Shelley Moore Capito won the West Virginia Republican Senate primary on Tuesday, defeating five Republican challengers and securing the party’s nomination for another run at the U.S. Senate. The reported the result as the race moved quickly toward the general election in a state where Republicans hold the advantage.

Capito, a two-term lawmaker, is running for a third six-year term in the Senate. She first won election in 2014 after a decade and a half in the House, becoming West Virginia’s first female senator. On Tuesday night, she posted that she was proud to lead President Trump’s ticket in West Virginia.

The victory matters because the primary was the first real test of whether a sitting Republican senator could still command the party in a state that has become deeply red. Trump carried West Virginia by over 40 points in his 2024 White House victory, and top nonpartisan political handicappers already rate the Senate race as solidly Republican. With the GOP holding a 53-47 majority, the party’s map in West Virginia was never expected to be especially vulnerable, but Capito still had to clear a field of challengers before she could shift her attention to November.

Among those challengers was Tom Willis, who said it was time for a change and cast the race as a fight against career politicians. Capito answered that argument last month by saying she was honored to have President Trump’s complete and total endorsement as she worked to protect West Virginia jobs, make life more affordable, secure the border and defend shared values in the Mountain State. Her message on Tuesday made clear that she intends to run as a Trump ally, not just as an incumbent trying to survive a primary.

That political alignment also reflects the state she represents. West Virginia is a solidly red state, and Capito comes from a political family; her late father, Arch Moore Jr., was a three-term governor and six-term congressman. Her path to Tuesday’s victory was built on name recognition, party loyalty and a national political climate that has only moved further in her direction. The question now is not whether she can win the general election, but how comfortably she can do it.

Five Democrats were seeking their party’s Senate nomination, setting up a general-election matchup that remains far less competitive than the Democratic primary. For Capito, the primary win removes the only serious obstacle in front of her campaign and leaves her with the same advantage she has carried for years in a state that has steadily embraced Republicans. In West Virginia, the race is now hers to lose.