Joe Manchin can bring the Democratic Party back to prominence in West Virginia. Is that a stretch?

[In It to Win It]

Last edited Tue May 4, 2021, 05:51 PM - Edit history (1)

I've been thinking over last couple of days about the leverage that Joe Manchin has in the Senate. In West Virginia's state government is majority Republican but that only just recently happened. The current governor got elected as a Democrat. I was also recently informed that it was Joe Manchin that got the current governor to run (I have yet to confirm that with my own actual research).

I'm not sure if it's safe to say that if the party in Congress would be willing to bathe WV in infrastructure projects, healthcare funding, education funding or anything else. However, I think the party would do that for Joe Manchin if he's willing to pass some of the party's top priorities like voting rights (perhaps not a Green New Deal).

If West Virginians see and feel the benefits, I think it would give the Democratic Party of West Virginia an actual leg to stand on and a shot at regaining power in West Virginia over the next few election cycles. The ability to get those benefits to West Virginians rest on Joe Manchin. I imagine the Democrats coming out of WV will likely be "moderate" or conservative Democrats but I'd rather they be Democrats.

I think that Joe Manchin not only has the ability to lift the Democratic Party's standing in West Virginia (and perhaps regain the dominance that it held just a few years ago), but also help to ensure that a Democrat succeeds him should he chose to retire since he's already in his 70s. Is that a stretch for West Virginia?

[Scrivener7]

1. In the olden days, we used to call that pork. And I'm sure Joe Manchin is the honored

guest at many a barbecue these days. But I don't think it will change West Virginians.

They aren't good at change. They're still telling us that we HAVE to use coal because they say so.

[Gregory Peccary]

4. telling us that we HAVE to use coal

while ripping off the top of mountains to prove it

[Bucky]

9. We should be ripping off mountain tops only for green tech like solar panels.

useful info

Critical Mineral Commodities in Renewable Energy
https://www.usgs.gov/media/images/critical-mineral-commodities-renewable-energy

Human Rights in the Mineral Supply Chains of Solar Panels
https://dispatches.business-humanrights.org/human-rights-in-the-mineral-supply-chains-of-solar-panels/index.html

[OnDoutside]

2. If HR1/HR4/S1 doesn't pass, you can forget about WV and so can

Joe Manchin.

[Claire Oh Nette]

3. Educated young people leave

because there are no opportunities, and then the dying towns complain because the kids are leaving and they will not vote to modernize.
Work at home should change the relationship between HQ and the worker.

Biden is ready to dump billions on West Virginia, between child tax credits and 21st century infrastructure to rural areas.

[In It to Win It]

5. I read a few weeks back that the governor (I think it was the governor) wanted infrastructure

investments to draw people to WV, investments in internet infrastructure and bringing new industries to WV considering the rise remote working as a result of COVID. I think it was several local politicians in WV that voiced this as well.

I remember reading that thinking Joe Manchin has the winning hand but he has to play it right.

[Claire Oh Nette]

10. Going to Parkersburg for Mother's Day

Got a smattering of all political points of view when I'm home.

Will see what I see and report back.

[JI7]

6. No

[qazplm135]

7. huge stretch

Manchin is an anomaly. Once he is done, that state is going full on red for a couple of generations.

[Bucky]

8. Manchin's been top of the heap in WV for 16 years. If he was gonna swing that state...

It would've happened by now.

Sorry. I'm grateful for what little bit we get out of him. Controlling the senate is a big deal. But he holds onto power there by buying into a LOT of the bullshit mythology that Republicans use to hornswaggle their lower and middle class voter base. I won't call him Republican light, but he definitely reinforces many of their biggest lies.

[In It to Win It]

11. As far as a Presidential election, WV will always go for the most conservative candidate

But as far flipping on a congressional level, Joe Manchin hasn't had the leverage that he does now. WV used to have two democratic senators until 2015. As I stated in my original post, the current governor got elected as a democrat in 2016 and switched parties while in office in 2017.

West Virginian democrats (specifically, Joe Manchin) haven't had anywhere near the type of leverage they have now. They could actually use that leverage to bring life back to the state in ways that don't rely on trying to prop up the state's dying coal industry.