In a token few congressional districts around the country, redistricting has forced incumbents of the same party into primaries against each other. Most of these we haven’t heard much about, but one of them you know is getting heated because one candidate is really going for the jugular: He’s hitting his opponent by suggesting he supports a college sports team that is widely hated in the district.
The district is West Virginia’s second, and it pits incumbents Rep. David McKinley and Alex Mooney against each other. Both have aspects of their actual records to commend them, but Mooney has a problem: He’s moved between states and pursued political careers in several, including Maryland. And now his probable sports loyalty is being invoked to try to crush him in his latest home, West Virginia.
From Politico’s Burgess Everett:
You know a candidate is out to kill when he dips into stuff ordinary people who aren’t political junkies care about—sports and food, especially. (I maintain that Cal Cunningham actually tanked himself in 2020’s North Carolina Senate race by being pictured “barbecuing” next to an unlit gas grill with hot dog and hamburger buns).
This attack on Mooney is 2022’s equivalent. Being depicted as a Terps fan—just like the reporter who posted this on Twitter, as it happens (seriously, look at his face mask in his profile picture) says “I’m not from around here” to low information voters in a way that “he took the wrong position on this intricate piece of tax legislation” never will. It’s especially painful because prior to relocating to West Virginia, Mooney did indeed pursue a political career in both New Hampshire and Maryland.
But is Mooney an actual Terps fan? As for his own educational credentials, he’s a Dartmouth man (and he tried New Hampshire politics as well as Maryland politics before settling in West Virginia). But he was a Maryland State Senator and even Chair of the Maryland Republican Party before he moved to West Virginia. So despite the lack of “Mooney is a Terps fan” coverage popping up on a quick Internet search, the attack sure seems plausible. And being a Terps fan in West Virginia is not cool. They are, in fact, the West Virginia University Mountaineers’ biggest rivals.
There’s even a whole Wikipedia article about the rivalry.
Substantively, it seems that Mooney may have an actual problem with being out of step with a lot of voters on actual policy.
I and you may not have supported the bipartisan infrastructure package, but when both of West Virginia’s senators voted for it and West Virginia politicians from both parties have been prioritizing infrastructure money for decades, it’s a pretty safe bet that most West Virginians did. So did McKinley, but Mooney did not (that earned him a token Trump endorsement, but Trump hasn’t really seemed to do much to boost him, unlike figures like former Sen. David Perdue running for Georgia Governor).
McKinley also is strongly backed by the energy industry, including the natural gas industry, which is rapidly growing in West Virginia and whose issues with aspects of the Build Back Broke partisan infrastructure plan have arguably been at the root of Sen. Manchin tanking it. This probably matters when people’s minds are on energy prices and the impact of halting Russian energy exports and the need to develop more energy domestically. But in West Virginia, it also matters because historically, so many people have been employed by the energy industry directly (coal, but increasingly now, natural gas).
McKinley also has sponsored three separate bills aimed at bolstering the 340B drug discount program which is hugely important for Trump voters in his state, who rely on it for discounted drugs but even more importantly, to help keep rural health care facilities open and in a position to provide care to people who cannot afford it (think unemployed coal miners). Mooney has cosponsored none of those bills.
McKinley—not Mooney— also has the backing of the state’s governor, which tells you something about how the state’s leadership sees him as representing the state’s interests in Washington. And Mooney seems to have some ethics problems, which could also hurt him—though West Virginia isn’t exactly known for consistently sending the most ethically upright people to Congress (see former Sen. Robert Byrd).
What will happen in the race? Who knows, but history tells us that sports team attacks can have a brutal effect.
Rudy Giuliani’s Yankees fandom didn’t help him in New Hampshire in the run-up to 2008, and when he tried to claim he was cheering for the Red Sox in the World Series because he was a fan of the American League, really, he was roundly jeered and even serve. (Seriously, who is a fan of the Designated Hitter Rule, anyway?).
Bill DeBlasio cruised to election as mayor of New York, but one of the things that actually succeeded in raising eyebrows while he was running was his avowed Red Sox fandom (the inverse of Giuliani).
A consultant friend of mine originally from Washington State has also told me about how Clint Didier, a former NFL player who had a profile well-suited to the Tea Party wave, helped tank himself in the 2010 primary in Washington State by deploying yard signs using Washington State University colors in University of Washington territory.
Consultants to former Sen. Thad Cochran swear Brett Favre’s endorsement of him in his 2018 race saved his bacon.
You get the point: Who you root for matters in politics. It says something to average people about your values and priorities, and who you affiliate with (them or someone else). Politico’s Burgess Everett may be cool with Mooney being a Terps fan, but I’m guessing a lot of people in the district he’s now running in won’t be—and that’s even if they aren’t paying attention to infrastructure, or energy, or health care policy.