West Virginia’s Republican primary saw incumbent Congresswoman Carol Miller beat convicted J6 rioter Derrick Evans, allowing her to retain her U.S. House seat. Miller is running for reelection in November, having previously won the 1st Congressional District.
Using his campaign emails, Evans has been relentlessly attacking Miller verbally over the last month, using insults and proclaiming his steadfast support for Trump. He resigned from the West Virginia House of Delegates one month before the 2021 legislative session began, and he was arrested just two days after the disturbance at the United States Capitol on January 6, 2021. After pleading guilty to a felony civil disturbance charge, Evans received a three-month jail term.
Evans accuses Miller of being a RINO (Republican In Name Only) and a “commie.” However, Miller’s record shows she backed Trump’s wishes 100% of the time while in Congress.
Since becoming the third West Virginia woman to be elected to Congress in 2018, Miller has kept a modest profile compared to her more outspoken colleagues. This small company owner and bison farmer, who is 73 years old, has served six terms in the West Virginia House of Delegates. Miller won a Republican primary with six candidates in 2022 and went on to earn a third term in office with 66 percent of the vote.
Evans has repeatedly claimed that the 2020 election was stolen. After protesters like Evans broke into the Capitol building, Miller herself decided to challenge Biden’s Electoral College results in two states, saying she had a duty to uphold fair elections for Americans.
Miller refrains from talking about the 2020 election’s result as fraudulent.
She will next face off against one of two Charleston Democrats, Jim Umberger or Chris Reed, in the general election on November 5.
Riley Moore beat four other candidates for the Republican nomination in the 2nd Congressional District.
One of the two states where Trump won every county in both the 2016 and 2020 elections was West Virginia, which has not had a Democrat elected to the House since 2012.
