Election Access: Results highlights from Logan and Mingo County's 2026 Primary Elections

West Virginia’s 2026 Primary Election wrapped up on Tuesday night. WVOW followed the votes as they came in from Logan and Mingo counties.

West Virginia's 2026 Primary Election wrapped up on Tuesday. In Logan and Mingo counties, WVOW followed along with the results in those local races, some of which were highly contentious.

Robert Fields | WVOW News

LOGAN In Logan County, the voter turnout was low: 18.66% of the county’s 20,091 registered voters. This was also the first election where voters were required to show photo ID at the polls. Moreover, it was the first election in 25 years that the Republican Primary was closed off to unaffiliated voters.

Word of that change has been spread by news agencies, including WVOW, as well as state officials and even candidates for months after the state Republican Executive Committee voted to close its primaries last year.

While Republican voter turnout exceeded that of Democratic voters in Logan County, unaffiliated voters still make up a notable portion of the voter population. Logan County has 7,186 registered Republicans and 7,179 Democrats, a difference of only seven voters. It’s the county’s 5,726 unaffiliated voters, many of whom lean conservative and have historically voted Republican, who weren’t able to have a say in who the Republican nominees would be.

Only about four percent of non-partisan voters turned out for this Primary Election.

It’s only the May election that’s closed, though, meaning those unaffiliated voters will be able to vote for whoever they wish come November.

Delegate District 31st (Logan, Lincoln, Boone)

The race for the West Virginia House of Delegates District 31 will be decided in the November General Election.

The Democratic race for the Delegate District 31 nominee was a contested one with a decisive result. George C. Barker took over 86% of the vote in Logan County. According to the unofficial results from the district wide count, Barker received a total of 642 votes out of Logan, Lincoln and Boone counties. His opponent, Derrick Pearson, was able to secure 135 votes.

Barker is looking to flip a House seat blue when he faces incumbent Republican Delegate Margitta Mazzocchi.

Mazzocchi ran unopposed for the Republican nomination, and still managed to receive a total of 600 votes across the three counties that make up the House 31 district, according to the unofficial results from the West Virginia Secretary of State. She’ll be aiming to maintain her seat in the House of Delegates in November.

Delegate District 33rd (Logan)

Meanwhile, the race for Delegate District 33 saw an upset Tuesday night.

Logan County Delegate Jordan Bridges has been primaried by physician’s assistant Chris Tipton. The race leaned in Bridges’ favor for a majority of the night as the results rolled in. As those final few precincts started to report, however, Tipton edged past the incumbent by 53 votes. For the final total, Tipton carried 610 votes; Bridges had 557.

Bridges was on the air with WVOW’s Aaron Stone when he learned the results. Tipton was on the phone line.

“I just wanted to say thank you and I appreciate your six years, man, I know how hard it was and I just wanted to say how much I appreciated you,” Tipton told Bridges.

“Well, I just wanted to be the first one to introduce you as ‘Delegate elect Chris Tipton,’ so congratulations,” Bridges replied. “Just get the electric bills down. That’s something I’ve fought on hard and go against AEP and I think we’ll all be just fine.”

Tipton said this is just the start to his bid for the seat.

“I’m extremely excited. I know there’s a lot of hard work we gotta do and I’m ready to get this started,” he said. “We’ll be going to November and I know that Michael Browning – I haven’t met him. I’d like to commend him and, we’ll try give our best effort, try to win and try to go to Charleston. I’m really just thankful for all the voters and thankful for – really I’m just thankful to God. He’s the one that made all this possible.”

Republican nominee Chris Tipton will face Democratic nominee Michael Browning in November. Browning secured 414 votes to beat out fellow candidate Brittany Feury, who garnered 276 votes.

Senate District 7th (Logan, Lincoln, Boone, Kanawha)

Jumping over to the Senate side in District 7, which covers four counties, Senate appointee and former Delegate Zack Maynard, despite running unopposed, went home with 3,449 votes Tuesday night.

On the Democratic ticket for the 7^th Senate District, Cindy Brake outpaced Michael Karr in the polls by a mere 23 votes, according to Logan County’s unofficial results. Across the district, however, the gap was more apparent. Brake won 57.12% of the vote with 2,372 votes to Karr's 1,781, according to the Secretary of State's Office.

Logan County Commission

In the race for Logan County Commission, former Board of Education member Debbie Mendez garnered 1,143 votes, accounting for more than 59% of the available votes and beating out incumbent Commissioner Diana Barnette. Barnette secured the triple sevens, 777 votes.

Mendez joined WVOW’s Aaron Stone in the Becker Studio Tuesday night after learning she had won.

“Thank you to everybody that came out and voted – I know it was a low turnout, but I appreciate everybody that came out and took their time to vote for me. I appreciate it,” Mendez said. “It’s by the will of God I’m sitting here and I will do my very best. Transparency is, again, one of the things that I want the people to know where their money’s going and how it’s being spent, and basically if they have any questions, that we will be able to answer them.”

