Democratic West Virginia senator calls the Inflation Reduction Act, hailed as ‘biggest step on climate crisis’, a ‘radical agenda’
Democratic West Virginia senator calls the Inflation Reduction Act, hailed as ‘biggest step on climate crisis’, a ‘radical agenda’
When Manchin goes, he isn’t getting replaced by a more left Dem. He is as left as the state is gonna go for some time. Trump had ~70% of the vote; even the most liberal county, Monongalia, still broke for Trump, and that’s where WVU is.
Anyone who thinks the citizens here will vote for another Dem are delusional. He’s staying in power because he was already there, simple as. He was an agreeable Dem because he would talk about coal lovingly and bitch about things people wanted him to bitch about. If/when he swaps to R, he’s going further right or the people here will vote a better conservative in.
Are they cheating with gerrymandering and other things like that or is it for real?
Nope, just plain ol’ hateful people here. Every single county went Trump in 2020, even the ones with large college and educated populations. Closest it got was Monongalia county were he only had 50-60% of the votes. If any county would be blue, it would have been Mon, but they couldn’t win there either.
You can’t gerrymander a statewide race like senator or governor, because everyone in the state gets to vote, there’s no districts to draw.
At a national level (as in its three house reps) it’s so red that no matter how you draw it they’re all going to be red.
At the state level, they have 100 house districts and 34 for the senate drawn by the Republican legislature that are certainly gerrymandered (couldn’t find much about the specifics though except this.)
See my comment below, you can absolutely gerrymander the state level politicians that make the laws for the statewide elections.
I agree the gerrymandering of state districts can definitely influence the outcome of statewide races, but they cannot directly gerrymander the senate race because the only “district” is the state itself which cannot be redrawn.
So looking at the original question, are they gerrymandering the senate seat? No, they can’t. Are they unfairly influencing outcomes of the race through other means? Probably. Will it make a difference in terms of WV voting for a dem that’s not Manchin (ie is it “real”)? Probably no because the only thing keeping a (more or less) Dem senator in a state that went 70% for Trump is incumbency and his special relationship to the coal industry.
I’m not sure why you’re getting downvoted, it’s a fair answer even though I think gerrymandering is definitely being set up across the country and I don’t agree with that part.
Haha it’s ok. I’m not saying that gerrymandering isn’t a problem or that it’s not happening literally all the time as much as possible.
All I mean is that you can’t gerrymander a federal senate seat. You can gerrymander the state legislature districts that control many of the aspects of voting for that statewide seat, but you cannot redraw (ie gerrymander) Joe Manchin’s senate seat without some minor civil wars with WV’s neighbor states.
I agree with that part, but what’s the difference if it’s not direct? Regardless, it sounds like it’s a pretty red state anyway.
To me it’s just about the definition of the word. It would be incorrect to say, “The WV legislature gerrymandered Joe Manchin’s senate seat.” Because gerrymandering means redrawing districts. You can totally say “The gerrymandered WV legislature passed laws that make it harder for Joe Manchin to be elected.” While gerrymandering affects the outcome, what they’re doing to Joe Manchin’s district is not gerrymandering.
Gerrymandering doesn’t affect senate elections.
Yes it does because the laws that are enacted for voting decides how the votes are taken. So if you get the legislature at the state level by gerrymandering, then you can ensure that who you want has the best conditions to win. It’s indirect but still possible. See what Wisconsin, Georgia and North Carolina do for ideas on how that’s done. Here’s an example: https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/north-carolina-republicans-finalize-passage-of-an-elections-bill-that-could-withstand-a-veto/ar-AA1fmTSl
I’ll be glad when we have a larger majority in the senate so I can get to see what the new excuse for keeping Lord Manchington around is.
Comedic relief, watching him scramble between the GOP and the fence he normally sits his stupid ass on…