Jim Justice had a primetime speaking slot at the Republican national convention on Tuesday but his pet English bulldog, Babydog, conclusively stole the show.
“Babydog has got a prediction for everybody here,” the West Virginia governor and US Senate candidate told the crowd in Milwaukee, after an aide brought his pet out to sit panting on a chair beside him.
“Babydog says that we will retain the House, the majority in the House, we are going to flip the United States Senate and overwhelmingly we are going to elect Donald J Trump and JD Vance in November.”
Babydog, the governor said, was confident in her prediction, “Because we’re worth it.”
He also said his pet “makes us smile and she loves everybody. And how could the message possibly be any more simpler than just that?”
Babydog watched, tongue out, as Republicans lapped it all up.
As the New York Times noted, the next speaker had a hard act to follow.
“I don’t know about you,” said Jim Banks, an Indiana congressman like Justice now running for US Senate. “But thank God Babydog is a Republican.”
Babydog is (probably) a lifelong GOP member. Justice, less so. The 73-year-old governor, who made his money in coal, entered office in 2017 as a Democrat but switched to the Republican party the same year. Babydog was born in 2019.
She swiftly became a state celebrity, particularly after sitting in on briefings during the Covid pandemic. But she has made national headlines before.
In January 2022, Justice responded to harsh words about West Virginia from Bette Midler by showing state legislators Babydog’s bottom and saying the actor and progressive activist could kiss his pet’s “hiney”.
Midler responded in kind, retweeting a picture of Justice holding up Babydog bottom-first and writing: “Here we can see a dog’s asshole. Right next to it is the butt of Jim Justice’s dog.”
