On September 14, 2026, Senate President Randy Smith and Senate Majority Leader Patrick Martin will host a joint fundraiser for Republican Senate candidates at Robinson Capitol Consulting, a lobbying firm in Charleston. The event is called Team Randy.
Nineteen Republican candidates are on the November Senate ballot. Only twelve of them are invited to the event.
Seven are not.
In West Virginia politics, a list is never just a list. Who gets left off tells you more than who gets included. And the seven senators absent from Team Randy’s fundraiser flyer reveal the exact fault lines that will define the 2027 legislative session before a single bill is introduced.
Who Is On the List?
The twelve candidates Smith and Martin are backing represent a clear coalition: loyalists, reliable votes, and candidates who have demonstrated they will not cross the Senate President or his priorities. Several of them are notable: