Trump’s Clout Factors Into U.S. House Races in West Virginia, Nebraska
Two incumbent GOP congressmen who have taken dramatically different approaches to their time in office are facing off in West Virginia.

CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Roads, bridges, and President Trump will be on West Virginia and Nebraska voters’ minds as they choose congressional candidates in Tuesday’s Republican primary elections.
Two incumbent GOP congressmen who have taken dramatically different approaches to their time in office are facing off in West Virginia’s 2nd Congressional District, one of the most-watched U.S. House primaries on the day’s ballot. Representative David McKinley was pitted against Trump-backed Representative Alex Mooney after West Virginia lost a congressional seat based on the results of the 2020 U.S. Census.
West Virginia’s election is the first of five primaries in which two incumbent U.S. House members will face off. It will be followed by similar contests in Georgia and Michigan and in two Illinois districts.
The primary comes on the heels of a victory by Trump-endorsed conservative JD Vance, author of the bestselling memoir “Hillbilly Elegy,” who defeated six other candidates to win the Ohio Republican primary for U.S. Senate last week. The West Virginia contest will once again test the former president’s clout when his own name isn’t on the ballot.
Nebraska voters will nominate candidates on Tuesday to fill the seat abandoned by U.S. Representative Jeff Fortenberry, a Republican who resigned from office and ended his re-election bid after he was convicted of lying to federal authorities about an illegal campaign contribution. Mr. Fortenberry’s name will still appear on the ballot for the 1st Congressional District because he withdrew after a deadline to certify the ballot, but Senator Mike Flood, a former speaker of the Nebraska Legislature, appears to have the advantage over five other Republican candidates.
Voters will also pick nominees for Nebraska’s 2nd Congressional District in the Omaha area. Representative Don Bacon, a three-term Republican, faces a long-shot challenge from an Omaha consultant who got a shoutout from Mr. Trump when the former president visited earlier this month, Steve Kuehl.
Mr. Trump blasted Mr. Bacon as a “bad guy” during a recent rally in the state and had criticized him previously for his support of a federal infrastructure bill that most GOP lawmakers opposed. Mr. Bacon also has been mildly critical of Mr. Trump in the past, saying the former president bore some responsibility for the January 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol.
Mr. Trump stopped far short of officially endorsing Mr. Kuehl, however, saying: “I think Steve will do well. Good luck, Steve, whoever the hell you are.”
Democrats in Nebraska will nominate either state Senator Tony Vargas of Omaha or an Omaha mental health therapist, Alisha Shelton, in the 2nd, the state’s only competitive district.
In the rural, geographically vast 3rd Congressional District, a Republican congressman, Adrian Smith, faces a challenger but is expected to win his party’s nomination. Two Democrats are vying for their party’s nomination within the district, which is overwhelmingly Republican.
In West Virginia, Representative Carol Miller is expected to hold her seat in the 1st Congressional District against four Republican challengers.
In the state’s 2nd Congressional District, where Messrs. McKinley and Mooney are battling each other for the GOP nomination, an openly gay former Morgantown city councilor, Barry Wendell, is competing against a security operations manager, Angela Dwyer, in the Democratic primary.
Mr. Mooney has attacked Mr. McKinley for voting with 12 other House Republicans in favor of President Biden’s $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill. Mr. Trump, who won every single county in West Virginia in two presidential elections and said Republicans who voted for the infrastructure bill should be “ashamed of themselves,” endorsed Mr. Mooney on the same day Mr. Biden signed the infrastructure law.
Representative David McKinley, a civil engineer by trade, received endorsements and praise from Senator Manchin, a Democrat, and Governor Jim Justice, a Republican, over his infrastructure vote. He said it was time to put party politics aside to meet the needs of his constituents.
“This wasn’t for Joe Biden — this was to help West Virginia,” he told the Associated Press.
By LEAH WILLINGHAM. Grant Schulte contributed to this report.