Popular Gov. Jim Justice (R) rolled to an easy victory to pick up retiring Sen. Joe Manchin’s (I) seat in West Virginia, marking the first time Republicans have won the seat since the 1950s.
He defeated little-known Democratic challenger Glenn Elliott, the mayor of Wheeling.
Democratic leaders in Washington privately conceded months ago that Republicans would capture the seat.
Justice’s win likely gives Republicans control of at least 50 Senate seats unless independent candidate Dan Osborn can pull off an upset over Sen. Deb Fischer (R-Neb.) in Nebraska or Rep. Colin Allred (D) can shock Sen. Ted Cruz (R) in the Texas Senate race.
He will take over the seat that late-Sen. Robert Byrd (D-W.Va.) held from 1958 to 2010.
Justice, 73, who is wrapping up his second term as governor, was a highly prized recruit of Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), who made personal overtures to Justice to persuade him to jump into the race.
McConnell flew out to West Virginia to convince Justice to challenge Manchin, who managed to win re-election in 2018 despite former President Trump carrying his state with 68 percent of the vote in the 2016 presidential election.
Justice had a 51 percent approval rating compared to a 28 percent disapproval rating earlier this year, making him a formidable candidate.
He leaves the governor’s mansion after enacting the largest state tax cut in West Virginia’s history and signing more pro-life bills into law than any previous West Virginia governor.
Manchin initially said he was looking forward to watching Justice battle against conservative Rep. Alex Mooney (R) in the West Virginia Senate Republican primary, hinting that he was thinking about running for another term.
But Manchin then announced his retirement in November of last year, putting a dent in Senate Democrats’ hopes of keeping control of the upper chamber.
“I thought he would run again months ago but as the time dragged out I guess I started to hear more and more people say, ‘He’s probably not going to run.’ And I was like, ‘I hope he will, I wish he will,’ but I guess I wasn’t surprised,” Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) said a year ago.
Justice prevailed over Mooney easily in the May Republican primary, winning by a margin of 61.8 percent to 26.5 percent.
Manchin, 77, will end his career in Washington after three Senate terms – including the partial term he served after Byrd died.
He played a highly influential role in the 117th Congress, when control of the Senate was split 50-50 but Democrats controlled the majority by virtue of Vice President Harris’s tie-breaking vote.
He steered billions of dollars in federal spending to West Virginia through the Inflation Reduction Act, which he negotiated secretly with Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) in 2022.
The law permanently extended the Black Lung Disability Trust fund for miners suffering from the disease, provided $10 billion in incentives to the coal and natural gas industry, provided $5 billion for energy infrastructure reinvestment loan guarantees, and $1.55 billion to support natural gas companies’ efforts to reduce methane emissions.
He also delivered billions of dollars in federal aid for infrastructure projects through the bipartisan infrastructure bill he crafted with Senate colleagues in 2021.
That law provided $3 billion to repair roads and highways in West Virginia as well as $500 million for bridges, $40 million for airports, $300 million for public transportation and $600 million to expand broadband access in the state.
Despite his efforts to steer federal money back home, Manchin’s approval rating took a major hit after passage of the Inflation Reduction Act, which Republicans pilloried. His approval rating had plunged by double digits by Oct. 2022, putting pressure on him to consider retirement.
Manchin briefly flirted with an independent presidential campaign earlier this year after being recruited by the group No Labels.
He eventually decided against a third-party run, telling supporters at a speech at West Virginia University: “I just don’t think it’s the right time.”
Instead, he said he would focus on “making sure that we secure a president that has the knowledge and has the passion and has the ability to bring this country together.”
He left the Democratic Party in May, registering as an independent. He did not endorse Harris or Trump in the 2024 presidential race.
