Sen. Joe Manchin is feeling the heat in West Virginia. Manchin is preparing for what is expected to be one of the messiest statewide campaigns in recent West Virginia history, Axios reports.
The West Virginian Democrat is deciding on whether to run for re-election.
If he does run, West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice (R) would pose the biggest Republican threat Manchin has faced in his 12-year Senate career.
Justice, a former Democrat, is inching closer to a Senate campaign against Manchin.
The move would give Republicans a strong opportunity to win the red-state seat.
According to recent polling, Justice has a better approval rating. Justice has a 64 percent approval rating in the state, 24 percentage points higher than Manchin’s.
If Justice gets in, he faces a primary against Rep. Alex Mooney (R-W.V.), a Freedom Caucus member who plans on going after the governor for supporting wasteful spending. If he runs, Justice will face questions about his personal finances. A 2019 magazine profile describes the governor as “a man who has a hard time paying the bills”.
Manchin, who has not decided whether he’ll run for re-election, raised only $175,000 in the final three months of 2022 but still ended the year with a hefty $9.53 million in his campaign coffers.
The new Congress that came in this year changed the role Manchin played in the Senate. Manchin was the power broker in last year’s 50-50 split Senate.
Manchin now envisions himself as a shuttle diplomat working to bridge the partisan divide between Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), whom Manchin describes as a friend.
Joe Manchin is disputing the narrative being pushed by Schumer and other Democrats that McCarthy is tilting too far to the right for Democrats to consider engaging with the new GOP Speaker.
Be the first to comment