Trending
MORGANTOWN - Toby Heaney is heading to West Virginia's 2nd District as senator.
With 91% of the votes counted, Heaney, an economist and combat veteran who served in Operation Iraqi Freedom, was besting his challenger Chris Claypole by a margin of 15,397 votes to 11,628.
Claypole is the grandson of the late Eugene Claypole, a longtime lawmaker and United Mine Workers officer.
Both men sought the seat after Charles Clements, who had held it for several years, had decided not to seek reelection last November.
Said district covers all of Wetzel, Tyler, Ritchie, Calhoun and Doddridge counties - plus portions of Marshall, Monongalia, Marion and Gilmer counties.
Heaney ran on a platform of job and infrastructure creation - and said he'll carry that through in the district.
"I want to cut unnecessary regulations, lower taxes and put more money in your pocket," he told The Dominion Post previously.
"I also believe in building our workforce so more West Virginians can build careers here at home."
Claypole, who saw the legislative process early while accompanying his grandfather to Charleston as a child, touted his working-class roots in his campaign - and said access to healthcare should be a state priority to residents who can't always get from here to there.
"Folks are traveling to Morgantown for specialized healthcare and that is insane," he said in a campaign profile in The Intelligencer and Wheeling News-Register.