Democratic West Virginia senator calls the Inflation Reduction Act, hailed as ‘biggest step on climate crisis’, a ‘radical agenda’
Democratic West Virginia senator calls the Inflation Reduction Act, hailed as ‘biggest step on climate crisis’, a ‘radical agenda’
Well I mean, when you live in a red state, you gotta do this to get re-elected. Honestly, as much as I hate him, I’d probably still vote for him if I lived in West Virginia. It’s either him or a republican which means one less vote for senate confirmations.
When a politician says something, don’t take it at face value. I don’t think he actually believes the things he says, it’s just an election strategy to him. (Plus the “donations” he gets from oil conpanies is another motivating factor)
When Manchin goes, he isn’t getting replaced by a more left Dem. He is as left as the state is gonna go for some time. Trump had ~70% of the vote; even the most liberal county, Monongalia, still broke for Trump, and that’s where WVU is.
Anyone who thinks the citizens here will vote for another Dem are delusional. He’s staying in power because he was already there, simple as. He was an agreeable Dem because he would talk about coal lovingly and bitch about things people wanted him to bitch about. If/when he swaps to R, he’s going further right or the people here will vote a better conservative in.
Are they cheating with gerrymandering and other things like that or is it for real?
Nope, just plain ol’ hateful people here. Every single county went Trump in 2020, even the ones with large college and educated populations. Closest it got was Monongalia county were he only had 50-60% of the votes. If any county would be blue, it would have been Mon, but they couldn’t win there either.
You can’t gerrymander a statewide race like senator or governor, because everyone in the state gets to vote, there’s no districts to draw.
At a national level (as in its three house reps) it’s so red that no matter how you draw it they’re all going to be red.
At the state level, they have 100 house districts and 34 for the senate drawn by the Republican legislature that are certainly gerrymandered (couldn’t find much about the specifics though except this.)
See my comment below, you can absolutely gerrymander the state level politicians that make the laws for the statewide elections.
I agree the gerrymandering of state districts can definitely influence the outcome of statewide races, but they cannot directly gerrymander the senate race because the only “district” is the state itself which cannot be redrawn.
So looking at the original question, are they gerrymandering the senate seat? No, they can’t. Are they unfairly influencing outcomes of the race through other means? Probably. Will it make a difference in terms of WV voting for a dem that’s not Manchin (ie is it “real”)? Probably no because the only thing keeping a (more or less) Dem senator in a state that went 70% for Trump is incumbency and his special relationship to the coal industry.
Gerrymandering doesn’t affect senate elections.
Yes it does because the laws that are enacted for voting decides how the votes are taken. So if you get the legislature at the state level by gerrymandering, then you can ensure that who you want has the best conditions to win. It’s indirect but still possible. See what Wisconsin, Georgia and North Carolina do for ideas on how that’s done. Here’s an example: https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/north-carolina-republicans-finalize-passage-of-an-elections-bill-that-could-withstand-a-veto/ar-AA1fmTSl
I’ll be glad when we have a larger majority in the senate so I can get to see what the new excuse for keeping Lord Manchington around is.
Comedic relief, watching him scramble between the GOP and the fence he normally sits his stupid ass on…
If you need to figure out Joe Manchin, watch Hamilton. He will sacrifice his constituents and values to be the one making and being made deals. He will speak one way and act another to cover that.