Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia is in trouble in his latest re-election bid, according to a new poll that shows the state’s Republican Gov. Jim Justice with a huge lead.
Manchin has tried to straddle a line as a Democrat representing one of the reddest states in the union.
The 75-year-old often opposes the Biden administration on some policies. But at the end of every day he’s still a Democrat representing a state that overwhelmingly supported former President Donald Trump in both 2016 and in 2020.
In 2020, Trump won every county in the state.
A lot has changed in the country since 2018 when Manchin last mounted a successful re-election bid.
Democrats in Washington have stopped pretending to care about everyday people — especially the kind of blue-collar Americans who live in the Mountain State.
Therein lies the problem for a senator who wants to have it both ways.
Manchin represents people who mostly have nothing in common with his party or its radical agenda. He wants to continue being their voice in the Senate as a Democrat, having ruled out switching parties.
Some could argue Manchin is a victim of a changing electorate — one in which Democrats find their party’s moderates less than palatable.
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