West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey, one of several Republicans who hope to defeat incumbent Sen. Joe Manchin for his seat in Washington, insisted Wednesday that he's the "only one proven conservative" in the race.
"As more and more voters are seeing my conservative record of taking out Obama overreach. I was the that took out the Obama power plan, endorsed for West Virginians for life, as more people focus on who the one proven conservative," Morrisey told Fox News' "America's Newsroom."
Morrissey and Rep. Evan Jenkins are running closely in the contentious race, with varying polls putting either man in first place and showing a wide number of Republican voters are still undecided.
He told show co-host Sandra Smith that although Jenkins claims he's the more conservative pick and he's aligned himself with President Donald Trump, Jenkins is a "20-year career liberal Democrat."
"I think I have an excellent relationship with the president and sat down next to him a few weeks ago," Morrisey said. "We've been leading a lot of the legal charges to defend the Trump administration, going after unlawful sanctuary cities, going after illegal amnesty. We also work with him to deconstruct a lot of the regulations that were overhanging from the Obama era. So we've worked very closely with the Trump White House."
Jenkins, meanwhile, "supported John Kerry and Nancy Pelosi and went to a Hillary Clinton rally, supported Planned Parenthood. . . I think voters know the difference between someone with a proven, honest conservative record or someone who is a political opportunist and stands for nothing," Morrisey charged.
West Virginia faces several issues as the election approaches, including opioid addiction and concerns about immigration and heatlhcare.
"We're building on my record of success," said Morrisey. "In West Virginia we've brought in 78 million dollars of damages from the pharmaceutical companies. In addition, recently I sued the DEA because they had an utterly flawed national drug quota system that was in part responsible for spitting tens of millions of excess pills into our state and across the country.
"We're dramatically cutting down on the illegal opiate supply and also working hard on treatment to get people better in their head and heart. My office is also responsible for introducing education in the schools for opioid addiction. That's critical."
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Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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