United States Senate election in West Virginia, 2026 (May 12 Democratic primary)

← 2020
U.S. Senate, West Virginia
Democratic primary Republican primary General election
Election details
Filing deadline: January 31, 2026
Primary: May 12, 2026 General: November 3, 2026
How to vote
Poll times: 6:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. Voting in West Virginia
Race ratings
Cook Political Report: Solid Republican DDHQ and The Hill: Pending Inside Elections: Solid Republican Sabato's Crystal Ball: Safe Republican
Ballotpedia analysis
U.S. Senate battlegrounds U.S. House battlegrounds Federal and state primary competitiveness Ballotpedia's Election Analysis Hub, 2026
See also
U.S. Senate, West Virginia U.S. Senate • 1st • 2nd West Virginia elections, 2026 U.S. Congress elections, 2026 U.S. Senate elections, 2026 U.S. House elections, 2026 Alabama U.S. Senate raceAlaska U.S. Senate raceArkansas U.S. Senate raceColorado U.S. Senate raceDelaware U.S. Senate raceGeorgia U.S. Senate raceIdaho U.S. Senate raceIllinois U.S. Senate raceIowa U.S. Senate raceKansas U.S. Senate raceKentucky U.S. Senate raceLouisiana U.S. Senate raceMaine U.S. Senate raceMassachusetts U.S. Senate raceMichigan U.S. Senate raceMinnesota U.S. Senate raceMississippi U.S. Senate raceMontana U.S. Senate raceNebraska U.S. Senate raceNew Hampshire U.S. Senate raceNew Jersey U.S. Senate raceNew Mexico U.S. Senate raceNorth Carolina U.S. Senate raceOklahoma U.S. Senate raceOregon U.S. Senate raceRhode Island U.S. Senate raceSouth Carolina U.S. Senate raceSouth Dakota U.S. Senate raceTennessee U.S. Senate raceTexas U.S. Senate raceVirginia U.S. Senate raceWest Virginia U.S. Senate raceWyoming U.S. Senate raceSubmit

A Democratic Party primary takes place on May 12, 2026, in West Virginia to determine which Democratic candidate will run in the state's general election on November 3, 2026.

Candidate filing deadline	Primary election	General election
January 31, 2026	May 12, 2026	November 3, 2026

Heading into the election, the incumbent is Shelley Moore Capito (Republican), who was first elected in 2014.

A primary election is an election in which registered voters select a candidate that they believe should be a political party's candidate for elected office to run in the general election. They are also used to choose convention delegates and party leaders. Primaries are state-level and local-level elections that take place prior to a general election. West Virginia state law permits parties to determine for themselves whether to allow previously unaffiliated voters to participate in their primaries along with registered members. As of October 2025, the Democratic Party held a semi-closed primary where unaffiliated voters could participate, and the Republican Party held a closed primary in which only voters registered with the party could participate.

For information about which offices are nominated via primary election, see this article.

This page focuses on West Virginia's United States Senate Democratic primary. For more in-depth information on the state's Republican primary and the general election, see the following pages:

• United States Senate election in West Virginia, 2026 (May 12 Republican primary)
• United States Senate election in West Virginia, 2026

Candidates and election results

Note: The following list includes official candidates only. Ballotpedia defines official candidates as people who:

• Register with a federal or state campaign finance agency before the candidate filing deadline
• Appear on candidate lists released by government election agencies

Democratic primary election

Democratic primary for U.S. Senate West Virginia

Rio Phillips and Zachary Shrewsbury are running in the Democratic primary for U.S. Senate West Virginia on May 12, 2026.

		Candidate
		Rio Phillips
		Zachary Shrewsbury

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	There are no incumbents in this race.
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
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Candidate profiles

This section includes candidate profiles that may be created in one of two ways: either the candidate completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey, or Ballotpedia staff may compile a profile based on campaign websites, advertisements, and public statements after identifying the candidate as noteworthy. For more on how we select candidates to include, click here.

Rio Phillips

Party: Democratic Party

Incumbent: No

Political Office: None

Submitted Biography:  "I go by the name Rio, so I’d want my Ballotpedia listing to reflect my nickname not my legal one. I am a Progressive Working Class Democrat running for the U.S. Senate from West Virginia. I am running to lift this state out of poverty and pull the greedy fingers of billionaires off this state."

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Key Messages

To read this candidate's full survey responses, click here.

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Working Class People Need Working Class Leaders

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Any Incumbent That Can’t Hold A Town Hall Is Unworthy To Hold Office (Shelley Moore Capito)

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Restoration of the Rule of Law (Due Process, Habeas Corpus, etc)

Voting information

See also: Voting in West Virginia

Ballotpedia will publish the dates and deadlines related to this election as they are made available.

Campaign finance

Name	Party	Receipts*	Disbursements**	Cash on hand	Date
Rio Phillips	Democratic Party	$0	$0	$0	Data not available***
Zachary Shrewsbury	Democratic Party	$148,671	$131,006	$17,664	As of September 30, 2025
Source: Federal Elections Commission, "Campaign finance data," 2026. This product uses the openFEC API but is not endorsed or certified by the Federal Election Commission (FEC). * According to the FEC, "Receipts are anything of value (money, goods, services or property) received by a political committee." ** According to the FEC, a disbursement "is a purchase, payment, distribution, loan, advance, deposit or gift of money or anything of value to influence a federal election," plus other kinds of payments not made to influence a federal election. *** Candidate either did not report any receipts or disbursements to the FEC, or Ballotpedia did not find an FEC candidate ID.

Ballot access

The table below details filing requirements for U.S. Senate candidates in West Virginia in the 2026 election cycle. For additional information on candidate ballot access requirements in West Virginia, click here.

Filing requirements for U.S. Senate candidates, 2026
State	Office	Party	Signatures required	Filing fee	Filing deadline	Source
West Virginia	U.S. Senate	Ballot-qualified party	N/A	1% of annual salary	1/31/2026	Source
West Virginia	U.S. Senate	Unaffiliated	1% of votes cast for this office in the last election, but no fewer than 25	1% of annual salary	8/3/2026	Source

See also

• United States Senate election in West Virginia, 2026 (May 12 Republican primary)
• United States Senate election in West Virginia, 2026
• United States Senate Democratic Party primaries, 2026
• United States Senate Republican Party primaries, 2026
• United States Senate elections, 2026
• U.S. Senate battlegrounds, 2026

External links

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Footnotes

[show]

West Virginia's current delegation to the United States Congress

Senators

Shelley Capito (R)

Jim Justice (R)

Representatives

District 1

Carol Miller (R)

District 2

Riley Moore (R)

Republican Party (4)

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