My good friend Amanda Marcotte‘s second favorite whipping boy — Donald Trump was, is, and always will be her favorite person to hate! — Senator Joe Manchin (D-WV) has been dropped by the writer as a frequent target of late. But I knew nevertheless that she’s wax apoplectic if she saw this story from The Hill:
Poll: Manchin’s popularity skyrocketed over past year
By Elizabeth Crisp | Monday, April 25, 2022 | 12:28 PM EDT
Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) is among the most popular senators in the country after seeing his favorability skyrocket back home over the past year, according to an analysis of survey data released Monday.
Morning Consult found that, even as Manchin has faced backlash from progressives nationally, about 57 percent of West Virginia voters viewed him favorably in surveys conducted from January through March. His popularity jumped 17 points — more than any other senator — compared to the same period last year.
The poll found that Manchin’s popularity particularly grew among independent and Republican voters in West Virginia, while it dropped among Democrats.
Manchin, a moderate, has frequently staked out positions that have found him at odds with the White House and progressive leaders on issues such as expanding the social safety net. The senator has identified inflation as his primary concern when lawmakers have discussed large-scale spending proposals and has often worked to scale back proposals.
There’s more at the original.
As I have pointed out previously, while the left seem to believe that Mr Manchin, being a Democrat, owes his loyalty to the Democratic Party, Mr Manchin was elected not by the Democratic Party, but by the voters of the Mountain State. Those are the people he represents.
In Senator Manchin’s last campaign, in 2018, the incumbent drew a Democratic primary opponent, Paula Jean Swearengin, a very ‘progressive’ candidate, so ‘progressive’ that, in July 2021, she left the Democratic Party for the far-left People’s Party. West Virginia’s Democrats didn’t think much of Miss Swearengin’s candidacy, giving Mr Manchin 111,589 votes, 69.8% of the total, to Miss Swearengin’s 48,302 votes, 30.2%. West Virginia’s voters knew what they had in Mr Manchin, as he was one of very few Democrats to vote to confirm most of President Trump’s cabinet nominees, yet they still gave him the vast majority of their votes.
Still, Senator Manchin, who had won statewide elections in 2000 (for Secretary of State), 2004 and 2008 (for Governor), and 2010 and 2012 (for the United States Senate) didn’t have an easy time of it, defeating Republican Patrick Morrisey by the relatively narrow margin of 290,510 (49.6%) to 271,113 (46.3%).
The truth is simple: the voters of the Mountain State are very conservative, and Mr Manchin, who has described himself as a “centrist, moderate, conservative Democrat”, is not only representing the voters of his state the way they would like, but has been true to the way he has described himself to the voters.
So, what do we have? We have a ‘moderate’ Democratic Senator whose support has been growing among Republicans in his home state, and if somewhat diminished among Democrats, he still garnered almost 70% of their primary votes in 2018. If he runs for re-election in 2024, he’ll almost certainly win again, because he has proven what is important most: he has the support of his home state voters.