(Reuters) - West Virginia Governor Jim Justice easily won election to the U.S. Senate, Edison Research projected on Tuesday, moving Republicans one step closer to their goal of taking control of the upper chamber of Congress after four years of Democratic majorities.
Justice, 73, will succeed independent Senator Joe Manchin, 77, a former Democratic governor of the coal-mining Appalachian state who is retiring after a 14-year Senate career spent as a centrist power broker exercising influence over the agendas of Democratic Presidents Joe Biden and Barack Obama.
He easily defeated Democrat Glenn Elliott, the mayor of Wheeling.
Republicans need a net gain of at least two seats to win control of the 100-seat Senate, which Democrats currently lead with a 51-49 seat majority.
A popular conservative who left the Democratic Party in 2017, Justice has loudly promoted his alliance with Republican Donald Trump, calling the former president a "close friend" and predicting the country will become "totally unhinged" unless Trump wins the White House.
Justice will be the first Republican to hold the seat since 1959, when the late Senate Majority Leader Robert Byrd began his 51-year career in the chamber.