Chapman Easily Wins GOP Nomination in West Virginia Senate Contest
Joselyn King Trending
WHEELING -- Laura Wakim Chapman coasted to a solid victory Tuesday night in her bid for the Republican nomination in the West Virginia Senate race for the 1st Senatorial District seat.
Chapman will now face the winning Democratic nominee Randy Swartzmiller in November.
On Tuesday night, Chapman garnered nearly 69% of the vote total in the district, which includes the Northern Panhandle territory consisting of Hancock, Brooke, Ohio and Marshall counties. She won the nomination over fellow GOP opponent Judi Varner Meyer in Tuesday’s primary election.
"I’m just so thankful and honored," Chapman said Tuesday night. "I appreciate all of the votes that I got, and all of the help and support that I received for my campaign. I also wanted to thank Judi Meyer -- she’s a wonderful person, and she ran a positive campaign. So I’m just very thankful."
A constitutional attorney who graduated from Mount de Chantal Visitation Academy and West Virginia University, Chapman is taking a fresh step into a major political ring as a candidate -- despite being no stranger to the political arena. She previously served on the Ohio County Executive Committee and also helped her father, Chris Wakim -- who had served two terms in the W.Va. House of Delegates -- during his 2006 campaign.
"So I’ve always been in the periphery of politics," she said.
She and her husband, attorney and former Ohio County Republican Party Chairman Matthew Chapman, have two young children. Her platform focuses on strong family roots and paving a path to a brighter future for the next generations of West Virginians and residents of the Northern Panhandle.
"I am a mother, and my whole family is here," she said. "We have real problems with the gas prices, with inflation and our roads. We need real help in those areas, and I will be a strong voice for addressing these problems."
These current issues and a lingering issue for the Mountain State - population loss - will be among her top priorities if voters in November support her bid for a seat in Charleston.
"I’m big on keeping our children and our grandchildren in the state, and I think we have to do that by offering economic opportunities to our people," Chapman said. "That is the number one priority, I think, to get our state back on track.
"As you know, we’ve lost a Congressional seat, and to bring people back into the state, we need to have real change."
Chapman said she planned to enjoy a short respite from the campaign for the rest of this week before shifting focus and going back at it full force with her sights set firmly on the Nov. 8 general election.
"I’m going to take a little break -- maybe catch up on some sleep - but I’ll be hitting the trail probably next week," she said with a smile. "I just want to thank my family and my supporters, and I appreciate everybody’s vote."