West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin is increasingly drawing the ire of progressive Democrats. With the slimmest of majorities in the Senate, Democrats need every vote and Manchin’s unwillingness to bend on issues such as filibuster reform is getting in the way of the party’s legislative priorities.
But as I noted earlier this year, Democrats are lucky they even have a Democratic senator representing West Virginia. Furthermore, a look at the Senate math and public polling suggests Manchin is not alone in his views of the filibuster. …
If Manchin wasn’t a senator from West Virginia, both Senate seats would highly likely be held by Republicans. This would likely mean replacing someone who voted with Trump 50% of the time (as Manchin did) with someone who voted with Trump more than 90% of the vote (as the average Republican in Congress from West Virginia did). CONTINUED
Harry Enten, CNN