(TotalConservative.com) – Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia announced on Wednesday that he will not be running for president in 2024.
In a radio interview with MetroNews, Machin stated that he’s “not running for President of the United States. Manchin, who has served two terms as a senator and once as governor of West Virginia, did not specify if he planned to run for re-election to hold his U.S. Senate seat during the next election cycle, which will be challenged by the GOP to be flipped.
First elected to U.S. Senate in 2010 during a special election and then to a full term in 2012, Manchin was re-elected in 2018 for a second term, winning by less than 20,000 votes.
A few Republicans may put up a challenge for Machin’s seat, such as West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey, the GOP nominee that Manchin narrowly defeated for his 2018 re-election, who is reportedly thinking about running again. In an interview from last November, Morrisey said if he were to run again it would be a “very, very smooth transition,” confident that the work he’s been doing to push back against the Biden administration agenda would secure him a victory.
Rep. Alex Mooney of West Virginia’s 2nd Congressional District, the first Hispanic man elected to Congress in the state, already announced his run for the senate seat and is the only Republican currently in the race.
Another potential challenger is former Democrat turned Republican West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice, who recent polls indicate may be the strongest candidate to come up against Manchin for U.S. Senate. Justice was elected in 2016 under the Democratic Party, but in 2017 during a rally with Donald Trump, who was president at the time, Justice decided to switch to the Republican Party and was re-elected in 2020.
So far, no other Democrats have announced their entry into the race and may be waiting for Manchin to make his decision before deciding to aim for his senate seat.
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