MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — The surge in non-affiliated voter registrations and the performance of Libertarian candidates is encouraging for the state party leader.
Between March of 2022 and March of this year, unaffiliated voters registered, having increased by more than 45,000.
State Chairman for the Libertarian Party, Taylor Richmond, felt some of that movement in his race for the State Senate seat in District 13. Richmond battled against two political veterans in Republican Mike Oliverio and Democrat John Williams.
Williams won the race with a little more than 15,000 votes while Richmond managed to pick up 1,009. In State Senate District 16, Libertarian Travis Bost picked up more than 11,000 votes in his loss to Republican incumbent Jason Barrett, and in House of Delegates District 15, Tye Ward picked up more than 1,100 votes in his loss to Erica Moore.
“In a race that was as competitive as ours, where you had two really strong candidates from the left and right fighting each other, 1,000 people actually went out and decided they wanted something different in Charleston,” Richmond said. “That is a great takeaway and something to look forward to and build on moving forward.”
The Republi...