West Virginia Secretary of State election, 2016
|
← 2012
|
 |
May 10, 2016 |
November 8, 2016 |
Mac Warner (R) |
Natalie Tennant (D) |
Governor • Attorney General • Treasurer • Secretary of State Down Ballot Auditor • Agriculture Commissioner |
January 30, 2016 |
May 10, 2016 |
August 1, 2016 |
September 20, 2016 |
November 8, 2016 |
TBD |
January 16, 2017 |
West Virginia held an election for secretary of state on November 8, 2016. Former Department of Defense attorney Mac Warner (R) unseated incumbent Natalie Tennant (D) in the general election.
Overview
West Virginia currently has a divided government: Democrats hold the governorship while Republicans control both chambers of the state legislature. The state had previously been under Democratic trifecta control from 2001 until the 2014. For the last century, the office of secretary of state in West Virginia has tended to change party hands every two to three officeholders.
The West Virginia secretary of state is the state's chief elections officer, chief corporations officer, and supervisor of the State Archives. Incumbent Natalie Tennant (D) ran for re-election to a third term in 2016. She defeated primary challenger State Rep. Patsy Trecost II in the May 10 primary election. Mac Warner (R), a former attorney for the Department of Defense in Afghanistan, defeated manufacturing operations manager Barry Holstein (R) in the Republican primary election. Tennant, Warner, and law clerk John Buckley (Lib.) competed in the November 8 general election.
Candidates
Natalie Tennant (D)
Incumbent secretary of state since 2009
Mac Warner (R)
Former Department of Defense attorney
John Buckley (Lib.)
Attorney, law clerk
| Click [show] to view candidates who were defeated in the primary elections. | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| |||
Results
General election
Mac Warner defeated incumbent Natalie Tennant and John Buckley in the West Virginia secretary of state election.
| West Virginia Secretary of State, 2016 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Party | Candidate | Vote % | Votes | |
| Republican |  Mac Warner |
48.52% | 335,526 | |
| Democratic | Natalie Tennant Incumbent | 46.82% | 323,750 | |
| Libertarian | John Buckley | 4.65% | 32,179 | |
| Total Votes | 691,455 | |||
| Source: West Virginia Secretary of State | ||||
Primary elections
Democratic primary election
Incumbent Natalie Tennant defeated Patsy Trecost II in the Democratic primary for secretary of state.
| Democratic primary for Secretary of State, 2016 | ||
|---|---|---|
| Candidate | Vote % | Votes |
| Natalie Tennant Incumbent |
77.18% | 192,176 |
| Patsy Trecost II | 22.82% | 56,832 |
| Total Votes (1,745 of 1,745 precincts reporting) | 249,008 | |
| Source: MetroNews | ||
Republican primary election
Mac Warner defeated Barry Holstein in the Republican primary for secretary of state.
| Republican primary for Secretary of State, 2016 | ||
|---|---|---|
| Candidate | Vote % | Votes |
| Mac Warner |
63.33% | 105,800 |
| Barry Holstein | 36.67% | 61,271 |
| Total Votes (1,745 of 1,745 precincts reporting) | 167,071 | |
| Source: MetroNews | ||
Context of the 2016 election
Primary elections
A primary election is an election in which voters select the candidate they believe should represent a political party in a general election. Primaries usually take place several months before a general election. West Virginia utilizes a hybrid primary system. Parties decide who may vote. Both the Democratic and Republican parties allow unaffiliated voters to vote in their primaries.[1]
West Virginia's primary election took place on May 10, 2016.
Incumbent Natalie Tennant (D)
Incumbent Natalie Tennant (D) was first elected in 2008, defeating Republican Charles Minimah by a margin of 31 percent. She handily won re-election in 2012 against challenger Brian Savilla (R) by a margin of 25 percent. Tennant ran in the 2014 election for the U.S. Senate but lost to Republican Shelley Moore Capito in the general election. She also made an unsuccessful bid for the Democratic nomination in the 2011 gubernatorial election. Prior to her tenure as secretary of state, Tennant owned a media training and video production business in Charleston.
Party control in West Virginia
West Virginia had a divided government at the time of the election: Democrats held the governorship, while Republicans controlled both chambers of the state legislature. The state had been under Democratic trifecta control from 2001 until the 2014 elections, when Republicans gained control of the House of Delegates and state Senate for the first time since the 1930s.
