UPDATE 12/14/12 @ 2:45 p.m.
CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) -- West Virginia's Supreme Court of Appeals has a new member.

Justice Allen Loughry took his oath during a Friday robing ceremony in a packed Supreme Court chamber at the state Capitol.

Loughry had been a law clerk at the court since 2003 when he ran for one of two seats on this year's ballot. The 42-year-old Republican won along with incumbent Justice Robin Davis.

Loughry succeeds retiring Justice Thomas McHugh, who greeted him along with the other justices. Loughry's wife and their son, Justus, were on hand to help him don his new robes.

Loughry begins his 12-year term on Jan. 1.

The Tucker County native was previously a senior assistant attorney general and a special prosecutor. He wrote a 2006 book chronicling political corruption and shenanigans in West Virginia.

Voters elected Republican Allen Loughry on Tuesday. He joins Justice Robin Davis, who won re-election to the state's only appeals court.

Loughry had chronicled West Virginia political corruption in a recent book.

That research became a major theme in his court campaign. Loughry's campaign also received public money from a pilot program created as an alternative to traditional fundraising. But the Supreme Court blocked that program from providing additional funds in a September ruling.

The two-seat Supreme Court race also featured Republican Circuit Judge John Yoder and recent State Bar President Tish Chafin, a Democrat. There are five seats on the court.