Joe Manchin must decide on West Virginia gubernatorial bid by next week

Sen. Joe Manchin (DW.Va.) has about a week to decide his political future as he comes under increasing pressure to consider a run for governor against his longtime rival, West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey (R). .

Manchin is getting encouragement to run for his old seat in the governor’s mansion from West Virginia Republicans, who are not happy that Morrisey narrowly defeated former state lawmaker Moore Capito, son of Senator Shelley Moore Capito (RW. Va.), in last week’s Republican. primary for governor.

“There are definitely Republican people interested in his candidacy. The guy who won the [Democratic] the appointment is not known as the most prolific activist. Manchin clearly wants to continue serving the people of West Virginia. I’m sure he’s considering it,” said a source familiar with the West Virginia political scene.

Hoppy Kercheval, a prominent commentator on West Virginia politics, reported Tuesday that “the possibility of Joe Manchin running again for governor of West Virginia is real,” citing sources close to Manchin who confirmed that the senator is “ being encouraged to enter the dispute.”

And West Virginia MetroNews reported last week and again on Tuesday that Manchin is receiving strong encouragement to enter the governor’s race against Morrisey, whom he defeated in his 2018 Senate re-election bid, and Manchin is not ruling out possibility of a last-minute statewide bid dispute.

To run for governor, Manchin would have to register as an independent or persuade Steve Williams, who won the Democratic nomination for governor in an uncontested race, to resign.

Manchin last week did not rule out a run for governor but described Williams as a “friend” and a “good person.”

The West Virginia Democrat needs to decide whether to run as an independent governor — or keep his current Senate seat — by the weekend, at least 60 days before the Aug. 1 deadline to file an independent campaign, according to the secretary of state. desk.

Glenn Elliott is the Democratic candidate for Senate in West Virginia.

Williams and Elliott have long odds of winning in a deep red state that Trump carried by huge margins in 2016 and 2020. Manchin, however, first ran for statewide office nearly 30 years ago, and his name identification is just as high as that of any public official. in the mountainous state.

Manchin’s decision to run for governor, which he held from 2005 to 2010, would be a surprising development, but the West Virginia senator relishes the national spotlight and often speaks fondly of his days in the governor’s mansion.

He is 76 years old, and when he announced his retirement from the U.S. Senate in November, he said he had “accomplished what I set out to do for West Virginia.”

He also called the decision not to run for Senate “one of the most difficult decisions of my life” and flirted with a third-party run for president. He later decided against it after a bid to put him in the White House failed to materialize.

Manchin was one of the most popular politicians in the country when he left office as governor to run for Senate in 2010, boasting a 75% approval rating in West Virginia.

And Manchin has often bristled at partisanship and a lack of action in the Senate throughout much of his career in Washington — except in 2021 and 2022, when he dictated much of the action in Congress as the crucial 50th Democratic vote in the Senate for the President Biden. schedule.

Sensing Morrisey’s weakness, Manchin is hesitant in his decision to leave the national political scene for good.

Manchin’s office declined to comment on his entering the governor’s race, but noted that he told reporters he was aware of what he called “rumors.”

Mike Plante, a Democratic consultant based in West Virginia, put Manchin’s chances of running for governor at “zero.”

“Steve Williams would have to step aside and then the party executive committee would have to appoint someone to fill the vacancy. I know Steve Williams has no intention of walking away,” he said.

Plante said an independent run for governor with a viable Democratic candidate like Williams in the race in a Republican-leaning state would be a very difficult path to the governor’s mansion.

Back in Washington, other Democratic senators wonder whether Manchin was too hasty in announcing his retirement, given the physical condition of Republican Senate candidate and current West Virginia governor Jim Justice, who appears less agile and less physically mobile than his former counterpart. Manchin.

Some Senate Democrats say Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (DN.Y.) was frustrated by Manchin’s decision in November to retire from the Senate at the end of 2024.

“Schumer didn’t want him to retire, and I think Joe may have made that decision prematurely,” said one Democratic senator, who requested anonymity to discuss Manchin’s reconsideration of his decision to step away from politics.

Justice is the overwhelming favorite to defeat Democratic Senate candidate Elliott — so much so that Senate GOP leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.) is already counting West Virginia as a Republican pick.

Some Democratic and Republican Senate strategists wonder how the Justice Department, which appears tired of being on the move, will handle the physical rigors of commuting between the Capitol and Senate office buildings.

Senators with physical disabilities — like Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.), a former Army Black Hawk helicopter pilot who lost both legs in Iraq, can move around the Capitol in a wheelchair and using the elevators — but It’s easy to maneuver through corridors built more than a hundred years before the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act.

Talk of Manchin running for governor comes amid lingering feelings of hurt after what has been described as one of the most unpleasant and difficult Republican gubernatorial primaries in recent memory.

The intraparty attacks became so serious that Justice, when he announced his support for Moore Capito, said he was saddened by what he called “ridiculous language.”

Morrisey narrowly beat Capito, winning 33% of the vote to 28%.

Updated at 8:14 a.m. EDT