Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., said Sunday that he would not be making a bid for the governorship of his state, saying he would instead focus his energies on maintaining his Senate seat when he goes up for re-election next year.
“I’ve made a decision to stay in the United States Senate,” Manchin said in an appearance on the CBS program “Face The Nation.”
The announcement will help Senate Democrats prevent any further erosion of their numbers. Once solidly Democratic, West Virginia has tended increasingly Republican in recent years. Last year, GOP candidate Shelley Moore Capito won the race succeed long-serving Democratic senator Jay Rockefeller.
Conversely it means the party loses what may have been its best chance to recapture the governorship next year. Manchin, a moderate, had been governor from 2005-2010, before stepping down to run for the Senate after the death of long-serving Democratic incumbent Robert Byrd. The current governor, Democrat Earl Ray Tomblin, is term-limited and must step down in 2016.
“When Robert C. Byrd died in 2010, I had to make one of the toughest political decisions of my life. I have always said that being Governor of West Virginia was my life’s most fulfilling work,” Manchin said in press release.
Manchin said that the transition had been harder than he expected, but said he believed that some progress that was now being made and did not want to give up on that. “I feel that I can have the greatest impact on West Virginia and America by staying in Washington. This place may not be working now, but I’m not going to stop fighting to make it work,” he said.
