CHARLESTON — At least two candidates for statewide races in West Virginia were able to file candidacy paperwork Saturday night with the West Virginia Secretary of State’s Office before the midnight deadline.

The Secretary of State’s Office in the Capitol in Charleston was open until midnight Saturday for in-person candidate filings, as well as the secretary of state’s business hubs in Clarksburg and Martinsburg.

Candidates who mailed their certificates of candidacy and filing fees for federal, statewide, legislative, circuit court and family court races to the Secretary of State’s Office with a Saturday postmark can also still make it on the May primary ballots.

“I want to thank my staff here in Charleston, as well as in our regional offices in Clarksburg and Martinsburg, for staffing our offices until midnight tonight,” Warner said in a Facebook post Sunday morning. “An official list of all candidates will be compiled and released towards the end of next week. We still may receive some candidate announcements through the U.S. Mail that were postmarked on or before today.”

Saturday night saw Republican Joshua Higginbotham, a former Putnam County member of the House of Delegates, file for the GOP primary for agriculture commissioner. Higginbotham is challenging current Republican Agriculture Commissioner Kent Leonhardt, who is running for his third and final term. Failed 2020 Republican agriculture commissioner candidate Roy Ramey also is running.

Higginbotham, a lobbyist for concealed carry advocacy organization Delta Defense and previously a lobbyist for LGBTQ advocacy organization Fairness West Virginia, served two terms in the House of Delegates before resigning in 2021 to run for state Senate, losing the primary in 2022 to current state Sen. Mark Hunt, R-Kanawha.

Hunt, now in his second year in the Senate, filed Friday for the Republican primary for state auditor, making it a four-way primary in May. Hunt has served several terms in the House of Delegates as a Democrat over the last nearly 25 years. He is also a failed candidate for U.S. House of Representatives.

“Transparency is not just a promise but a responsibility,” Hunt said in a statement Friday. “I will work tirelessly to provide you with a clear view of our state’s financial landscape.”

Hunt joins House Majority Leader Eric Householder, R-Berkeley, Jefferson County Commissioner Tricia Jackson and former Nicholas County delegate Caleb Hanna in the Republican primary to succeed State Auditor J.B. McCuskey, who is seeking the Republican nomination for attorney general. Mary Ann Claytor, a two-time failed Democratic candidate for state auditor, also is running again.

Two Democratic candidates filed last week for attorney general: Wheeling attorney and state Democratic Party Vice Chair Theresa Toriseva and Republican-turned-Democrat former South Charleston mayor Richie Robb, who came in third in the 2020 Democratic primary for U.S. Senate.

The winner of the Democratic attorney general primary will either face McCuskey or state Sen. Mike Stuart, R-Kanawha, the former U.S. attorney for the Southern District of West Virginia. The winner of the general election will succeed Republican Attorney General Patrick Morrisey, who is running in a six-way primary for governor of West Virginia.

The latest entrant to the Republican primary for governor Thursday was Kevin “K.C.” Christian, of Chloe, in Calhoun County. Other GOP candidates include Secretary of State Mac Warner, former House Judiciary Committee Chairman Moore Capito, Huntington businessman Chris Miller and failed 2020 write-in candidate for governor Mitch Roberts. Morrisey, the frontrunner in several polls in 2023, welcomed new candidates to the race in a social media post.

“I welcome Mitch Roberts, from Poca, W.Va., and Kevin ‘K.C.’ Christian, from Chloe, W.Va., to the Governor’s race,” Morrisey said. “This is now a six-person contest for the Republican nomination. I look forward to seeing all of the candidates out on the campaign trail.”

Huntington Mayor Steve Williams is the only Democratic candidate to file for governor. Mountain Party member Chase Linko-Looper also filed.

Doug Skaff, the Democrat-turned-Republican former House Minority Leader, also filed for the GOP primary for secretary of state in the final hours Saturday to succeed Mac Warner. Skaff, the president of HD Media that publishes several newspapers, including the Charleston Gazette-Mail, switched parties in October and announced his candidacy for secretary of state.

Skaff was minority leader of the House Democratic caucus from 2020 until August 2023, when he stepped down and later resigned from the House. Skaff enters a four-person Republican primary with Putnam County Clerk Brian Wood; former lawmaker and Morgan County Commissioner Ken Reed; and Kris Warner, the executive director of the state Economic Development Authority and brother of Mac Warner.

