There will be 21 Senate seats Democrats will have to defend in the 2024 election to maintain control of the upper chamber, and as many as seven are considered vulnerable, including three in states won easily by former President Donald Trump in 2020: Ohio, Montana, and West Virginia.
Although Sens. Sherrod Brown of Ohio and Jon Tester of Montana have said they are running for reelection, West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin, who has been a thorn in the side to his party and President Joe Biden, has yet to announce his plans.
Manchin has bucked his party on such issues as ending the filibuster, but he was key in getting Biden's Inflation Reduction Act passed through the Senate.
But Manchin is taking his time announcing his plans.
"I won't make a decision until the end of the year ... America is the only place in the world that starts the next election the day after the last election," Manchin told The Times West Virginian on April 5. "I've got a lot of work to do this year, we have a lot of challenges right now."
Trump won West Virginia by nearly 39 points in 2020 and more than 42 points in 2016. Although Manchin easily won reelection in 2012, he narrowly defeated state Attorney General Patrick Morrisey in 2018.
Morrisey has said he will not run for the seat in 2024, instead focusing on trying to replace popular Republican Gov. Jim Justice, who is term-limited and cannot run for the seat again. But Justice has suggested he might challenge Manchin.
So far, the only Republicans to enter the race are U.S. Rep. Alex Mooney and former coal miner Chris Rose. But if Justice enters, as expected, he would be the clear favorite to win the party's nomination. A poll by National Public Affairs released March 29 shows Justice with a 55%-24% lead over Mooney, with 21% undecided.
The survey of 360 likely Republican primary voters in West Virginia was conducted March 14-17, with a plus or minus 5.2% margin of error.
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