John Curtiss Underwood formed the party's newspaper in Wheeling, the first in any of the border states[3] using financial aid from William H. Seward.

[4] Republicans, such as Cassius Marcellus Clay and Underwood, viewed John Brown's raid on Harpers Ferry as damaging to the party.

[6] West Virginia sent delegates to the 1866 National Union Convention where Governor Arthur I. Boreman argued against supporting black suffrage as "we did not come here to commit suicide" and that passing the resolution would have them "damned to all eternity".

Republicans held the control in the state until the 1870s and the Confederates began voting and holding offices.

[10][11] In March 2019, the West Virginia GOP was embroiled in national controversy when a poster linking Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar, a Muslim member of Congress, to the 9/11 attacks was displayed at the state capitol.

Incumbent governor Jim Justice who was elected as a Democrat in 2016, switched to the Republican Party in August 2017.