West Virginia governor’s bulldog gets her own bobblehead after GOP convention appearance

CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) — West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice’s English bulldog is getting her own bobblehead.

The National Bobblehead Hall of Fame and Museum in Milwaukee announced plans Friday for a bobblehead doll for the 60-pound (27-kilogram) Babydog. It comes after her appearance on stage with the governor at the Republican National Convention in the city on Tuesday night.

“Already popular among West Virginians, Babydog added many more people to her growing fan club with her appearance at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee,” museum co-founder and CEO Phil Sklar said in a statement. “This bobblehead will be a must-have for fans of Babydog!”

It will be available in December and the museum said it is accepting preorders for the 2,024 bobbleheads.

Justice, a two-term Republican, regularly brings his 4-year-old dog to public appearances, including at his State of the State address in 2022.

Days before the speech, singer and actress Bette Midler, called West Virginians “poor, illiterate and strung out” on social media after U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin, I-W.Va., refused to support a bill promoted by President Joe Biden and Democrats in Congress.

During his speech, Justice hoisted Babydog up and pointed her rear end at the camera.

“Babydog tells Bette Midler and all those out there: Kiss her heinie,” Justice said to a standing ovation from the crowd, which included state Supreme Court justices and members of the Legislature

Recently, Babydog joined the ranks of Abraham Lincoln, Civil War soldiers and odes to Appalachian folk music in new murals under the golden dome of the Capitol, alongside other state cultural symbols. Tucked into a mural about artistic traditions, the dog sits placidly between a banjo player and an artist painting the Seneca Rocks, one of the state’s best-known natural landmarks, in West Virginia’s Monongahela National Forest.

Justice has said he wasn’t part of the decision. The murals were commissioned as part of an effort to finish work inside the Capitol that started and then stopped during the Great Depression.

Babydog was a gift from Justice’s children in 2019 and quickly became the star of the governor’s “Do it for Babydog” COVID-19 vaccination campaign. Justice, who is running for a U.S. Senate seat in November, lovingly refers to her as a “60-pound brown watermelon.”

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