Gayle Manchin is the first West Virginian to serve as federal co-chair of the Appalachian Regional Commission in its 56-year history.
That’s not all. Manchin comes to the agency at a time when West Virginia is in the spotlight. She has an important role, but she’s not alone.
Click Here to Sign Up for Our Newsletter and Get the Latest from Appalachia Her husband, Sen. Joe Manchin, is chairman of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee. Manchin is a key vote for President Joe Biden in an evenly divided Senate. Biden can’t advance his priorities without the centrist Democrat’s support.
West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice said Friday that he didn’t know of any examples of transgender athletes trying to gain an unfair advantage in sports despite signing a bill Wednesday barring transgender athletes from competing in girls’ and women’s athletics.
MSNBC anchor Stephanie Ruhle pressed the governor on the new law Friday morning, following up with Justice, a Republican, after he responded that he did not “have that experience exactly to myself right now” when asked for an example in his state where a transgender athlete gained an unfair advantage in women’s or girls’ sports.
“Can you give me one example of a transgender child trying to get an unfair advantage, just one, in your state? You signed a bill about it,” Ruhle said.
Senate Bill 565 is based on what county clerks experienced this past election.
“The clerks want more time between the end of early voting and election day,” said West Virginia Secretary of State Mac Warner.
And the bill does just that. It moves up the deadline for in-person early voting to six days ahead of an election.
“So now it starts on a Saturday and it ends on a Wednesday, and then the clerks have Thursday, Friday, Saturday to get those poll books ready. It is a rational, reasonable response to what the clerks ask us to,” said Warner.
Gayle Manchin is the first West Virginian to serve as federal co-chair of the Appalachian Regional Commission in its 56-year history.
That’s not all. Manchin comes to the agency at a time when West Virginia is in the spotlight. She has an important role, but she’s not alone.
Click Here to Sign Up for Our Newsletter and Get the Latest from Appalachia Her husband, Sen. Joe Manchin, is chairman of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee. Manchin is a key vote for President Joe Biden in an evenly divided Senate. Biden can’t advance his priorities without the centrist Democrat’s support.
West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice said Friday that he didn’t know of any examples of transgender athletes trying to gain an unfair advantage in sports despite signing a bill Wednesday barring transgender athletes from competing in girls’ and women’s athletics.
MSNBC anchor Stephanie Ruhle pressed the governor on the new law Friday morning, following up with Justice, a Republican, after he responded that he did not “have that experience exactly to myself right now” when asked for an example in his state where a transgender athlete gained an unfair advantage in women’s or girls’ sports.
“Can you give me one example of a transgender child trying to get an unfair advantage, just one, in your state? You signed a bill about it,” Ruhle said.
Senate Bill 565 is based on what county clerks experienced this past election.
“The clerks want more time between the end of early voting and election day,” said West Virginia Secretary of State Mac Warner.
And the bill does just that. It moves up the deadline for in-person early voting to six days ahead of an election.
“So now it starts on a Saturday and it ends on a Wednesday, and then the clerks have Thursday, Friday, Saturday to get those poll books ready. It is a rational, reasonable response to what the clerks ask us to,” said Warner.
This West Virginia onAir hub supports its citizens to become more informed about and engaged in federal and state politics while facilitating more civil and positive discussions with their representatives, candidates, and fellow West Virginians.
West Virginia onAir is one of 50 state governance and elections hubs that the US onAir Network is providing to reinvigorate our imperiled democracy.
Virginia onAir is US onAir’s model of how a state’s onAir Council and curators can enhance a state Hub with fresh Top News and state legislature content, moderated discussions, and production of zoom aircasts with committees, interviews and debates with candidates, and presentations.
For more information about the many opportunities to learn about and engage with this West Virginia onAir hub, go to this US onAir post on the US onAir central hub.
Our two minute vision video about the US onAir network is below.
This West Virginia onAir hub supports its citizens to become more informed about and engaged in federal and state politics while facilitating more civil and positive discussions with their representatives, candidates, and fellow West Virginians.
West Virginia onAir is one of 50 state governance and elections hubs that the US onAir Network is providing to reinvigorate our imperiled democracy.
Virginia onAir is US onAir’s model of how a state’s onAir Council and curators can enhance a state Hub with fresh Top News and state legislature content, moderated discussions, and production of zoom aircasts with committees, interviews and debates with candidates, and presentations.
