Mike Azinger

Mike Azinger
Mike Azinger
Member of the West Virginia Senate; from the 3rd district
	Incumbent
	Assumed office ; December 1, 2016 Serving with Donna Boley
Preceded by	Bob Ashley
Member of the West Virginia House of Delegates; from the 10th district
	In office; December 1, 2014 – December 1, 2016
Preceded by	Tom Azinger; John Ellem; Daniel Poling;
Succeeded by	Vernon Criss
Personal details
Born	April 12, 1965 (age 59); Parkersburg, West Virginia, U.S.
Political party	Republican
Residence(s)	Vienna, West Virginia, U.S.

Michael Thomas Azinger is an American politician. He is a Republican member of the West Virginia Senate,^[1]^[2] representing the 3rd district since January 11, 2017. Prior to this, Azinger represented the 10th District in the West Virginia House of Delegates from 2015 to 2017, succeeding his father, Tom Azinger. Prior to service in the West Virginia legislature, he was a resident of Ohio, where he ran twice for the Sixth Congressional District. In 1998, he was an unsuccessful candidate for the Republican nomination, coming in third behind Lt. Governor Nancy Hollister and former Congressman Frank Cremeans. In 2000, he won the Republican nomination, but failed in his bid to unseat Rep. Ted Strickland, taking only 40% of the vote.^[3]

2021 storming of the United States Capitol

Azinger was present at the armed insurrection at the US Capitol on January 6, 2021. Azinger was attending the Stop the Steal rallies, where he claims he saw no evidence of violence. “The people that are responsible for that were Antifa, and there’s evidence of that,” he said, referring to videos that have made that claim. “Trump people don’t destroy property. "That’s not what we do. "They've been burning cities for months now."^[4] Continuing he said, “I don’t think Trump people broke into the Capitol.” Both claims have been widely disputed and proven wrong.^[5] Over 800 people have been convicted of various crimes.^[6] Azinger himself did not enter or walk to the Capitol.

Election results

West Virginia Senate District 3 (Position A) election, 2022^[7]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Republican	Mike Azinger (incumbent)	20,812	65.71%
	Democratic	Jim Leach	10,861	34.29%
Total votes			31,673	100.0%

West Virginia Senate District 3 (Position A) election, 2018^[8]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Republican	Mike Azinger (incumbent)	19,964	57.40%
	Democratic	Jim Leach	14,818	42.60%
Total votes			34,782	100.0%

In 2015, Republican Senator David Nohe resigned just one year into his four-year term due to family commitments.^[9] Delegate Bob Ashley was appointed to fill the seat until the next regularly scheduled election.^[9] Rather than run for the unexpired term, Ashley chose to challenge Senator Donna Boley for a full term in the Senate.^[9] As a result, area businessman Sam Winans and Delegate Azinger ran for the remaining two years on the term.^[9] Azinger beat Winans 61-39% to advance to the November general election against Democratic nominee Gregory Smith, former CEO of Mountain State Blue Cross-Blue Shield.^[9] Azinger beat Smith 55-45% to win the unexpired term.^[10]

West Virginia Senate District 3 (Position A) special election, 2016^[11]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Republican	Mike Azinger	23,034	54.64%
	Democratic	Gregory K. Smith	19,125	45.36%
Total votes			42,159	100.0%

West Virginia Senate District 3 (Position A) Republican primary, 2016
Primary election
Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Republican	Mike Azinger	9,065	60.72%
	Republican	Sam Winans	5,865	39.28%
Total votes			14,930	100.0%

West Virginia House District 10 election, 2014^[12]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Republican	Mike Azinger	8,375	23.48%
	Republican	Frank Deem	7,479	20.96%
	Republican	John R. Kelly	6,932	19.43%
	Democratic	Dan Poling	5,927	16.61%
	Democratic	Don Stansberry	3,886	10.89%
	Democratic	Paul E. Miller	3,077	8.62%
Total votes			35,676	100.0%