SILVER GROVE, West Virginia — West Virginia is a very special state, not just because of the spectacular geography, but also the people. Like many whose lives are conducted outside the engagement of social media or the spotlight of cable news, they are hospitable to a fault, pretty unlikely to ask you who you voted for, authentic, skeptical, hardworking, and proud of where they are from.
Who they send to Washington to represent them reflects those qualities. Think of Sen. Joe Manchin, who has told me in numerous interviews the thing he isn’t is a Washington Democrat. He sees himself as a West Virginian first.
Which essentially means the former state senator and governor of the Mountain State is going to be supportive of some of what the Biden administration wants to accomplish and a thorn in its side on much of it. For some, this may seem a confusing approach that will irk the far Left into challenging him in a primary in 2024 — good luck with that — and the Right into wondering why the heck he hasn’t switched parties yet.
Manchin creates a tension within both parties, with the ability to be the brake pedal or gas pedal for Biden or Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer’s big plans. But political science professor Paul Sracic of Youngstown State University said the thing the political class has missed is that the mindset of West Virginians as a people, not just Manchin, will undoubtedly play a larger role in politics and policy.
“This isn’t just about Joe Manchin’s role in the D.C. power game,” Sracic said. “Manchin clearly sees himself as a conduit for West Virginia values. This means that what matters to people in West Virginia is going to be more influential than anyone, including West Virginia voters, I suspect, ever anticipated.”
This is a position of influence few who live in this state foresaw having, and one few in Washington are ready for. When Manchin first won his Senate seat in a special election in 2010, he ran an ad, wielding a rifle that took precision aim at the “cap and trade” bill, with a message of having West Virginia’s back in Washington.
When he won that race, nearly every elected official in office in the state was a Democrat: both senators, the governor, all the statewide elected row offices, the majorities in the state chambers, and two of the three members of the House delegation.
Ten years later, Manchin is the last Democrat standing; Republicans hold all of the statewide elected seats and healthy majorities in both state chambers; his senate colleague Shelley Moore Capito is a Republican who just won reelection with more than 70% of the vote, and so are all three members of the congressional delegation.
As of last Thursday, more West Virginians registered with the Republican Party than with any other political party in the state, marking the first time since the Roaring Twenties and Herbert Hoover that the Grand Old Party held a plurality of the voter registration in the state.
Manchin is much closer personally with Capito than he is with Gov. Jim Justice. While many reporters speculated when the Democrat-turned-Republican governor openly pushed for a larger coronavirus aid package that he was giving Manchin cover to change his mind, they forgot the history between the two men.
Not only did Justice switch parties without telling Manchin first, someone who was very influential in getting the former Democrat elected, he also fired Manchin’s wife Gayle, who was the state secretary of education.
That was no cover — Manchin wasn’t falling for it — and as of this reporting, it is still unclear where he stands on the latest House proposal.
The West Virginian influence on politics will not likely come from fights over what is essentially a spending bill and will more likely come from legislative bills that reflect the Appalachian state’s needs, such as meaningful infrastructure projects that include water lines and sewer lines, along with bridges and roads.
That influence could also extend to a variety of different legislation that would include expanding broadband in rural regions and funding for vocational and trade schools or more monies for mental health and addiction programs. These are all issues that have affected not just West Virginians, but large swaths of the country that extend from the hollows of Appalachia to the wide-open spaces of the Midwest.
Sracic said that is where the filter of the West Virginia voter will affect policy in Washington and potentially the rest of the nation:
“It is not much of an exaggeration to say, ‘Where Joe [Manchin] goes, so goes the United States.’”
