Mediaboss Marketing

West Virginia Governor Jim Justice plans to switch parties from Democrat to Republican at a rally with President Trump on Thursday, according to a report in The New York Times, which cites three unnamed sources.

The announcement is set to take place in Huntington, West Virginia later in the evening. Were going to West Virginia tonight, by the way, Trump said at an event earlier on Thursday. Were going to have a very big announcement, which will be very exciting I think for the media and everyone else.

West Virginia used to be a Democratic stronghold, but the state has grown increasingly conservative in recent years and now votes reliably Republican at the presidential and state level. In 2014, the state legislature flipped from Democratic to Republican control. And Trump won West Virginia in November, defeating Hillary Clinton in a landslide with 67 percent of the vote.

Like Trump, Justice is a billionaire who ran for election as a newcomer to politics, and was elected in November 2016. During his campaign, he took pains to show he was no fan of Clinton. I cannot be a supporter of Hillary Clinton, Justice told a West Virginia radio station last August.

The West Virginia governors office did not immediately return a request for confirmation, nor did the West Virginia Democratic Party, or the Democratic governors association. A spokesman for West Virginias lone Democratic senator, Joe Manchin, declined to comment.

Manchin is up for reelection in 2018 and faces a primary challenge on the left from a progressive candidate running on a Bernie Sanders-style platform. The West Virginia senator also faces Republican challengers Evan Jenkins, a Republican representative who was once a Democrat himself, but switched parties in 2013, and Patrick Morrisey, West Virginias Republican attorney general. Manchin endorsed Justice during his run for governor.

Read more:
West Virginia Governor to Announce He's Switching Parties to Republican - The Atlantic