The conservative Club for Growth is out with a new negative ad against Gov. Jim Justice (R-WV), in which it calls him a “deadbeat billionaire” who is an “embarrassment to West Virginia.”
The $10,000 ad buy debuted over the weekend, days after Justice launched his campaign for Sen. Joe Manchin’s (D-WV) Senate seat. The anti-tax group wants a through-and-though conservative in the seat and announced it would go “all in” for Rep. Alex Mooney (R-WV) over a month ago. The ad ran in Parkersburg, Charleston, Clarksburg, Bluefield, and Wheeling media markets.
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The one-minute ad claims the West Virginia governor cut off health coverage for retired coal miners and their families. The spot also calls him a “deadbeat billionaire, delinquent on his financial and moral obligations,” and mentions previous reports of an effort by a bank seeking to garnish his wages as governor to cover a personal loan guarantee for his private businesses. “Jim Justice is a deadbeat and the last guy you can trust to serve anybody but himself,” a narrator says at the end of the commercial.
The Club for Growth has committed to spending at least $10 million in the Senate primary and said it would spend “whatever it takes” to have its preferred candidate win in a general election. Mooney also recently released an ad slamming Justice for mandating COVID-19 lockdowns and calling him “liberal” for raising taxes.
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Senate GOP leadership actively courted Justice to challenge Manchin for his Senate seat in 2024. Manchin has yet to announce whether he intends to seek reelection. The recruitment is part of a new strategy from the National Republican Senatorial Committee to take a more hands-on approach to the primary season after the party’s lackluster performance in the midterm elections.
The ad buy from the group is a sign that it hopes to make an impact on the primary race that appears to be heating up between Mooney and Justice early in the cycle.
