West Virginia, unfortunately, has more than its share of weirdo Republicans who run for office. I’ve written about some of them, like my carpetbagging House rep Alex Mooney, our carpetbagger failed governor Jersey Pat Morrisey, and the WV version of George Santos, who had to be removed from office because he threatened to kill Democrats in the state house. (He also ran unopposed which is why his flagrant lies went unchallenged.)

And now one of the state house weirdos is back:  Robert Karnes. As you can see he doesn’t really understand science and thought Covid was a big joke. He also quit all of his committees during one of his terms because his personal business transactions were more important than doing his taxpayer-funded job.

There have also been ongoing questions about whether Karnes actually lives in WV and where in WV he actually lives. Here’s some background:

Those familiar with this column know that from time to time, the topic of residency questions regarding the former Upshur County senator have come up.

In Karnes’ 2018 reelection campaign, his residency became an issue after it was revealed on these pages that Karnes — who owns an IT maintenance company, FSIS, headquartered in Longwood, Florida, and owns a house in nearby Umatilla, Florida — had voted in Florida in the 2010 elections.

He was still registered to vote in Florida until May 26, 2017 — two days before a column noting a Robert L. Karnes with the same date of birth as the senator was still registered to vote there.

(Karnes had been registered to vote in Upshur County from 1999 to 2004, then re-registered to vote there in 2012.)

All that raised questions, since one of the requirements to run for state Senate is being a resident of West Virginia for five consecutive years.

Karnes either failed to meet residency requirements when he was elected to the Senate in 2014, or voted illegally in the 2010 Florida election. That question has not been resolved.

(After the issue was raised in 2017, attorneys for the state AFL-CIO researched the matter for a possible suit challenging Karnes’ eligibility, but ultimately concluded there were too many obstacles to overturn certified election results. The next year, Karnes got his clock cleaned by Sen. Bill Hamilton, R-Upshur, in the 2018 primary election.)

This was back in 2020 and out of curiosity I looked up the address in the link and found that Karnes still owns that house but that it is currently on the market. Hmm.

He appears to have written his campaign website stuff himself, and it’s the same cringe, weird stuff that you see in all MAGAts trying to be taken seriously:

For Robert serving in the WV Senate was a chance to create hope for WV’s kids. Nobody wants to see our children forced to chase jobs in other states, Robert decided to seek political office to ensure they have jobs and opportunities here at home.

 And we’re still waiting for him to turn his attention to those areas.

Oh and this is lovely:

I believe there are two things every politician should be expected to do.
The first is always be honest.

The second, never hide from the issues.
If you want honest leadership you have to DEMAND full and honest answers on the issues.

I think I just died from irony poisoning.

Here’s another enlightening story about him:

SB498, first introduced in 2021, aims to remove an exemption from the state’s definition of sexual contact which, according to DeChristopher, excuses many forms of marital rape.

“A 2003 study found that 24 states and the District of Columbia have abolished marital immunity for sexual offences,” De Christpher said. “Twenty-six states within our country retain marital immunity in one form or another. We in West Virginia are among those 26 states.”

During questioning, Sen. Robert Karnes, R-Randolph, purported that intimacy is part of the contractual agreement of marriage under law.

“There is something of an implied contract there that there’s going to be certain benefits to being married. I don’t think very many people would get married if they thought it wasn’t going to work that way,” Karnes said. “You’re citing one section of code, but you mentioned before that this is actually sprinkled throughout our code. You’re saying there’s nowhere in any of our code that would not require the scenario that I’m saying you could still touch your wife or your wife can touch you any way they want. Until you say no.”

And then this:

On Oct. 12, state Sen. Robert Karnes, R-Randolph, posted on X a link to the New York Post article, “Harris’ doctor reports she’s in “excellent health.” Karnes added, “ Other than sore knees and a strong gag-reflex, she’s the picture of health.”

This is sexist and racist, and surely he wasn’t raised to think that type of comment is OK. 

What is he saying about other women in private if he says something so offensive publicly?

Karnes lost in 2024, but now he’s back on the WV GOP primary ballot.

I remember when WV had state and national legislative representation that respected both the office and the people of WV. Right now we just have an endless clown show.

I’ll leave you with this: