{"id":46,"date":"2026-09-23T11:32:24","date_gmt":"2026-09-23T15:32:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/radio.wvrcdev.com\/panhandlenewsnetwork\/calls-continue-for-berkeley-county-house-candidate-to-withdraw-after-troubling-social-media-posts-surface\/"},"modified":"2026-09-29T15:16:07","modified_gmt":"2026-09-29T19:16:07","slug":"calls-continue-for-berkeley-county-house-candidate-to-withdraw-after-troubling-social-media-posts-surface","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/radio.wvrcdev.com\/panhandlenewsnetwork\/calls-continue-for-berkeley-county-house-candidate-to-withdraw-after-troubling-social-media-posts-surface\/","title":{"rendered":"Calls continue for Berkeley County House candidate to withdraw after troubling social media posts surface"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Story by Metronews Reporter Jack Carlson <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

CHARLESTON, W.Va. <\/strong>\u2014 Public outcry continues for the Republican candidate seeking a House of Delegates seat in the Eastern Panhandle to withdraw from the race.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Chris Clagett<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Chris Clagett has fallen under scrutiny after troubling social media posts surfaced from earlier this year. The 91st District seat covers much of southern Berkeley County. He\u2019s opposed by Democratic candidate David Michaels in the race.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As first reported by West Virginia Watch<\/a>, Clagett allegedly made disparaging comments in January about African-American women and Muslims, even reportedly calling the Confederate Flag \u201cbeautiful.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Controversy is not new for this seat. In November 2024, Martinsburg resident Joseph de Soto won the seat. He was arrested the following month after allegedly threatening to harm other state lawmakers. Gov. Patrick Morrisey tabbed Ian Masters to fill the vacancy. Masters is not seeking re-election. The state Supreme Court of Appeals heard arguments Tuesday about whether state officials acted improperly<\/a> by declaring de Soto\u2019s seat vacant.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Roger Hanshaw<\/p>\n\n\n\n

House of Delegates Speaker Roger Hanshaw, R-Clay, said on MetroNews \u201cTalkline\u201d Tuesday that concern about Clagett\u2019s social media activity is warranted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s appropriate that there be some scrutiny given to some of this,\u201d Hanshaw said. \u201cI\u2019ve never ever had the occasion to meet Mr. Clagett, but some of those \u2014 all of those comments, frankly \u2014 are concerning. We don\u2019t have a place in the legislature for bigotry or hatred. I hope that, if the voters of Berkeley County send Mr. Clagett to the House, that he comes with a different attitude.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Berkeley County Democratic Executive Committee Chairman David Valente condemned the posts during an appearance on Panhandle Live on WEPM.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHis social media presence, especially on Twitter, some Facebook posts \u2014 and it\u2019s not just some, there\u2019s a lot of it out there \u2014 calls African-American women \u2018ill-tempered, foul-mouthed;\u2019 he calls them a term that should not be used,\u201d Valente said. \u201cThis is a person that is running to represent the people of the 91st District. I think these are statements that are disqualifying for anybody.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI think there\u2019s no place in politics \u2014 whether it\u2019s the GOP, the Democrats, the Libertarians, the Constitution Party, the Greens (the Mountain Party); I don\u2019t think there\u2019s any place in any of our politics for racism,\u201d Valente added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Mike Pushkin<\/p>\n\n\n\n

State Democratic Party Chairman Mike Pushkin said there\u2019s plenty of evidence to confirm Clagett indeed made those comments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe have about 60 pages worth of tweets and comments from this guy,\u201d Pushkin said. \u201cYou don\u2019t need to say \u2018allegedly\u2019 made them. He went on the radio and admitted it. He owned it; he said that\u2019s who he is.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hanshaw said that it\u2019s important to know who you\u2019re voting for. In this case, he said, red flags were raised by Clagett\u2019s posts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhen we see things like that, we as voters, we as citizens, ought to immediately be concerned,\u201d Hanshaw said. \u201cWe all have a choice when we walk into that voting booth of who\u2019s going to represent us in this representative government that we have here in the United States of America, I\u2019m proud of it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019m not going to tell anybody else how to vote and choose their representatives,\u201d Hanshaw continued, \u201cbut I am going to say that the culture that we seek to perpetuate in the House of Delegates, in the body that I\u2019m responsible for providing some level of leadership for right now, doesn\u2019t condone that kind of bigotry or hatred.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Many other Democratic delegates also condemned the posts. Republican Michael Hornby, who represents the 93rd District in the House, put out a post of his own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cLet me be clear \u2013 I unequivocally denounce and condemn the recently discovered social media posts by a local candidate,\u201d Hornby posted. \u201cAnyone who wants to hold public office should be held to the highest standard.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Valente added that he felt it was in the best interests of the state\u2019s Republican Party for Clagett to step down.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cDoes it hurt the Republican Party to have him step down? I think it would be better for them long term to have him step down; leave this race, rather than him being an active candidate and represent the party going into November,\u201d Valente said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pushkin agreed with Valente, calling for Clagett to withdraw.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHe is unfit to serve,\u201d Pushkin said. \u201cThere\u2019s no way that this guy could represent all the people of House District 91. That\u2019s why he needs to save them the embarrassment and withdraw from the race.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pushkin called upon Hanshaw and House Republicans to ask Clagett to step down.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know what they\u2019re waiting for,\u201d Pushkin said. \u201cI don\u2019t think it should be difficult or controversial to address this type of bigotry and hate speech. It has no place in the legislature. It shouldn\u2019t be difficult for them to do; it\u2019s quite easy.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hanshaw said there\u2019s no place in the West Virginia House of Delegates for this type of behavior.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe\u2019re not going to tolerate it,\u201d he said. \u201cIf the voters of Berkeley County choose to send that attitude to the House of Delegates, it will be a lonely place.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Story by Metronews Reporter Jack Carlson CHARLESTON, W.Va. \u2014 Public outcry continues for the Republican candidate seeking a House of Delegates seat in the Eastern Panhandle to withdraw from the race. Chris Clagett has fallen under scrutiny after troubling social media posts surfaced from earlier\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":47,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-46","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/radio.wvrcdev.com\/panhandlenewsnetwork\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/radio.wvrcdev.com\/panhandlenewsnetwork\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/radio.wvrcdev.com\/panhandlenewsnetwork\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radio.wvrcdev.com\/panhandlenewsnetwork\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=46"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/radio.wvrcdev.com\/panhandlenewsnetwork\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":77,"href":"https:\/\/radio.wvrcdev.com\/panhandlenewsnetwork\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46\/revisions\/77"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radio.wvrcdev.com\/panhandlenewsnetwork\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/47"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/radio.wvrcdev.com\/panhandlenewsnetwork\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radio.wvrcdev.com\/panhandlenewsnetwork\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=46"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radio.wvrcdev.com\/panhandlenewsnetwork\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=46"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}