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U.S. Rep. Alex Mooney (R-W.Va.) addresses a crowd Tuesday night at Generations Restaurant & Pub in Wheeling, where he joined a number of other candidates in local and state races for a meet and greet session. Mooney is seeking the Republican nomination in the U.S. Senate race in West Virginia in the May 14 primary election. (Photo by Eric Ayres)

WHEELING – U.S. Rep. Alex Mooney, R-W.Va., made a visit to Wheeling on Tuesday night during a campaign stop in the Northern Panhandle for a meet and greet session with the public and other candidates in local and state races.

Seeking the Republican nomination in the race for U.S. Senate, Mooney has been campaigning on his experience in Congress and his conservative voting record.

Tuesday night’s stop in Wheeling at Generations Restaurant & Pub was held in conjunction with other candidates in state and local races from both partisan and nonpartisan contests. Wheeling mayoral candidate Beth Hinebaugh and Ohio County School Board of Education candidate Bernie Albertini hosted the meet and greet with Mooney, along with a number of other candidates from other races who were on hand, including Ohio County School BOE candidate Jessica Powers, 1st Judicial Circuit Court Judge candidate Joe Barki, W.Va. Senate candidate Chris Rose via livestream, and a number of others.

Mooney said his campaign is going great as the race toward the primary enters the final three weeks.

“It’s exciting – today’s the last day to register to vote, and it’s 21 days until the election,” he said, noting that a lot of voters in a race like this do not make their decisions until the final stretch. “People are really starting to pay attention – we have active races across the state for statewide offices, as well. In my case, it’s a head-to-head race, essentially, between me and Jim Justice. I make the case everywhere I go that I’m the only conservative running, and West Virginians deserve a conservative U.S. Senator.”

While campaigning in the Northern Panhandle, Mooney said he hears recurring themes from citizens who are concerned about the future of West Virginia and the country.

“People are worried about their freedoms – even freedom of speech,” Mooney said. “There’s been some censoring on the internet. The internet is becoming like a news source that can censor people, throw them off. So a lot of people that I talk to are making sure that someone is going to actually fight for their freedoms, not just get in and go along with the establishment down there. They see these trillion-dollar spending bills passing, despite our great inflation problems and our national debt.”

Mooney said he has a proven voting record as a conservative representing West Virginia for the past 10 years. He said negative ads that have been running recently criticize his votes against big spending, even if some of the money goes to West Virginia.

“They’re running ads criticizing me for voting against the Biden spending bills, because there are things within those bills that we like,” he said. “But it’s a trillion dollars and it’s debt, and it promotes the woke agenda. So I have the guts to vote no, despite the political attacks that I’m getting. They’re just starting, and we’re going to see more and more of them over the next three weeks.”

There are a total of seven candidates currently vying for the GOP nod in the U.S. Senate race in West Virginia, with Mooney and W.Va. Gov. Jim Justice leading the polls heading into the May 14 election. Despite the fact the nomination is for the candidate in the right lane, Mooney said he and Justice differ widely on a number of issues ranging from spending to taxes and 2nd Amendment rights.

“There’s just a big difference,” Mooney said. “The man is going to vote with the Democrats. And West Virginia deserves a U.S. Senator who votes conservative.”