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National Newswatch | West Virginia Governor’s Bulldog Gets Her Own…

West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice’s dog, “Babydog,” is seen on a screen before the Republican National Convention, Tuesday, July 16, 2024, in Milwaukee. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya)

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 to create a bobblehead doll for the 60-pound Babydog. It comes after her appearance onstage with the governor during the Republican National Convention in the city on Tuesday night.

“Babydog was already popular with West Virginians, but she added even more people to her growing fan base with her appearance at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee,” museum co-founder and CEO Phil Sklar said in a statement. “This bobblehead is a must-have for Babydog fans!”

It will be available in December and the museum has said it is taking pre-orders for the 2,024 bobbleheads.

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

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

During his speech, Justice lifted Babydog up and pointed her rear end toward the camera.

“Babydog says to Bette Midler and everybody out there, kiss her ass,” Justice said to a standing ovation from the audience, which included Supreme Court justices and members of the state legislature.

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

Justice has said he was not part of the decision. The murals were commissioned as part of an effort to finish work on the Capitol that began and 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 U.S. Senate in November, affectionately calls her a “60-pound brown watermelon.”