Photo courtesy of WV Legislative Photography Del. Mike Pushkin, D-Kanawha, remained the chairman of the West Virginia Democratic Party after a Saturday vote.

CHARLESTON – Members of the West Virginia Democratic Executive Committee decided to keep Del. Mike Pushkin as its top leader heading into the November midterm general election, with party advocates excited about possibly reversing Democratic losses in the statehouse.

The state Democratic Executive Committee held its second quarter organizational meeting Saturday at the West Virginia School Service Personnel Association’s conference room on Charleston’s East End. The meeting was live-streamed for the public to watch.

In a 43-32 vote, West Virginia Democratic Party Chairman Mike Pushkin, D-Kanawha, defeated a challenge by Wheeling attorney and state Democratic Party First Vice Chairwoman Teresa Toriseva, with Pushkin elected to a second four-year term.

“I want to stay here to help y’all cross the finish line, because the stakes are too high,” Pushkin said during his nomination speech Saturday. “I want to continue working with you. Let’s walk out of here arm in arm and then win one this fall.”

Pushkin, a musician and taxi driver in Charleston, has served in the House of Delegates since 2015. He is the lone Jewish member of the House and he has been an active organizer in the party even prior to his election to the Legislature.

He was first elected chairman of the West Virginia Democratic Party in June 2022, following the first statewide midterm election after redistricting in 2021, when Republican took a supermajority in the House of Delegates and state Senate. Pushkin said much of his work in the first two years of his chairmanship was rebuilding the party’s infrastructure.

“We knew what was coming, that those maps were gerrymandered and that work had to be done,” Pushkin said. “We knew we have to build the infrastructure first before we could make a comeback. … We’ve been all over West Virginia helping to reconstitute these county committees, because without the infrastructure, we’re not going to be able to deliver the goods, and the goods are candidates.”

Candidate recruitment efforts for the 2026 elections resulted in 22 Democratic candidates seeking nomination to 17 of 19 state Senate seats on the ballot for the May primary, some of whom have no opponents, with 109 Democratic House of Delegates candidates, with all 100 seats on the ballot this year.

“These are not just names on a ballot; these are great candidates,” Pushkin said. “This didn’t happen by accident. There was a plan. We executed that plan. We had weekly candidate recruitment calls and we worked with our county committees … and got those candidates on the ballot.”

Toriseva, a native of Cameron and a graduate of Wheeling Jesuit University and the West Virginia University College of Law, has more than 30 years of legal experience and has her own law firm, Toriseva Law. She was the Democratic candidate in 2024 for state attorney general, losing to former state Auditor J.B. McCuskey.

In her speech accepting her nomination for state party chair, Toriseva said she wanted to focus on raising money for the state party in order to benefit candidates across West Virginia and hire additional staff heading into the general election.

“I think the chief job of the chair is to raise money, and fundraising is something that we have to do better as a party. We can’t do any of the great ideas we have without money,” Toriseva said. “I think Mike is a hardworking chair. That isn’t enough. We need money. We have to raise that money, and that is the job of the chair.”

Toriseva said she also wanted to focus on building stronger coalitions to help build the party back up. According to the West Virginia Secretary of State’s Office, there were 326,834 registered Democrats as of the end of May, representing 27.3% of the state’s nearly 1.2 million registered voters. Registered Republicans make up 43.5% of all registered voters, with 521,418 members.

“We are a minority opposition party with 27% of the vote. We are not the Democratic Party of the past in West Virginia,” Toriseva said. “If we don’t get creative about a new way to approach winning seats, we can never regain a majority with 27% of the vote. We have to build coalitions.”

Pushkin told committee members Saturday that while he respected Toriseva and recruited her for both the party’s vice chair position and as a candidate for attorney general, they had a difference of opinion on tactics. Pushkin pointed to successes during the May party primaries. While the state Republican Executive Committee banned unaffiliated voters from participating, the Democratic Party kept its primary open to independent voters.

Pushkin said the party also focused on the nonpartisan state Supreme Court of Appeals and Intermediate Court of Appeals races, which saw two interim justices appointed by Gov. Patrick Morrisey – Gerald Titus and Thomas Ewing – lose their special elections to Senior Status Judge Kirk Kirkpatrick and Del. Bill Flanigan, R-Ohio. Family Court Judge Jim Douglas defeated ICA Chief Judge Dan Greear.

“One difference of opinion that we do have is that all of these races matter,” Pushkin said. “You saw the difference last month on May 12, when Democratic turnout in many of our counties was close to 40% and Republican turnout was around 21%. The results speak for themselves. We flipped the Supreme Court. We now have a 3-2 majority on the Supreme Court. That didn’t happen by accident. We gave Democrats a reason to get out and vote.”

Following the vote Saturday, Pushkin and Toriseva shook hands. In their nomination speeches, both said the vote should not be taken as a sign that there is division in the party, but that the Democratic Party welcomes discussion about its future.

“No one should feel tense or nervous about this election. It’s an election. It’s a beautiful, wonderful thing,” Toriseva said. “We’re all talking about the issues that face our party, the problems and the solutions. And that is a good thing. … No matter who your chair is, they’re going to be better because of this campaign.”

“I know this can be a messy process, but that is how democracy works,” Pushkin said. “That’s why we make sure that everybody’s voice is heard, because we’re the Democratic Party and that’s how we do things.”