West Virginia had been represented by Democrats in the U.S. Senate from 1958 until the 2014 election, when Shelley Moore Capito (R) won the open seat. The state's electoral votes had gone to both Democrats and Republicans over the 30 years preceding 2016, though the Republican presidential candidate had won the state every four years since 2000.[2]
For the last century, the office of secretary of state in West Virginia has tended to change party hands every two to three officeholders. Incumbent Natalie Tennant replaced Republican Betty Ireland, who served from 2005 to 2009. Prior to Ireland's election in 2004, the last Republican to serve as secretary of state was James McCartney, who left office in 1977.
West Virginia Party Control: 1992-2024
Nineteen years of Democratic trifectas • Seven years of Republican trifectas
| Year | 92 | 93 | 94 | 95 | 96 | 97 | 98 | 99 | 00 | 01 | 02 | 03 | 04 | 05 | 06 | 07 | 08 | 09 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Governor | D | D | D | D | D | R | R | R | R | D | D | D | D | D | D | D | D | D | D | D | D | D | D | D | D | D[3] | R | R | R | R | R | R | R |
| Senate | D | D | D | D | D | D | D | D | D | D | D | D | D | D | D | D | D | D | D | D | D | D | D | R | R | R | R | R | R | R | R | R | R |
| House | D | D | D | D | D | D | D | D | D | D | D | D | D | D | D | D | D | D | D | D | D | D | D | R | R | R | R | R | R | R | R | R | R |
Campaigns
Campaign media
Note: If a candidate is not listed below, Ballotpedia staff were unable to locate any campaign media for that candidate. Do you know of any? Tell us!
Democrats
|
Republicans
|
Third-party candidates
| John Buckley (Lib.) | 
|
Campaign finance
| Mac Warner Campaign Finance Reports | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Report | Date Filed | Beginning Balance | Total Contributions for Reporting Period | Expenditures | Cash on Hand | ||||
| First Primary | March 31, 2016 | $0 | $54,816.00 | $(19,565.88) | $35,250.12 | ||||
| Running totals | |||||||||
| $54,816 | $(19,565.88) | ||||||||
| Barry Holstein Campaign Finance Reports | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Report | Date Filed | Beginning Balance | Total Contributions for Reporting Period | Expenditures | Cash on Hand | ||||
| First Primary | April 1, 2016 | $0 | $1,950.00 | $(1,732.67) | $217.38 | ||||
| Running totals | |||||||||
| $1,950 | $(1,732.67) | ||||||||
| Natalie Tennant Campaign Finance Reports | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Report | Date Filed | Beginning Balance | Total Contributions for Reporting Period | Expenditures | Cash on Hand | ||||
| First Primary | April 1, 2016 | $0 | $27,331.01 | $(2,094.99) | $25,236.02 | ||||
| Running totals | |||||||||
| $27,331.01 | $(2,094.99) | ||||||||
| Patsy Trecost Campaign Finance Reports | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Report | Date Filed | Beginning Balance | Total Contributions for Reporting Period | Expenditures | Cash on Hand | ||||
| First Primary | March 29, 2016 | $0 | $13,855.12 | $(11,960.60) | $11,960.60 | ||||
| Running totals | |||||||||
| $13,855.12 | $(11,960.6) | ||||||||
Endorsements
| Key endorsements, Democratic primary candidates[4] | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Natalie Tennant | Patsy Trecost | ||||||||
| West Virginia AFL-CIO | Harrison County Chamber of Commerce PAC | ||||||||
| West Virginia Education Association | |||||||||
| West Virginia Regional Council of Carpenters & Millwrights | |||||||||
| National Association of Social Workers, West Virginia Chapter | |||||||||
| Affiliated Construction Trades | |||||||||
| International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers | |||||||||
| SEIU District 1199 | |||||||||
| What is a key endorsement? | |||||||||
About the office
The secretary of state for West Virginia is a public elected executive state governmental official in West Virginia. The officeholder is state's chief elections officer, chief corporations officer, and supervisor of the State Archives. The secretary of state in West Virginia is charged with overseeing key parts of the state's ballot initiative process. Additionally, West Virginia is one of only a handful of states that does not have a lieutenant governor. The secretary of state assumes many of the roles traditionally reserved for the lieutenant governor, including succeeding to the governorship if the governor steps down or is removed from office.[5]
Current officeholder
The current officeholder in the position is Democrat Natalie Tennant. She was first elected in 2008 and assumed office on January 19, 2009.
