Republican Doug Skaff’s bid for West Virginia’s secretary of state was eliminated after Tuesday’s Republican primary.
To add insult to injury, Skaff was bitten by a snake while trekking around the sparsely populated state to remove his failed campaign’s signs.
Speaking to MetroNews, Skaff identified the snake as a venomous copperhead, and he said he’d been hospitalized for bites on his left and right foot.
Skaff said that he’d was attacked near U.S. Route 119 in Danville, about 25 miles from his home in South Charleston.
He credited a passerby with calling emergency medical services, and he expected to remain in the hospital for a few days.
Take a look at this photo obtained by The Guardian —
https://x.com/guardiannews/status/1791184984499421233
Skaff has become a fixture in West Virginia politics. He served in the House from 2009 to 2014 and was elected to the chamber again in 2018. He is president of HD Media, which owns the Charleston Gazette-Mail and several other state newspapers.
Skaff resigned his House of Delegates seat from Kanawha County last September after stepping down as the chamber’s Democratic leader in August and joining the Republican Party.
In October, Skaff announced his run for secretary of state after he revealed that — like Gov. Jim Justice — he was switching to the GOP.
“I’m not the first person to switch parties, and I won’t be the last,” Skaff said on the radio at the time.
“Let’s be honest, the Republican Party took the last two registrations by storm, but it wasn’t because 100,000 Republicans just moved to West Virginia. These were hardcore West Virginians who were pro-life, pro-gun, pro-coal, pro-gas and they all switched parties. So like a lot of West Virginians, you know, my ideals never changed. I was always that way as well. I was registered a Democrat, and I’m proud to be on the Republican team and just can’t relate to the national party anymore.”
Some GOP politicos remain skeptical of the former Democrats joining the party.
“The West Virginia Republican Party recognizes the philosophical nuances that can exist within the Party and welcomes those who genuinely believe in our cause; however, Republican voters are sometimes tasked with differentiating between ‘philosophical nuances’ and ‘diametric ideological opposition,'” state GOP chair Elgine McArdle told MetroNews at the time.
“Now that Skaff is labeling himself as a ‘Republican,’ despite his storied liberal record in the House, the upcoming primary is one of those times.”
Skaff ran in the GOP’s primary for secretary of state. In unofficial returns, Skaff finished second to Economic Development Authority Kris Warner, who is favored to win the general election in this heavily Republican state.
West Virginia is heading for an election with high turnover. Justice is running for Senate, and he won Tuesday’s GOP primary over outgoing U.S. Rep. Alex Mooney, a Republican. Justice is favored to win the seat currently occupied by Democrat Joe Manchin.