As has been documented by this blog, the AP, and other news sources, WV’s Secretary of State Mac Warner has consistently questioned the results of the 2020 presidential election despite holding a position that calls for neutrality. This week, Warner quit hedging:

“That election was thrown, it was stolen, and we should not rest easy,” he said on Talk Radio WRNR in the state’s Eastern Panhandle.

Earlier today, the Associated Press' Leah Willingham documented the reason behind Warner’s new conclusion: Hunter Biden.

Asserting that the 2020 presidential race was stolen has been a staple for some Republicans. Trump himself has fanned those accusations, though he has recently shifted his complaints somewhat from specific disputes about voting procedures in swing states. He has embraced broader claims that tech companies, the media and federal intelligence officials colluded to cover up incriminating information found on the laptop of Biden’s son Hunter.

It’s these allegations Warner says he finds credible, pushing past the denials by social media executives and federal law enforcement that they were pressured by Democrats to suppress the story. In an interview this past week, Warner called the alleged actions “treasonous” and said they need to be examined more deeply before the next election.

(You can access the WRNR interview here. “Hunter Biden” is first mentioned around the 14:50 mark but at no point does Warner explain how the election itself was “stolen.”)

Mac Warner is running for governor and Ogden Newspapers, for its part, continues to support him as one of its favorites. Yesterday, its state political reporter wrote this PR release disguised as a news article (you can find it on page 10 of Friday’s paper):

West Virginia Secretary of State Mac Warner, a Republican candidate for governor, launched his second statewide coalition Thursday, this time to rally support of women. https://t.co/sAkhC8PRb7 pic.twitter.com/xyxdvSclBZ

— Steven Allen Adams (@stevenadamswv) May 5, 2023

If the article reads like a PR release, there is a good reason: Steven Allen Adam’s job before he became the state political reporter for Ogden Newspapers was, according to his biography, “assistant communications director for Secretary of State Mac Warner.” Adams should not be writing about Warner. At the least, his previous connection to Warner ought to have been noted. Of course, it wasn’t – as I have noted in a number of posts, ethical concepts such as “full disclosure” are foreign to Ogden.

Mac Warner may be our next governor, folks.