Larry Pack, the acting secretary of the state Department of Revenue and a former senior adviser to Gov. Jim Justice, is unopposed on the ballot for state treasurer to succeed Riley Moore, who is seeking the GOP nomination for the 2nd Congressional District. State Code allows party executive committees to fill ballot vacancies after the candidate filing period closes by Feb. 9 or by state party chairs by Feb. 13.

In other races:

∫ Former West Virginia Republican Party Chairwoman Elgine McArdle filed for the Intermediate Court of Appeals Saturday following her final state party meeting in Charleston. She joins attorney Mychal Schulz and former Kanawha County Board of Education member S. Ryan White.

∫ Haley Bunn, a justice of the West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals seeking her first full 12-year term, is unopposed, as is Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Charles Trump, R-Morgan, who is seeking the seat on the state’s high court being vacated by Justice John Hutchison when he retires at the end of the year. Judicial races in West Virginia are nonpartisan.

∫ A five-person primary is ahead for the 2nd Congressional District to succeed Alex Mooney, a Republican. GOP candidates include State Treasurer Moore, retired Gen. Chris “Mookie” Walker, veteran Joseph Earley, self-described FBI whistleblower Dennis “Nate” Cain and Elkins native Alexander Gaaserud. Steven Wendelin, a retired commander in the U.S. Navy, is running in the 2nd District as a Democrat and is unopposed.

∫ Incumbent Rep. Carol Miller is running for re-election to the 1st Congressional District in the southern half of the state. She is opposed in the GOP primary by Derrick Evans, a former member of the House of Delegates from Wayne County who pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor for his part in storming the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, to stop the certification of the 2020 election for President Joe Biden. Democratic candidates running in the 1st Congressional District include Chris Bob Reed from Charleston and Jim Umberger from Lewisburg.

∫ Former Massey Energy CEO Don Blankenship made waves Friday by filing for the U.S. Senate primary as a Democrat to succeed Sen. Joe Manchin, who is retiring at the end of 2024. Blankenship came in third in the 2018 Republican primary for Senate and was blocked from the general election ballot that same year for switching to the Constitution Party.

“Many will be surprised that I registered as a Democrat,” Blankenship said in a statement Friday. “I admit that I am not a Washington, D.C., Democrat. This fact is exactly why I expect West Virginia Democrats and independents will vote for me and help me begin the process of returning the Democrat Party and America to sensible, moral and pro-American policy.”

Blankenship was convicted in federal court in 2016 of a misdemeanor and spent a year in prison for conspiring to violate mine safety laws in connection with the 2010 explosion at the Upper Big Branch mine in Southern West Virginia where 29 coal miners died. The state Democratic Party issued a strong statement Friday against Blankenship.

“I don’t care what letter he has after his name this week, Don Blankenship is not a Democrat and does not represent the values of our party,” Delegate Mike Pushkin, D-Kanawha, the chairman of the West Virginia Democratic Party, said. “Since getting out of prison, Don has been struggling to find a way to be relevant. This sad gimmick is just his latest effort to find a political lifeline.”

Blankenship will face Wheeling Mayor Glenn Elliott and Princeton community organizer Zachary Shrewsbury in the Democratic primary for Senate. Republican candidates for Senate remain Gov. Jim Justice, Mooney, Bryan Bird of Beckley, Zane Lawhorn of Princeton, Don Lindsay of Baker, Bryan McKinney of Inwood and Janet McNulty of Martinsburg.

∫ The Republican primary for president includes former president Donald Trump and former U.N. ambassador Nikki Haley. Other Republican candidates are Ryan Binkley of Texas and Rachel Hanna MoHawk Swift of Maryland.

The West Virginia Republican Executive Committee Saturday adopted a resolution at its winter meeting in Charleston endorsing Trump. The state party joined a federal lawsuit on behalf of Trump earlier last year after a Texas write-in Republican candidate for president filed to remove Trump from West Virginia’s ballot. A federal judge dismissed that lawsuit, which is now under appeal.

∫ President Joe Biden is seeking a second term as the nation’s chief executive. He faces primary challenges from U.S. Rep. Dean Phillips, D-Minn., Jason Michael Palmer of Maryland and Armando “Mando” Perez-Serrato of California.