Shortly after the Ted Cruz and John Kasich campaigns drew their last breaths, many establishment Republicans in West Virginia began Wednesday to fall into step behind Donald Trump. Others were still considering their rapidly diminishing options.
West Virginia Republican National Committeewoman Melody Potter, who helped recruit potential delegates for the Cruz campaign in January, said she'll back Trump.
"I think that the people are speaking," said Potter, a former Kanawha County Republican Party chairwoman. "I think we need to get behind our presumptive nominee, because there's no statistical possibility of anyone else reaching 1,237 delegates" at the Republican National Convention, in Cleveland, in July.
Potter said she had planned to support the winner of the West Virginia primary all along, so this doesn't really change things for her. She said she helped the Cruz campaign because it reached out and asked for her help. Now, she's willing to offer that aid to Trump.
"If Trump is our nominee, I'm going to do everything I can to help," Potter said.
Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., who had not endorsed a presidential candidate before Wednesday, said she intends to support Trump as the Republican nominee. Capito will not attend his rally in Charleston this evening.
Republican National Committeeman Kris Warner, a former state GOP chairman from Monongalia County, said he'll be at today's Trump event and will get a chance to speak to the presumptive nominee before the event.
"He was not my first choice for president, but he is our nominee, and I will actively campaign for him for president and do whatever I can do to help him win," Warner said.
Warner said he knows that some people in his party have reservations about Trump, but he said there's one big factor bringing them together: the front-runner for the Democratic presidential nomination.
"Hillary Clinton is doing more to unite my party behind Donald Trump right now," Warner said. "I've seen that transformation happen pretty quickly."
State Senate President Bill Cole, the only Republican candidate for governor, endorsed Trump for president on Tuesday.
In a written statement, Rep. Evan Jenkins, R-W.Va., called Trump "the only candidate remaining in the presidential contest willing to support our coal miners and stop the Obama-Clinton radical agenda."
Reps. Alex Mooney and Rep. David McKinley, both R-W.Va., did not respond to requests for comment Wednesday. Mooney was the chairman of Cruz's West Virginia campaign.
In March, Mooney told the Gazette-Mail that he would support the Republican nominee, no matter what. McKinley said in March that he would support the Republican nominee over a Democrat, but wouldn't rule out supporting a third-party candidate.
Some Republicans were having a hard time transferring their allegiance to Trump on Wednesday.
Fred Joseph, an ardent Cruz supporter, said he hasn't yet decided who he will support.
"I was quite disappointed," Joseph said of the Texas senator dropping out. "There's obviously no hiding that."
Joseph, who, as Kanawha County's GOP chairman, brought Cruz's father to speak in Charleston in 2014, said he plans to hear Trump out before he decides whether to support him or not.
"I'd personally like to hear what Trump is going to do to solve the problems he says he is going to solve," Joseph said.
Others aren't so willing to listen.
Todd Gunter, who is running to be a delegate to the Republican National Convention, said he absolutely will not vote for Trump. Gunter is on the ballot as a supporter of Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, who dropped out of the GOP presidential race in March.
"I am 'Never Trump.' I am 'Never Hillary,'" Gunter said Wednesday.
That leaves him with few options on the general election ballot. He said he'll support state Republicans, but he might write in U.S. House Speaker Paul Ryan or 2012 GOP nominee Mitt Romney for president.
"I'm adjusting to it," Gunter said of the reality that Trump is going to win the nomination. "But it will be the first time I don't vote for a Republican for president."
Reach Daniel Desrochers at dan.desrochers@wvgazettemail.com, 304-348-4886 or follow @drdesrochers on Twitter.
