Manchin is a little different, because there was no way we could have gotten a different Democrat in that seat anytime in the recent past. West Virginia votes for Republicans 70/30. They resisted the Southern Strategy a bit longer than other now-red states due to WV Democrats’ historic ties to the coal industry and labor unions. But US politics is all culture war bullshit all the time now, and WV is about as MAGA as they come. Manchin sort of got grandfathered in, due in large part to his reputation for “owning the libs” as it’s now called. We’re lucky we had a nominally Democratic senator warming that seat for as long as he did, because he would at least vote with Democrats some of the time. Plus, it allowed for a Democratic VP to break the tie when it was 50-50, whereas it would be 51®-49(D) were the same seat to decide the balance today.
Manchin is a little different, because there was no way we could have gotten a different Democrat in that seat anytime in the recent past. West Virginia votes for Republicans 70/30. They resisted the Southern Strategy a bit longer than other now-red states due to WV Democrats’ historic ties to the coal industry and labor unions. But US politics is all culture war bullshit all the time now, and WV is about as MAGA as they come. Manchin sort of got grandfathered in, due in large part to his reputation for “owning the libs” as it’s now called. We’re lucky we had a nominally Democratic senator warming that seat for as long as he did, because he would at least vote with Democrats some of the time. Plus, it allowed for a Democratic VP to break the tie when it was 50-50, whereas it would be 51®-49(D) were the same seat to decide the balance today.