Republicans George Miller and Ken Reed are headed to the West Virginia House of Delegates.
Miller, who upset Delegate Daryl Cowles in the Republican primary earlier this year, defeated Democrat Tom Harden in the House of Delegates 58th district race – 76 percent (6,401) to 24 percent for Harden (2,405).
Reed beat back a challenge from independent conservative Patricia Adams and Mountain Party candidate Robert Smith, garnering 71 percent of the vote (6,838) to 16 percent for Adams (1,532) and 13 percent for Smith (1,205).
Overall, the 100 member House of Delegates went from 58 Republicans to more than 70.
Democrats’ hopes of flipping the Senate went up in smoke. The 34 member Senate went from 20 Republicans to, as of last count, 23 Republicans.
In the most hotly contested local Senate race, Republican incumbent Patricia Rucker held onto her seat, squeaking by Jefferson County Sheriff Pete Dougherty 52 percent to 48 percent.
Also in Jefferson County, the Democratic incumbent Sammi Brown lost her race to Republican challenger Wayne Clark by 169 votes – with Clark garnering 4,511 votes (51 percent) to Brown’s 4,342 votes (49 percent).