CHARLESTON, WV (WOWK) — Did an embattled State Senate candidate, who was disqualified from the race, actually win?
This was in the State Senate District 8 Republican Primary which includes Roane and Clay counties with portions of Kanawha, Putnam, and Jackson counties.
Less than a week before the West Virginia primary, Republican Andrea Kiessling was disqualified as a candidate.
A judge ruled she did not meet the state constitution’s requirement, that you be a citizen of West Virginia for five consecutive years, before filing for office.
On Primary night, Republican Mark Hunt was declared the winner, with just over 2,400 votes, with two other candidates trailing.
People who did not vote in the race, or who voted for Kiessling, were declared as “undervotes” which technically was the largest vote-getter. Undervotes were very high in Kiessling’s home of Roane County and elsewhere.
“Yeah, if you look at Roane County, at Jackson County, it looks like those votes were for her. It looks like if she had been able to stay on the ballot, you can’t say for sure she would have won. But it really does look like she could have won, had she been able to maintain her position on the ballot,” said Tom Susman, a Political Analyst with TSG Consulting.
We asked political analyst Tom Susman, to help analyze the final vote numbers in the District 8 Senate Republican Primary. He believes we’ve not heard the last from Andrea Kiessling.
“I think she is extremely impressive. I think if she sticks around, I think she absolutely has the potential to either run for the House or the Senate or a county office in the future,” said Tom Susman.
While Kiessling grew up in the Mountain State, she lived, worked and voted in North Carolina for a few years, and then moved to Minnesota for a short time.
While the numbers are fascinating, they won’t change the outcome. Mark Hunt is the District 8 Republican Senate nominee. But they do show Andrea Kiessling has political strength.