For more information about the many opportunities to learn about and engage with this West Virginia onAir hub, go to this US onAir post on the US onAir central hub.
Our two minute vision video about the US onAir network is below.
CHARLESTON, W.Va. (WCHS) — Gov. Jim Justice said he agrees with a Kanawha Valley pulmonary doctor’s assessment that with so many unvaccinated patients hospitalized with coronavirus, it has largely become a disease of the unvaccinated.
Still, the governor said during his news conference Wednesday that he doesn’t believe in mask or vaccine mandates. He said he is glad that 53 out of the state’s 55 county school systems have mask mandates, with only Putnam and Pocahontas not requiring face coverings.
Video of the news conference, courtesy of West Virginia Public Broadcasting, can be viewed below:
Citing figures that show nearly 85% of those hospitalized with the virus in West Virginia are unvaccinated and more than 90% of the virus-related patients in ICU unvaccinated, Justice said the evidence strongly supports the effectiveness of the vaccines. He said he agreed with Dr. Tom Takubo, a pulmonary physician and a Kanawha County senator, who said at Monday’s West Virginia COVID briefing that with hospitals filled with unvaccinated patients, the virus has become one largely for the unvaccinated.
Summary
Current Position: Governor since 2015 Affiliation: Republican Candidate: 2022 Governor Former Position(s): Businessman from 1977 – 2017
Featured Quote: Do it for Babydog! Save a life. Change your life. Vaccinated West Virginians – register to win HUGE prizes here
Featured Video: Gov. Justice holds press briefing on COVID-19 response – July 27, 2021
CHARLESTON, W.Va. (WCHS) — Gov. Jim Justice said he agrees with a Kanawha Valley pulmonary doctor’s assessment that with so many unvaccinated patients hospitalized with coronavirus, it has largely become a disease of the unvaccinated.
Still, the governor said during his news conference Wednesday that he doesn’t believe in mask or vaccine mandates. He said he is glad that 53 out of the state’s 55 county school systems have mask mandates, with only Putnam and Pocahontas not requiring face coverings.
Video of the news conference, courtesy of West Virginia Public Broadcasting, can be viewed below:
Citing figures that show nearly 85% of those hospitalized with the virus in West Virginia are unvaccinated and more than 90% of the virus-related patients in ICU unvaccinated, Justice said the evidence strongly supports the effectiveness of the vaccines. He said he agreed with Dr. Tom Takubo, a pulmonary physician and a Kanawha County senator, who said at Monday’s West Virginia COVID briefing that with hospitals filled with unvaccinated patients, the virus has become one largely for the unvaccinated.
James C. Justice, II was born April 27, 1951, to James Conley Justice and Edna Ruth Justice. He attended Raleigh County public schools and graduated from Woodrow Wilson High School in 1969, attended Greenbrier Military Academy as a post graduate. Governor Justice went to Marshall University in Huntington, West Virginia, and was captain of the golf team for two years before earning his undergraduate degree and a Masters in Business Administration.
The Governor joined his family’s business in 1976. Because of his strong interest in nature and the outdoors, he started Justice Family Farms in 1977 in beautiful Monroe County, West Virginia. Under his direction, Justice Farming Operations has grown to be a major agricultural enterprise. His companies farm more than 50,000 acres of corn, wheat, and soybeans in West Virginia, Virginia, North Carolina and South Carolina.
Gov. Justice is the largest farmer east of the Mississippi River. He is a long-time member of the National Corn Growers Association and a seven-time national corn growing champion. Jim, a passionate sportsman himself, developed Stoney Brook Plantation, a 15,000-acre hunting and fishing preserve in Monroe County, West Virginia. In 2016 Jim and his great bird dog companion, Lilly, bagged 73 grouse in our Mountain State.
Upon the death of his father in 1993, Jim became the President and CEO of Bluestone Industries, Inc. and Bluestone Coal Corporation. Over the next 15 years, Jim launched a massive expansion of multiple businesses which included significant coal reserve expansion, Christmas tree farms, cotton gins, turfgrass operations, golf courses, timber enhancement and land projects just to mention a few. Before being elected governor, Jim was the president and CEO of 102 different companies.
Governor Justice spent his career creating thousands of jobs and understands how to put people to work.
