Earlier today, from Alex Mooney:

Big RINO Jim Justice can’t win a truly contested Republican primary. He’s a big supporter of Biden’s $1.2 trillion non-infrastructure bill and proposed the largest tax increase in the history of WV.

West Virginia Republicans are conservative and don’t want Big RINO Jim. pic.twitter.com/TBZnxcvigA

— Alex Mooney (@MooneyforWV) February 16, 2023

Alex, you criticize Justice for being a big supporter of Biden’s infrastructure bill. But didn’t you take credit for the infrastructure when it came to your district? (See here, for instance.)

My hunch is that this prompted Mooney’s decision to raise the stakes:

Republicans are coming to an increasingly popular consensus: Gov. Jim Justice is by far the best candidate to take on Joe Manchinhttps://t.co/ITabyuDRLh

— POLITICO (@politico) February 15, 2023

From that Politico article:

“The data from this study shows that, across every single metric, Governor Jim Justice is far and away the strongest Republican candidate in the U.S. Senate race in West Virginia, and the only tested potential candidate who currently leads Joe Manchin on a trial ballot test,” said the survey from the Tarrance Group.

The poll was commissioned by the Senate Leadership Fund, the top GOP super PAC with close ties to Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell.

February 2023 is way-too-early to put much stock in political polls, but the results are interesting:

2024 West Virginia Senate GE:

Jim Justice (R) 52% (+10)
Joe Manchin (D-Inc) 42%
.
Joe Manchin (D-Inc) 52% (+10)
Patrick Morrisey (R) 42%
.
Joe Manchin (D-Inc) 55% (+15)
Alex Mooney (R) 40%

Tarrance Group/@Senate_Fund (R), 609 LV, 2/5-7https://t.co/KWZWYxTyU5

— Political Polls (@Politics_Polls) February 15, 2023

Egads, Alex: even previous-loser Patrick Morrisey (who still hasn't decided what he's doing) is doing better against Manchin than you are.