Sen. Joe Manchin is set to meet President-elect Trump this week amid rumors that Trump is considering the West Virginia Democrat for a Cabinet position.
Manchin, one of the most vulnerable incumbent Democrats in the Senate heading into 2018, said in a statement Monday that he has already spoken once with Trump and announced that he planned to meet to meet the president-elect face-to-face later this week.
“I have always believed that public officials must put their state and country first and set aside partisan politics to do what’s right for the people they serve,” Manchin said. “It is why I truly look forward to continuing the conversation with President-elect Trump later this week on how we can work together to make that happen.”
Manchin has been floated as a contender to lead the Department of Energy and has even emerged as a possibility for the secretary of state post.
He will be the second vulnerable Democrat to venture from the Senate to Trump Tower for a meeting with the President-elect. Sen. Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota, a state that overwhelmingly favored Trump in the presidential election, met with Trump last week.
If Heitkamp joined the Trump administration, the Republican governor of North Dakota would appoint her replacement and pad the GOP’s Senate majority.
Although West Virginia has a Democratic governor, the Democrats could find it difficult to hold onto Manchin’s seat in a special election, given how rapidly the state has fallen into Republican hands at nearly every level over the past decade.