During late 2008 and early 2009, Jim successfully negotiated the sale of Bluestone Industries, Inc. and affiliated companies, which comprised all of the family’s West Virginia coal mines at the time, to Mechel, OAO, one of Russia’s leading mining and metal companies. The Russian company failed, laid off coal miners, and was going to walk on their financial obligations.
In 2015, Jim reacquired all of these Bluestone assets back from Mechel and, in a short time, reopened most of the mines and created more than 200 new mining jobs. Had Mr. Justice not stepped up, these mines would have stayed closed, back taxes would not have been paid, and UMWA pensioners would have been left in the cold.
In 2009, Justice rescued The Greenbrier resort in White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia, from bankruptcy. The workforce was facing deep cuts in jobs and benefits. Immediately after purchasing The Greenbrier, Jim Justice reversed many of the benefit cuts and invested in renovations and expansions. He brought major events like the PGA Tour, training camps for the NFL and NBA, and countless high-profile acts and conferences to The Greenbrier. As governor, he wants to do everything possible to put West Virginia in a positive light.
Justice saw an opportunity to grow tourism in Raleigh County so he acquired The Resort at Glade Springs, Black Knight Country Club, and Brier Patch Golf Links.
Governor Justice thinks big. In 2015, he started building a $1 billion dollar mountain complex with housing, skiing, and a championship golf course to bring the U.S. Open to West Virginia. It’s history in the making — something that has never been done before— a golf course designed by Gary Player, the late Arnold Palmer, Lee Trevino, and Jack Nicklaus, all in our great state. The Greenbrier is where Arnie got his first professional check and will be where he designed his last course.
Jim has carried on his family’s tradition of being major supporters of youth programs in Southern West Virginia. Since 1992 he has been President of Beckley Little League. His participation has helped the program expand to over 1,000 kids playing on 80 teams. He has coached basketball teams of all ages for the past 36 years and is currently the head girls and boys basketball coach at Greenbrier East High School in Lewisburg, WV. On November 29, 2016, Jim was honored when he coached his 1,000th career win in basketball.
As part of his involvement with the West Virginia Coal Association in the early 1990’s, Jim became Tournament Director of the Mountain State Coal Classic Basketball Tournament. The Classic was moved to Beckley and has enjoyed tremendous success by awarding hundreds of thousands of dollars in scholarships and direct support to participating schools. Jim used his contacts to bring sports greats to Beckley as guest speakers for the Classic, including: Hot Rod Hundley, Terry Bradshaw, Dick Vitale, Jerry West, Joe Theismann, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Dr. “J” Julius Erving, Bo Jackson, Bob Pruett, Don Nehlen, Doc Holliday, Rich Rodriguez, Chad Pennington, Lou Holtz, Larry Bird, Bill Walton, John Elway, Bill Stewart, Shaq, Charles Barkley, Tim Tebow, Denny Hamlin, Sean Payton, Cam Newton and Pat White. The Tournament, now known as The Big Atlantic Classic has become even bigger and better.
Giving back to the community is at the core of who the governor is. He is guided by his commitment to the Good Lord, his family, and helping West Virginia’s youth. Every Christmas, Jim puts on his custom made Santa Claus suit and visits local churches to give away $1 million in gifts to children in need.
Jim was the 1998 Recipient of the Beckley-Raleigh County Chamber of Commerce’s Community Service Award as a result of his involvement with youth programs in the area, the 1998 Recipient of the “Spirit of Beckley” Award from the Beckley-Raleigh County YMCA, the 2000 recipient of the City of Hope Medical Center’s “Spirit of Life” award, the 2009 Charleston Gazette’s “West Virginian of the Year”. In 2010, he was named a “Distinguished West Virginian” by Governor (now Senator) Joe Manchin and the 2011 Honoree at the National Multiple Sclerosis Society’s Blue Ridge Chapter “Dinner of Champions”. Jim was chosen Mountain Athletic Conference “Coach of the Year” and West Virginia High School “Coach of the Year” in 2012 and was named” West Virginian of the Year” in 2014 and again in 2016 by the Clarksburg Exponent Telegram.
In May 2015, Jim announced his campaign to seek the office of governor of West Virginia. After 19 months on the campaign trail sharing his vision for transforming West Virginia, Jim was elected the 36th governor of West Virginia. He won with a broad coalition of support from Democrats, Republicans, and Independents.
Jim and his wife Cathy have been best friends since high school. Last year, they celebrated their 40th anniversary.
