West Virginia GOP elects Holstein to four-year term as chair

Boone County Republican Del. Josh Holstein will lead the state party for four more years. The executive committee of the West Virginia GOP met Saturday for its summer meeting and unanimously reelected Holstein. 

“I’m extremely grateful for the confidence that folks have placed in me, and I’m certain that we’re going to be able to achieve a lot of the objectives that we’re setting out to do,” Holstein told West Virginia Watch Monday. “(I’m) looking forward to moving our party forward.”

There were no other candidates for the position.

The committee also elected former secretary Tony Hodge as co-chair, former state delegate and current Cabell County Commissioner Kelli Sobonya as secretary and Michele Davis as treasurer. 

“Serving the West Virginia Republican Party has been one of the greatest honors of my life,” Hodge said in a statement from the party. “I am thankful for the confidence the State Executive Committee has placed in our leadership team. I look forward to working alongside Chairman Josh Holstein as party Co-Chairman and continuing to lead our party to further success.”

The party also formally voted to disavow former Del. Elliott Pritt, a Fayette County Republican who resigned last week after he was charged in federal court with enticing a minor into a sexual relationship. It’s the first time in the state’s party history that members have made a formal move to remove a member from the party. The state Election Commission is scheduled to meet August 7 to consider Pritt’s disqualification from the November ballot.

Holstein, of Ashford, is a graduate of Sherman High School and Marshall University, according to his biography from the House of Delegates. He does work for the Texas Public Policy  Foundation and some political consulting and advertising work, he said. He was first elected to the House of Delegates in 2020.

Holstein was first elected party chair last year. At the time, he filled the remainder of the term that originally belonged to former GOP chair Elgine McArdle. McArdle resigned in January 2024 and Matt Herridge took her place. Herridge resigned last year after Gov. Patrick Morrisey appointed him state commerce secretary. 

Holstein said Monday his goals are to continue working toward unifying the party, which holds supermajority in both chambers of the state Legislature along with all the state’s constitutional offices and congressional offices. 

“The party has long had a problem with (unification),” Holstein said. “It’s usually been used by certain people, and for selfish reasons, or to benefit one faction of the party over another, or one specific candidate over another. And we’ve really rejected that in the last year that I’ve been in there.”

Republicans in the Senate are divided among two factions led by President Randy Smith, R-Preston, and Sen. Tom Takubo. During the last days of the 2026 session, senators overrode a ruling from Smith to amend Raylee’s Law — a child abuse prevention bill — into a House bill to get the legislation across the finish line. The House signed off on an amended version of the bill in the last remaining minutes of the session, but the Senate didn’t have enough time to accept the changes and send it to the governor’s desk for signature.

Political action committees — some connected to Republican Gov. Patrick Morrisey — pumped hundreds of thousands of dollars into Republican primary races this year to endorse or oppose candidates in the Senate, often painting Republicans they don’t like as “woke liberals.”

Holstein said the party has been hosting regional receptions across the state to give members of the party executive committee, political activists and elected leaders in the party a chance to get to know each other. 

“(The receptions are) not for fundraising, not for anything like that, but just just to come together to see each other, get to know each other a little more, hear their perspectives and concerns,” Holstein said. “That’s something we’re going to do annually as well.”

Holstein said the party is at a point when it doesn’t have to fight the Democratic Party and the main objective is to maintain its identity and who it is as a party. 

“The most important thing is that the folks of West Virginia trust us, and election after election, we’re somewhere between 65 and 70% statewide,” he said. “The only way that will change is if the folks lose confidence in us.

“And I think the only way they lose confidence in us is if we spend our time infighting instead of solving problems and working for the objectives that the people send us to work for,” he said. “So again, unity is what I’m all about, what I’m trying to accomplish. It’s difficult at times, but that’s what I’m doing.”