Sen. Joe Manchin (DW.Va.) has about a week left to decide his political future as he faces increasing pressure to consider a run for governor against his former rival, West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey (R).
Manchin is being encouraged to run for his venerable post in the governor’s mansion by Republicans in West Virginia, who are not cheerful that Morrisey narrowly defeated former state Rep. Moore Capito, the son of Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.), in last week’s Republican gubernatorial primary.
“There are definitely people who are interested in him running who are Republicans. The guy who [Democratic] “Manchin is not known as the most productive campaigner. He clearly has a desire to continue to serve the people of West Virginia. I’m sure he’s thinking about it,” said a source familiar with the West Virginia political scene.
Hoppy Kercheval, a leading commentator on West Virginia politics, reported Tuesday that “the possibility of Joe Manchin running again for governor of West Virginia is real,” citing those close to Manchin confirming that the senator is “encouraged to enter the race.”
And West Virginia MetroNews reported last week and again on Tuesday that Manchin was receiving forceful support to enter the race for governor against Morrisey, whom he defeated in his 2018 Senate re-election race, and that Manchin was not ruling out the possibility of a last-minute statewide run.
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 unopposed race, to resign.
Manchin did not rule out a run for governor last week, but described Williams as a “friend” and “good person.”
The West Virginia Democrat must decide by this weekend whether to run for governor as an independent – or keep his current Senate seat – according to the Secretary of State’s office, at least 60 days before the Aug. 1 filing deadline for an independent candidacy.
Glenn Elliott is the Democratic candidate for Senate in West Virginia.
Both Williams and Elliott have slim chances of winning in a deep-red state that Trump won by wide margins in 2016 and 2020. Manchin, on the other hand, first ran for statewide office nearly 30 years ago, and his name recognition is as high as that of any other public official in the Mountain State.
Manchin’s run for governor, which he held from 2005 to 2010, would be a surprising development, but the West Virginia senator enjoys the national spotlight and often speaks fondly of his time in the governor’s mansion.
He is 76 years venerable, 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 called the decision to run for Senate “one of the most difficult decisions of my life” and flirted with the idea of a third-party presidential nomination, but later decided against it after a movement to put him in the White House failed to materialize.
When Manchin gave up his governorship to run for the Senate in 2010, he was one of the most popular politicians in the country, boasting a 75 percent approval rating in West Virginia.
And Manchin has often chafed at the Senate’s partisanship and inaction for much of his career in Washington – except in 2021 and 2022, when he dictated much of the action in Congress during the Senate Democrats’ crucial 50th vote on President Biden’s agenda.
Sensing weakness in Morrisey, the Republican gubernatorial candidate, Manchin is still undecided about leaving the national political stage for good.
Manchin’s office declined to comment on his entry into the gubernatorial race, but noted that Manchin told reporters he was aware of what he called “rumors.”
Mike Plante, a Democratic consultant from West Virginia, puts the chances of a candidacy for governor at “zero.”
“Steve Williams would have to resign and then the party executive would have to appoint someone to fill that position. I know Steve Williams has no intention of resigning,” he said.
Plante said an independent running for governor in a Republican-leaning state with a forceful Democratic candidate like Williams would be a very tough path to the governorship.
In Washington, his fellow Democratic senators are wondering whether Manchin was too hasty in announcing his resignation, given the physical condition of Republican Senate candidate and current West Virginia governor Jim Justice, who appears less alert and physically less agile than Manchin.
Some Senate Democrats say Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (DN.Y.) is 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 a Democratic senator who spoke on condition of anonymity about Manchin reconsidering his decision to retire from politics.
Justice is considered the clear favorite in the fight against Democratic Senate candidate Elliott – to such an extent that Republican Senate leader Mitch McConnell (Kentucky) is already counting West Virginia as a possible Republican victory.
Some Democratic and Republican strategists in the Senate are wondering how Justice, who appears to be getting tired from walking around, will handle the physical rigors of commuting between the Capitol and Senate office buildings.
Senators with physical disabilities — such as Democratic Senator Tammy Duckworth of Illinois, an Army Black Hawk helicopter pilot who lost both legs in Iraq — can get around the Capitol in wheelchairs and apply the elevators. But it’s not effortless to maneuver through the corridors, which were built more than a century before the Americans with Disabilities Act was passed.
The rumors of Manchin’s candidacy for governor come against a backdrop of lingering hurt feelings following one of the nastiest and most bitter Republican gubernatorial primaries in recent history.
The intra-party attacks reached such a level that when Justice announced his support for Moore Capito, he said he was saddened by what he called the “ridiculous mudslinging.”
Morrisey narrowly defeated Capito, receiving 33 percent of the vote while Capito received only 28 percent.
Updated at 8:14 a.m. EDT
