HUNTINGTON, W.Va. (WSAZ) -- One race in the area that had a surprising outcome was the West Virginia Supreme Court race.

Four democrats were vying for two spots, and those two winners will now go head to head with the lone republican candidate.

But for the first time in many years, current Chief Justice Spike Maynard won't be on ballot, and those still in the race say now the attention needs to shift to them.

For one night there's celebration, but then it's quickly back to campaigning.

Menis Ketchum, Margaret Workman and Beth Walker will now go head to head in the general election.

Workman has been here before, but her contenders say they had to work hard for name recognition.

“Not having run for public office before I’ve spent a lot of time traveling around introducing and explaining why this Supreme Court race is so important and why we have to get back to basics of fairness, impartiality and integrity,” Walker said.

“Staying on the road, never coming home, meeting a lot of people, going to places I felt the most uncomfortable. It's too easy to go where everyone knows you, and we wanted to run two cute commercials that got name recognition and they sure did,” Ketchum said.

But fun aside; there are serious issues at stake.

“I saw the court start to occupy less of a role than it should in people's respect, and I want to be part of rebuilding people's faith in the court system,” Workman said. “This is a very important election this year because two seats will be filled and obviously two of five, that's a pretty significant part of the court.”

Keeping politics out of the court is the one thing these candidates each agree on.

Whoever wins the two seats in November will serve a 12 year term and be on the West Virginia Supreme Court until 2021.