WASHINGTON, Aug. 3 (Xinhua) -- Jim Justice, Democratic governor of U.S. state of West Virginia, announced to switch to the Republican Party at a rally with U.S. President Donald Trump on Thursday.
"Today I will tell you with lots of prayers and lots of thinking, I'll tell you as West Virginians, I can't help you any more being a Democrat governor," Justice said at the rally in Huntington, West Virginia on Thursday night.
"So tomorrow, I will be changing my registration to Republican," Justice announced.
His decision to move across the aisle is set to increase the advantage of Republican governors over Democrats, to 34 to 15.
At an earlier event, Trump revealed what he called "a very big announcement" before flying to West Virginia. But other state officials said they had received no heads up about what the announcement would be about.
Justice, the only billionaire in the state, was first elected last year.Though the coal magnate, a newcomer to politics, was wooed by both parties before announcing candidacy, Justice decided to run as a Democrat and won office with 49 percent of the vote last November.
Records showed that the Democratic Governors Association spent over 1 million U.S. dollars to help Justice get elected, while the Republican Governors Association poured 3.7 million dollars to support his GOP rival.
During last year's presidential campaign, Trump won West Virginia by taking 68 percent of the vote in a landslide against Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton. The state used to be a Democratic stronghold.
