Republicans Target Manchin’s West Virginia Seat for Senate Pick-up
“Manchin needs to be defeated for the sake of West Virginia, it’s not for revenge”
Trump won West Virginia in 2016 by over 40 points. The state’s Democrat Senator Joe Manchin is seen as vulnerable and three Republicans are competing for the chance to run against him this fall.
Peter Doocy reports at FOX News:
3 Republicans in West Virginia battle to oust vulnerable Democratic Senator
The race to replace one of the most vulnerable Democratic senators in the country has been upended by a primary candidate – with a probation officer.
This time last year, Don Blankenship was close to completing a yearlong prison sentence following a misdemeanor conviction for conspiring to violate federal mine safety standards. Blankenship was the CEO of the Massey Energy Company when an explosion at the Upper Big Branch Mine killed 29 miners.
Now, he’s jumped into a race with West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey and Congressman Evan Jenkins, R-W.V., to replace incumbent Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.V., in a state President Trump carried by 42 points in 2016…
Before the polarizing Blankenship entered the fray, this primary contest was already contentious.
Morrisey, the state’s attorney general, has tried to remind voters that Jenkins used to be a registered Democrat.
“I think Evan Jenkins is a liberal,” Morrisey said.
Jenkins defends against that charge, and explains that he left the Democratic Party because the platform veered too far to the left.
FOX covered this during Special Report last night:
As mentioned in the video, Trump is planning to visit West Virginia later this week.
Alex Thomas reports at West Virginia Metro News:
Trump to visit West Virginia on Thursday
President Donald Trump is scheduled to visit West Virginia on Thursday for an expected roundtable event in Greenbrier County.
The visit will mark Trump’s fourth visit to West Virginia since taking office in January 2017; he spoke at the 2017 Boy Scout National Jamboree in July, held a campaign-style rally in Huntington in August and spoke at the congressional Republican retreat in February.
U.S. Rep. Evan Jenkins, R-W.Va., said in a press release Monday evening he was invited to join the president. The 3rd Congressional District, which Jenkins represents, includes Greenbrier County.
“It’s an honor to be able to welcome President Trump back to West Virginia and the Third Congressional District. President Trump’s visit will highlight his work to create jobs and opportunities for West Virginians and all Americans, and I’m proud to work to advance his policies in Congress. President Trump is always welcome in West Virginia,” he said in a press release.
Assuming this primary doesn’t turn into another Roy Moore style fiasco, this race should be a fairly easy pick-up for the GOP this fall.
Featured image via YouTube.
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Comments
Take nothing for granted, but Manchin should go. The fact that 3 people are in the primary tells you blood is in the water.
Unfortunately we will probably end up with the worst of the three, because the party of stupid never misses an opportunity to own goal.
Manchin won as a gun-toting centrist Democrat. The gun thing won’t fly with the California money that he’ll need to have a chance. The centrist part will have the DNC money nervous as well. If he tries to separate himself from the Leftists, he’ll see the video of Shumer staring him back into his chair when he bucked the no clapping mandate during the State of the Union address playing over and over again in his head and on TV. He should be filling out his forwarding address forms at the post office now.
Those who claim to be centrist, yet are Democrats, still end up supporting and voting for the ever further leftist causes. Democrats claim centrist views, but rarely are allowed to vote against the party line unless given permission to do so because their vote isn’t needed. That should tell all voters something, but it rarely does. The RNC never seems to have the same lock step hold over their membership that the DNC does.
A centrist former Democrat who is now “republican” should cause concerns, with the center being ever slide leftward, I don’t see Jenkins being anything more than a RINO at best.
I wonder how much the Dems will spend to keep this seat? Do they have that much money when the DNC has been hurting recently according to a number of reports.
Voters tolerate fakes. To some degree the word fits most pols. But what they cannot tolerate is a stupid fake. And Manchin’s vote against the tax bill qualified him as a very stupid fake, at least for West Virginians.
Manchin proved that no matter how conservative a democrat campaigns, as soon as he/she gets to Washington they’re nothing more than another vote in the liberal wall. He lied to West Virginia. If they re-elect him, they deserve him.
A few weeks ago, the receptionist at our law office calls me and tells me that “the Attorney General of West Virginia is calling to speak with you.”
Really?
I took the call, and it was, in fact, Patrick Morrissey, the AG of West Virginia,looking for money to go up against Manchin and to support the Trump Agenda. He seemed like a good guy, and I think he found me because we’d sent some money (but not a lot) to Ted Cruz.
I agreed to send him some.