The Governor and the First Lady have two children, James (Jay) C. Justice, III, a Virginia Tech graduate who runs the Justice family’s coal and agriculture operations, and Dr. Jill Justice, a graduate of Marshall University and The Edward Via Virginia College of Osteopathic Medicine in Blacksburg, VA. Jill is now president of Greenbrier Hotel Corporation and practices at the Greenbrier Clinic.
The Justice family has recently grown to include Jay’s wife, Catherine Grainger Justice, and Jill’s husband, Adam Long. Jim and Cathy live near downtown Lewisburg with Lucy, their Boston Terrier.
Birth Year: 1951 Place of Birth: Charleston, WV Gender: Male Race(s): Caucasian Spouse: Cathy Justice Children: James (Jay) C. Justice, III, Jill Justice
James Conley Justice II (born April 27, 1951) is an American businessman and politician who has been serving as the 36th governor of West Virginia since 2017. Justice once had a net worth of $1.2 billion in September 2018, making him the wealthiest person in West Virginia, though it has since declined to $513.3 million as of October 2021.[2] He inherited a coal mining business from his father and built a business empire with over 94 companies, including the Greenbrier, a luxury resort in White Sulphur Springs.[3]
In 2015, Justice announced his candidacy for governor in the 2016 West Virginia gubernatorial election. Although Justice was a registered Republican before running for governor, he ran as a Democrat and defeated the Republican nominee, Bill Cole. Less than seven months after taking office, Justice switched back to the Republican Party after announcing his plans at a rally with U.S. presidentDonald Trump in the state. In the 2020 gubernatorial race, he won re-election over Democratic challenger Ben Salango.
After college, Justice went into the family agriculture business.[5] Justice founded Bluestone Farms in 1977, which now operates 50,000 acres (20,000 ha) of farmland, and is the leading producer of grain on the East Coast of the United States. During that time, he also developed Stoney Brook Plantation, a 15,000-acre hunting and fishing preserve in Monroe County. Justice is a seven-time national corn growing champion.[6] After the death of his father in 1993, Justice inherited ownership of Bluestone Industries and Bluestone Coal Corporation. In 2009, he sold some of his coal business to the Russian company Mechel for $568 million. In 2015, after a huge drop in the price of coal which led Mechel to close some of the mines, he bought the business back for just $5 million.[7][8] Since buying back the mine from Mechel, Justice re-opened several of the mines and hired over 200 coal miners.[9]
Justice’s mining companies have been under the spotlight for alleged cases of safety violation and unpaid taxes; in 2016, NPR called him the “top mine safety delinquent” in the United States.[10] Justice allegedly owed millions of dollars to the government in back taxes, and unpaid coal mining fees and fines: “His mining companies owe $15 million in six states, including property and minerals taxes, state coal severance and withholding taxes, and federal income, excise and unemployment taxes, as well as mine safety penalties, according to county, state and federal records.”[11] Two debt-related lawsuits were settled in 2019,[12] and in 2020 mining companies owned by Justice or his family agreed to pay $5 million in delinquent safety fines.[13]
According to a ProPublica investigation, Justice paid more than $128 million in judgments and settlements over unpaid bills by his businesses.[14][15]
As of 2014, he owned 70 active mines in 5 states. His charitable activities have included $25 million for the James C. Justice National Scout Camp at The Summit Bechtel Family National Scout Reserve, $5 million for Marshall University, and $10 million to the Cleveland Clinic.[18] Justice gives away more than $1 million in Christmas gifts annually through the Dream Tree for Kids campaign.[19]
Before taking office as governor, Justice resigned from all the executive positions he held at his business. He placed his daughter Jill in charge of the Greenbrier and his son Jay in charge of his mining and agriculture businesses. He has said he will place all his assets in a blind trust, but that the process will take time because of their complexity.[20][21] During the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic, Justice and his family’s businesses received at least between $11 million and $24 million in aid through the Paycheck Protection Program.[15] His luxury resort, the Greenbrier Hotel Corporation, received a loan of between $5 million and $10 million, but the company did not promise to retain any jobs in exchange for the aid.[15]
As governor of West Virginia, he is in charge of the state agencies that regulate many of his businesses.[15]
Political career
Then-candidate Justice (seated fourth to the left) in Fairmont, West Virginia, in September 2016.
In 2015, