Joe Manchin: West Virginia Democrat says he will not seek re-election
Joe Manchin: West Virginia Democrat says he will not seek re-election
The West Virginia senator has been both a key vote and an antagonist to President Biden's agenda.
You're viewing a single thread.
I know it's cool to hate him and all, but can West Virginia actually do better than him?
Unfortunately, no. That seat is lost to the Dems for the foreseeable future.
I'd disagree. Last year and this year proved to be a thorough rejection of the GOP's fascist bullshit. If the Democrats had actually run candidates in the other off year elections this year in the deep south, I feel like we would have seen some purple poking through
Last year saw the GOP take the house less than they were supposed to. That is not a win, it just felt nice. 2020 saw Biden win with an 80,000 vote swing. Things are so much closer than people seem to think. The game is rigged. The house is gerrymandered, the Senate is completely rigged in favor of less populous states, and the electoral college says "hello." I wish I had room to be angry at people like Manchin, but I don't. There isn't any.
Trump won West Virginia by nearly 40%. A Democrat is not winning this seat.
Like him or not, Justice Jackson wouldn't be on the court if it wasn't for him. The billions in climate action and infrastructure wouldn't have been passed. Extensions to COVID relief and unemployment in early 2021 wouldn't have passed. A 300 billion dollar corporate income tax increase wouldn't have passed. An 80 billion dollar budget increase for IRS enforcement wouldn't have passed. Medicare drug price caps wouldn't have passed.
Yes, he's incredibly annoying, but the fact of the matter is that we cannot prioritize some personal distaste over the vast amount of objectively good things that have happened because of this annoying ass coal baron from West Virginia.
It's annoying that he hamstrung his party at some key moments but he still voted along with Democrats more than most Republicans do.
Pretty low bar, but yeah. He was vilified more than he should have been for short term gains and now the Democrats have lost a seat for the long term that they can't afford to lose.
Please, please prove me wrong West Virginia.
He's been declining in electability over time. He had a high chance of losing the next election to a generic red team candidate, and then the red team candidate turned out to be someone with a lot of name recognition and electability. He was quite unlikely to continue in the WV senator role no matter what, and I don't think the Dems vilifying him is the cause. If anything, it helped him in WV, just not enough.
Probably true I suppose. But he had SOME chance of being elected. I'm not sure that's true of anyone else. I guess we'll see and like I said, I hope I'm wrong.
I think people who were frustrated with him completely misunderstand. The alternative to Joe Manchin isn’t a more normal Dem. It’s no Dem at all. He was a bonus vote, who helped keep control of the senate, allowing Dems to set the legislative agenda and approve judicial appointments.
And frankly, the alternative isn’t even a normal Republican. West Virginia is one of the reddest states in the country with a partisan lean of R+35.5! Joe Manchin will likely be replaced with a super right wing ideologue. Dems had no right to expect more from Manchin.
Sure we do. If he planned on not running for reelection anyway, then he could have given a massive middle finger to the radical right wing constituents he served and dragged Republicans into the 21st century. Instead, he and Sinema shackled progressive policies to a boat anchor and tossed it into Lake Baikal.
lol no. In 2020 Biden lost WV by over 40 points and so did the Dem running for Senate there.
The state legislature has an 89-11 Republican majority in the house of delegates and a 31-3 Republican majority in the Senate.
And it’s only getting redder.
That seat will be lost to republicans for generations. Manchin was only electable as a Dem because he was a very popular governor. He’s the only Dem in the state that could win it.
People cheering for this are absolute fucking idiots.
Yeah exactly. We are losing someone who votes with Dems like 80% of the time to an actual Republican who will be closer to 10%.