, West Virginia, 2008
Party		Candidate	Vote %	Votes
	Democratic	John D. Rockefeller IV Incumbent	63.7%	447,560
	Republican	Jay Wolfe	36.3%	254,629
	Write-in	John R. "Rick" Bartlett	0%	83
	Write-in	Chad Shaffer	0%	36
Total Votes				702,308

See also

• United States House of Representatives elections in West Virginia, 2012
• United States Senate elections, 2012