It can’t be said enough how Republican leaning West Virginia is. President Joe Biden won 29.7% of the vote against Donald Trump in the 2020 election. That was somehow an improvement over Hillary Clinton’s 26% of the vote in 2016. Clinton’s was the worst performance for a Democratic presidential candidate since West Virginia became a state. Biden’s was the second worst.
No other Democrat in Congress represents a district or state as Republican leaning as Manchin. In fact, no other Democrat represents a district or state where Biden won less than 40% of the vote, let alone less than 30%.
Manchin is the only Democrat who holds any office elected statewide in West Virginia. The Democratic candidate for the other Senate seat (very progressive Paula Jean Swearengin) got a mere 27% of the vote in 2020, a lower share than even Biden.
When it comes to the filibuster in particular, Manchin’s views seem to be very much in the mainstream. I say “seem” because a lot of Americans aren’t that familiar with the filibuster, and their views on it can differ depending how exactly the question is asked.
Even among Democrats, just 55% wanted the filibuster lowered below 60 votes. There was a substantial minority (38%) who wanted it kept the same (26%) or raised (12%).
On a different question, a mere 30% of Democrats want to get rid of the filibuster completely.
Manchin’s feelings may not be the most popular on Twitter, but they represent at least a substantial portion of Democrats in the electorate.
Now, I should point out that the public is more tightly divided when it comes to legislation regarding election rules and voting rights. It’s on this topic, of course, that a number of Democrats are willing to…