Authority
The secretary of state's installation is established by Article VII of the West Virginia Constitution.
Article VII, Section 1:
| The executive department shall consist of a governor, secretary of state, auditor, treasurer, commissioner of agriculture and attorney general... |
Qualifications
Article IV, Section 4 of the West Virginia Constitution establishes the qualifications of office as such:
|
No person, except citizens entitled to vote, shall be elected or appointed to any state, county or municipal office; but the governor and judges must have attained the age of thirty, and the attorney general and senators the age of twenty-five years, at the beginning of their respective terms of service; and must have been citizens of the state for five years next preceding their election or appointment, or be citizens at the time this constitution goes into operation. |
- a citizen entitled to vote
- a resident of West Virginia for at least the preceding five years
Past elections
2012
See also: West Virginia secretary of state election, 2012
Incumbent Natalie Tennant (D) defended her seat in the 2012 election. She ran unopposed in the Democratic primary and defeated Republican challenger Brian Savilla, a member of the West Virginia House of Delegates, in the general election on November 6, 2012.[6]
- 2012 General Election for West Virginia Secretary of State
| West Virginia Secretary of State General Election, 2012 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Party | Candidate | Vote % | Votes | |
| Democratic | Natalie Tennant Incumbent |
62.4% | 339,235 | |
| Republican | Brian Savilla | 37.6% | 204,440 | |
| Total Votes | 543,675 | |||
| Election results West Virginia Secretary of State Election Results Center | ||||
Recent news
The link below is to the most recent stories in a Google news search for the terms West Virginia secretary of state election. These results are automatically generated from Google. Ballotpedia does not curate or endorse these articles.
State profile
| Demographic data for West Virginia | ||
|---|---|---|
| West Virginia | U.S. | |
| Total population: | 1,841,053 | 316,515,021 |
| Land area (sq mi): | 24,038 | 3,531,905 |
| Race and ethnicity** | ||
| White: | 93.6% | 73.6% |
| Black/African American: | 3.3% | 12.6% |
| Asian: | 0.7% | 5.1% |
| Native American: | 0.2% | 0.8% |
| Pacific Islander: | 0% | 0.2% |
| Two or more: | 2% | 3% |
| Hispanic/Latino: | 1.4% | 17.1% |
| Education | ||
| High school graduation rate: | 85% | 86.7% |
| College graduation rate: | 19.2% | 29.8% |
| Income | ||
| Median household income: | $41,751 | $53,889 |
| Persons below poverty level: | 22.2% | 11.3% |
| Source: U.S. Census Bureau, "American Community Survey" (5-year estimates 2010-2015) Click here for more information on the 2020 census and here for more on its impact on the redistricting process in West Virginia. **Note: Percentages for race and ethnicity may add up to more than 100 percent because respondents may report more than one race and the Hispanic/Latino ethnicity may be selected in conjunction with any race. Read more about race and ethnicity in the census here. | ||
Presidential voting pattern
West Virginia voted Republican in all seven presidential elections between 2000 and 2024.
More West Virginia coverage on Ballotpedia
- Elections in West Virginia
- United States congressional delegations from West Virginia
- Public policy in West Virginia
- Endorsers in West Virginia
- West Virginia fact checks
- More...
See also
|
West Virginia government: |
Previous elections: |
Ballotpedia exclusives: |
External links
Footnotes
- ↑ Fair Vote, "Congressional and Presidential Primaries: Open, Closed, Semi-Closed, and 'Top Two,'" accessed January 6, 2014
- ↑ National Archives and Records Administration, "Historical Election Results," accessed September 24, 2016
- ↑ Gov. Jim Justice switched his registration to Republican on August 4, 2017.
- ↑ Natalie Tennant for Secretary of State, "Endorsements," accessed April 18, 2016
- ↑ West Virginia Secretary of State, "Homepage," accessed August 28, 2013
- ↑ West Virginia Secretary of State, "Election Results," accessed November 6, 2012
| |||||||||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||
