West Virginia GOP auditor switches focus from 2024 race for governor to attorney general #West #Virginia #GOP #auditor #switches #focus #race #governor #attorney #general

CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) — West Virginia’s Republican state auditor said Monday that he will switch to the attorney general’s race in 2024 after initially announcing a run for governor earlier this year.

JB McCuskey made the announcement on his campaign website. He is in his second term as auditor. The Harrison County native also spent four years in the House of Delegates.

Candidates can officially file to run for office in January. Republican Gov. Jim Justice is barred by state law from seeking a third consecutive term.

FILE - Construction crews bore beneath U.S. 221 in Roanoke County, Va., June 22, 2018, to make a tunnel through which the Mountain Valley Pipeline will pass under the highway. The state of West Virginia announced Monday, July 24, 2023, that it is appealing a ruling that blocked construction on a segment of the contentious natural gas pipeline being built through Virginia and West Virginia. (Heather Rousseau/The Roanoke Times via AP, File)

The state of West Virginia is appealing a court ruling that temporarily blocked construction on a contentious natural gas pipeline.

Retired coal miner James Bounds, who has pneumoconiosis, more commonly known as “black lung," poses for a photo at his home in Oak Hill, W.Va., Thursday, July, 13, 2023. Bounds said nothing can be done to reverse the debilitating illness he was diagnosed with at 37 in 1984. But he doesn't want others to suffer the same fate. (AP Photo/Chris Jackson)

A half-century ago, top U.S. health experts urged the federal agency in charge of mine safety to adopt strict rules protecting miners from poisonous rock dust.

Members of the Cleveland Browns arrive at their team's NFL football training camp facility Saturday, July 22, 2023, in White Sulphur Springs, W.V. (AP Photo/Chris Carlson)

The Browns are spending a week in the mountains. Looking to avoid outside distractions and perhaps forge better chemistry among players, Cleveland opened its training camp at The Greenbrier Resort, a swanky vacation spot in West Virginia used by other NFL teams in the past.

FILE - Pump jacks work in a field near Lovington, N.M., April 24, 2015. The Biden administration is proposing new rules for the nation’s oil and gas leasing program that would raise costs for energy companies to drill on public lands and strengthen requirements for cleaning up old wells where drilling is completed or abandoned. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel, File)

The Biden administration is proposing new rules for the nation’s oil and gas leasing program to raise costs for energy companies to drill on public lands and strengthen requirements to clean up old wells where drilling is completed or abandoned.

McCuskey, who had announced in February that he would run for governor, joins an attorney general’s race that includes current GOP state senators Mike Stuart and Ryan Weld. Stuart also is a former U.S. attorney for West Virginia’s southern district.

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