It was a race that started off heated, with a lawsuit filed by Greenville resident Chris Trent to remove Barnette’s name from the ballot over the residence listed on her campaign filing. Trent testified in a Charleston courtroom that Mendez had been the one to reach out and initiate his involvement in that lawsuit, which was ultimately thrown out by Kanawha County Judge Richard Lindsay.

Mendez will have to face Democratic nominee Gary Runyon, who garnered 883 votes in his unopposed run.

Despite being primaried in the commission race, Barnette isn’t out of the political sphere. She was one of the top two vote-getters in the female race for the state Republican Executive Committee with 896 votes. She was led in votes only by Margitta Mazzocchi with 941. Mazzocchi and Barnette defeated Monica Ballard-Booth and Lisa Pack for the two open seats.

Logan County Magistrate

Magistrate appointee Burley Ferrell is now Magistrate elect after Tuesday night, winning 2,070 votes and 59.55% of the votes available. He beats his opponent, Jamie Evans, who garnered 40.45% of the vote with 1,406 ballots cast. That nearly 60/40 split was remarkably similar to the one seen in the race for Logan County Commission, though the total number of ballots was significantly larger due to the Magistrate race being open to all voters.

“I’m just speechless,” Ferrell told WVOW’s Aaron Stone in the studio Tuesday night. “It just goes to show you the support I had, and I’m just extremely thankful… extremely thankful.”

Logan County Board of Education

Another non-partisan race in Logan County was that of the local Board of Education.

This race was a little complex, with three seats open, five candidates on the ballot, only four running and only one contest. The top vote-getter in that race was Dr. Ed White, a former member of the board, who won nearly a third of the total turnout with 2,151 votes. That makes Dr. White the most voted-for candidate in Logan County’s 2026 Primary by one vote, according to the unofficial results. The runner up for the most votes was Kenneth Barker with 2,150 votes in his solo run for Conservation District Supervisor.

White was initially challenged on the ballot by board appointee Craig Marcum. Marcum announced in March, however, that he was dropping out of the race and endorsing White. Though, his announcement came too late to pull his name from the ballot and he did receive 714 votes.

In the only contested race remaining, Bill Alderman won 1,364 votes, beating former board member Jason Cheek, who garnered 1,092 votes.

Current member Tony Dean ran unopposed in his district and was reelected with 1,194 votes.

Senate District 6th (Mingo, Wayne, McDowell, Mercer)

Over in Mingo County, voters decided the Republican nominee for West Virginia’s Senate District 6 in a landslide. Incumbent Senator Mark Maynard led with just over 81 percent of the vote in Mingo County alone. Across the four-county district, he still led with nearly half of the vote at 2,860 ballots cast. He was followed in votes by Jeff Disibbio with 1,693, Eric Porterfield with 864 and Edwin Ray Vanover with 343.

On the Democratic side, it was a much closer race that couldn't have been decided until all four counties were reporting. Joshua Hamby edged out Wyatt Lilly by exactly eighty votes in Mingo, but lost the race district-wide. Lilly won the district with 1,770 votes to Hamby's 1,486.

Delegate District 29th (Mingo, Wayne)

The nominees for West Virginia’s House District 29 were decided from the start. Voters in that two-county district will choose between Republican Henry Corby Dillon and Democrat Wendy Coleman on November’s ballot. Dillon had 604 Republican votes; Coleman had 488.

Delegate District 34th (Mingo, McDowell)

As for House District 34, it was a four-way race in the Republican Primary. It was very close between top vote-getter Barry C. Marcum and runner up Braydan Rodney Goff; 319 to 283 across two counties and the nomination goes to Marcum. John W. White managed nearly a quarter of the Republican vote at 205 and James “Tige” Harless found 72 votes.

Marcum will face lone Democratic candidate-turned-nominee Tara “Babyt” Sexton, who unopposed pulled 407 votes.

Mingo County Board of Education

There were four seats up for grabs on the Mingo County Board of Education. The Kermit Harvey District goes to Deanna Wellman with 895 votes over candidate Jade Brumfield with 584; Sabrina Grace won the Williamson District with 835 votes, beating candidates Rae Siggers with 574 and Ashley Hatfield with 525; Justin Kirk takes the Lee District with 864 votes unopposed and Eric Roberts takes the Magnolia District with 754 unopposed.

Mingo County Commission

Meanwhile in Mingo County, incumbent Commissioner Nathan Brown will maintain his seat after winning 663 votes. According to the unofficial results from the Mingo County Clerk’s Office, Brown’s opponent in this Primary Election, Matthew Deskins, secured 421 votes.

If those numbers sound low, it’s because voter turnout in Mingo County was even lower than Logan County’s turnout. Logan, with a total of 20,091 registered voters, had an 18.66% voter turnout for this election; Mingo, with 17,138 registered voters, only saw a 12.38% turnout.

In other election news out of Mingo County, nearly 67% of voters in this primary marked “yes” on the ballot for the Williamson Parks and Recreation levy.

PHOTO | Robert Fields