Announced this morning:

Join me as I seek my party’s nomination for Governor of West Virginia in ‘24. Together, we can build a West Virginia that makes our young people proud to call home and champions freedom to conduct business how you want. #WestVirginia #WestVirginiaGovernor pic.twitter.com/RJReiuQvj2

— Moore Capito (@MooreCapitoWV) November 29, 2022

Moore Capito is not surprisingly the son of West Virginia's Republican senator, Shelley Moore Capito and grandson of the former governor of the state, Arch Moore. (The family has a rather limited pool of names for their progeny.) Moore Capito joins his cousin, State Treasurer Riley Moore, in declaring for 2024 office. (Riley was named after his grandmother, Arch's wife, Shelley Riley Moore.)

Is Shelley not running in 2026?

In mid-November, I wrote about how Senator Capito was one of only twelve Republican senators who voted to advance a law that would protect interracial and same-sex marriages. If the Twitter response was any indication, that did not go over well with WV's Trump Party base.

Yesterday, the senator took another controversial step. From NBC News:

After he dined with the notorious white supremacist Nick Fuentes and the rapper Ye, who has come under fire for antisemitic remarks, Trump faces growing denunciations from Republican senators, including some nominal allies who rarely — if ever — criticize him or his actions.

West Virginians know one of those senators who rarely criticize him:

Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., also searched for the right word to describe the dinner meeting. Like Ernst, she, too, landed on “ridiculous.”

“I think he should certainly know who he’s dining with, and I find it, uh — I want to make sure I use the right word . . . I totally think it’s ridiculous to be sitting down with somebody who espouses such views,” Capito told reporters.

Asked whether she blames Trump or his staff, Capito replied: “We’re all responsible for our own actions.”

I would have used a stronger word than "ridiculous" but I'm still impressed, Senator. On the other hand, I doubt that WV's Trump Party members will soon forget or forgive Capito's slight toward their leader. It strikes me that the Senator has decided that she will not be running in 2026. If so, the question becomes "who is up next in the Moore family?"