CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) — Voters in ruby red West Virginia will decide Tuesday whether a U.S. Senate seat will flip to Republican.
Two-term GOP Gov. Jim Justice faced Democratic former Wheeling Mayor Glenn Elliott for the right to succeed Sen. Joe Manchin. Manchin decided not to seek reelection and switched from Democrat to independent earlier this year. Before he changed parties, Manchin was the only Democrat holding statewide office.
Republicans have not held both of the state’s U.S. Senate seats since 1958.
Justice boldly declared himself the winner more than a month before the election.
The 73-year-old Justice hoped to continue taking advantage of former President Donald Trump’s popularity in West Virginia. Trump won the presidential race in the state by 42 percentage points in 2016 and 39 points in 2020. Justice was elected governor as a Democrat in 2016, then switched to the GOP seven months after entering office, taking the stage at an event with Trump to make the announcement.
More than a month before the election, Justice declared himself the winner and said he saw no need to debate Elliott. Justice pointed out that he easily won his primary over U.S. Rep. Alex Mooney despite not putting up any election signs.
While Elliott embarked on a tour of all 55 counties this summer, Justice conducted few campaign stops, instead making economic development announcements in his capacity as governor, bringing along his pet English bulldog, Babydog. Justice also mixed in political talk during his weekly online media briefings, often criticizing President Joe Biden's policies.
A former billionaire, Justice and his family own dozens of businesses, including the posh Greenbrier Resort in West Virginia. Justice spent considerable time as governor addressing court challenges that sought late business payments and fines.
Elliott, a 52-year-old lawyer who once served as a legislative assistant to the late U.S. Sen. Robert Byrd, said he’s a Democrat because of an intrinsic identification with “the underdog,” and a belief that unions built the American middle class and separated the U.S. economy from other nations in the mid-20th century.
Polls statewide open at 6:30 a.m. and close at 7:30 p.m.
FILE - West Virginia Democratic Senate candidate Glenn Elliott gives a victory speech during the primary election results, May 14, 2024, in Wheeling, W.Va. (AP Photo/Kathleen Batten, File)
FILE - West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice checks out the stage with his dog, "Babydog," before the Republican National Convention, July 16, 2024, in Milwaukee. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong, File)
Israeli strikes killed at least 30 people overnight in Gaza, according to Palestinian health officials. Strikes early Tuesday killed 10 people in the Gaza Strip, including four children and two women, and a strike late Monday on the northern Gaza town of Beit Lahiya killed at least 20 people, including eight women and six children.
Israel has been waging a massive offensive in northern Gaza — which was already the most isolated and heavily destroyed part of the territory — for nearly a month.
Despite growing pressure from the United States and others in the international community for a cease-fire in Gaza and Lebanon, intensified Israeli strikes against the Hezbollah militant group are expanding beyond Lebanon’s border areas. Israel is also fighting a seemingly endless war against Hamas in northern Gaza.
Since the conflict between Israel and Hezbollah erupted in 2023, at least 3,000 people have been killed and some 13,500 wounded in Lebanon, the Health Ministry reports.
More than a year of Israel's war against Hamas in Gaza has killed more than 43,000 people, Palestinian health officials say. They do not distinguish between civilians and combatants, but say more than half of those killed were women and children. The war began after Palestinian militants stormed into Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people — mostly civilians — and abducting 250 others.
Here’s the latest:
DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip — Palestinian medical officials say an Israeli airstrike in the northern Gaza Strip has killed at least 20 people, mostly women and children.
Hossam Abu Safiya, the director of a nearby hospital that received the casualties, said the strike late Monday hit a home in the town of Beit Lahiya where multiple families were sheltering.
The dead included eight women and six children, according to a list provided by the Gaza Health Ministry’s emergency service.
There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military.
Israel has been waging a massive offensive in northern Gaza — which was already the most isolated and heavily destroyed part of the territory — for nearly a month. It ordered the complete evacuation of Beit Lahiya, the nearby town of Beit Hanoun, and the urban Jabaliya refugee camp, and has allowed almost no humanitarian aid into the area for over a month.
Tens of thousands of people have fled to nearby Gaza City in the latest wave of displacement in the war, which began when Hamas-led militants attacked southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.
DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip — Palestinian officials say Israeli strikes early Tuesday killed 10 people in the Gaza Strip, including four children and two women.
One strike hit a house in the Tufah neighborhood in Gaza City, killing two children and their parents, according to the Gaza Health Ministry’s emergency service. Two other children were wounded, it said.
In the central town of Zuweida, an Israeli airstrike hit a tent where a displaced family was sheltering, killing four people, including a mother and her two children, according to the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in the nearby city of Deir al-Balah.
Another strike hit a house in Deir al-Balah, killing two people, the hospital said.
An Associated Press journalist counted the bodies at the hospital morgue.
The Israeli military says it only targets militants and accuses them of hiding among civilians. It rarely comments on individual strikes, which often kill women and children.
The war began when Hamas-led militants stormed into southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and taking another 250 hostage. Around 100 hostages are still inside Gaza, a third of whom are believed to be dead.
Israel’s offensive has killed over 43,000 Palestinians, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, which says over half were women and children. It does not distinguish between civilians and combatants.
RAMALLAH, West Bank — Palestinian officials say Israeli forces have killed three people in the occupied West Bank.
Two were killed in an airstrike early Tuesday near the northern city of Jenin, a flashpoint for Israeli-Palestinian violence in recent years. A third person was shot in the village of Tamoun, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry.
The Israeli military said it called in an airstrike on a militant cell near Jenin. There was no immediate comment on the shooting.
Israeli forces have carried out near-daily military raids in the West Bank since Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack out of the Gaza Strip triggered the Israel-Hamas war. The Health Ministry says at least 767 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank since then. Most appear to have been militants killed in battles with Israeli forces, but the dead also include civilian bystanders and people killed during protests.
Israel says the raids are aimed at dismantling Hamas in the West Bank and preventing attacks. Palestinians have carried out dozens of stabbing, shooting and car-ramming attacks against Israelis since the start of the war.
Israel captured the West Bank in the 1967 Mideast war, and the Palestinians want it to form the main part of their future state.
Israeli army investigators arrive at the site of the early morning attack of Israeli settlers, that left at least 18 burnt vehicles, on the outskirts of the West Bank city of al-Bireh Monday, Nov. 4, 2024. (AP Photo/Nasser Nasser)
Palestinians mourn over the body of Naji al-Baba,16, who the Palestinian Health Ministry said was killed by Israeli forces in the town of Halhul, West Bank, during his funeral on Monday, Nov. 4, 2024. (AP Photo/Mahmoud Illean)
Palestinians mourn over the body of Naji al-Baba,16, who the Palestinian Health Ministry said was killed by Israeli forces in the town of Halhul, West Bank, during his funeral on Monday, Nov. 4, 2024. (AP Photo/Mahmoud Illean)
Palestinians inspect vehicles that were burnt during an early morning attack by Israeli settlers, that left at least 18 burnt vehicles, on the outskirts of the West Bank city of al-Bireh Monday, Nov. 4, 2024. (AP Photo/Nasser Nasser)
Palestinians inspect vehicles that were burnt during an early morning attack by Israeli settlers, that left at least 18 burnt vehicles, on the outskirts of the West Bank city of al-Bireh Monday, Nov. 4, 2024. (AP Photo/Nasser Nasser)
Mourners carry the body of Naji al-Baba,16, who the Palestinian Health Ministry said was killed by Israeli forces in the town of Halhul, West Bank, during his funeral on Monday, Nov. 4, 2024. (AP Photo/Mahmoud Illean)
