MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — Republican Mike Oliverio will represent the 13th District in the West Virginia State Senate.
In an incredibly close race, Oliverio defeated longtime Delegate Barbara Evans Fleischauer by 162 votes. The vote comes after a neck-and-neck race between the two candidates to represent Marion and Monongalia counties in the state senate.
“We’re feeling great, we’re very pleased with the outcome of the race,” said Oliverio after the results were released. “I want to thank all of the people in Monongalia and Marion County that came out and voted for us and I want to thank all of the volunteers that worked on our campaign since January 27 when we filed,” he said.
Unofficial results show Oliverio winning the election with 13,459 votes to Fleischauer’s 13,297. The difference in votes between Marion and Monongalia counties were flip-flopped in favor of Oliverio and Fleischauer respectively. Oliverio received approximately 59.4% of the votes in Marion County. Fleischauer won Monongalia County, her home county, with approximately 55.5 of the vote.
“We never thought for a moment that we could win Monongalia County, we just wanted to keep the margin of defeat by below 2,000 votes,” said Oliverio on his campaign strategy. “When the Monongalia County numbers came in and we had lost by 1,800, we popped the champagne corks and waited for the results to come in,” he said.
Fleichsauer released the following statement:
Once election canvassing is completed next week, Fleischauer will have 48 hours to request a recount. Oliverio will become the next state senator to represent the 13th District if no action is taken.
“It was a spirited race, I think both candidates worked hard with very different visions of what we wanted to provide the people in North Central West Virginia, and in the end, I’m glad we came back on top,” he said.
6,249 votes for Oliverio came from Marion County and 7,210 votes from Monongalia County.