In Dem's race for Congress, cloning attempt goes unmentioned

(AP) — A father who once made a desperate attempt to clone his deceased son is giving West Virginia Democrats their best shot at reclaiming a seat in Congress.

Hunt's baby boy still beams a smile down over his dad from a framed picture in his office in the law firm he's run for 22 years.

After Andrew died from complications after surgery to correct heart defects in 1999, Hunt and his wife, Tracy, spent hundreds of thousands of dollars to quietly set up a laboratory inside a Nitro, West Virginia community center, and hired Brigitte Boisselier, the chief executive of Clonaid, to clone their son's DNA.

Hunt shut it down within months under pressure from the Food and Drug Administration, and cut ties with the founders of Clonaid, who also promoted what they called the Raelian Movement and claimed extraterrestrial scientists created life on Earth.

Outside the Legislature, Hunt has become wealthy suing drug and insurance companies over faulty product claims, and he and his wife are raising two other sons.

Hunt says jobs are his primary goal; he promises to secure federal infrastructure funding and draw businesses and tourism to West Virginia.

Mooney rode into office on a wave of GOP support in 2014, when longtime Democratic Rep. Nick Rahall lost in another district and the state Legislature flipped to Republican control for the first time in more than eight decades.

Hunt topped a crowded field in the Democratic primary, has put $270,300 of his own money into the campaign, and expects to have contributed $500,000 by Election Day.