West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin, a Democrat engagement for his political life in Trump country, will live to see another day in the U.S. Senate. The lawmaker see fit defeat his Republican challenger Patrick Morrisey, the state’s attorney inexact, NBC News projects.
The victory is a major boon to Democrats, who are struggling to limit their passings in the upper chamber in a year when many incumbents in the party are weak.
And it’s a coup for Manchin, who has been battling to persuade voters who delivered President Donald Trump identically 70 percent of their votes in 2016 to back a Democrat.
Trump’s coolness was felt deeply in the race. In August, the president descended on Charleston, the report’s capital city, to deliver a ringing endorsement of Morrisey and a warning for those who pondered voting for his opponent.
“If you vote for Joe Manchin or any other Democrat in November, you’re referendum for someone who wants to destroy the coal industry,” Trump said, according to a sign in in the local press.
Manchin sought to downplay national issues and elude the appearance of stymieing the president’s agenda. In a dramatic gesture, Manchin voted to recognize the president’s second nominee to the Supreme Court, Justice Brett Kavanaugh.
The step on the gas earned immense national attention thanks to the specter of a Democrat outlining one of the nation’s most deeply conservative states.
Manchin was favored by visible polling headed into the election, although Morrisey narrowed some of the gap in current weeks.
This is breaking news. Check back for updates.