West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice ‘seriously’ contemplating a challenge against Manchin
Ryan King
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West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice (R) is seriously considering mounting a campaign to unseat Sen. Joe Manchin (D), a rare heavyweight Democrat in the ruby red state.
Once a Democrat himself, Justice revealed that he’s keeping his options open for the 2024 elections. Party elites are scrambling behind the scenes to court Manchin to vie for reelection in what is shaping up to be a brutal cycle for them in the Senate.
DEMOCRATS TRYING TO CONVINCE JOE MANCHIN AND JON TESTER TO STAY IN SENATE AHEAD OF 2024
“I’m seriously considering running for U.S. Senate,” Justice wrote in a tweet Thursday.
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Justice had been registered as a Republican. He flipped to Democrat in 2015 ahead of his gubernatorial showdown with Republican Bill Cole in 2016. A year later, he switched back to Republican in a move hailed by former President Donald Trump at a rally. He is term-limited and therefore cannot pursue another term as governor in 2024.
“I want continued goodness for our state. I’ll continue helping West Virginia no matter if I’m at home or in Washington, DC,” Justice added in another tweet Thursday.
Manchin represents a rare breakthrough for Democrats in a deep Republican stronghold state that Trump won by nearly 40 points in 2020. He was first elected to the upper chamber in 2010 and most recently reelected in 2018.
Serving as the linchpin in the evenly divided Senate during President Joe Biden’s first two years, Manchin showed a propensity for scuttling big-ticket items for the Democrats, including trillion-dollar iterations of the “Build Back Better” social spending packages.
Ultimately, he managed to cut a deal with his more progressive colleagues for dramatically watered-down $400 billion spending provisions in the Inflation Reduction Act last August.
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Despite his high-profile bucking of party orthodoxy, many Democrats are urging him and fellow red-state Democrat Jon Tester of Montana to run in 2024. So far, he has not committed.
Democrats managed to expand their grip on the Senate by one seat in the midterm elections but will have to defend considerably more seats than Republicans in the next cycle. In 2024, 34 Senate seats will be up for election, including 20 held by Democrats, three by Democratic-aligned independent senators, and 11 by Republicans.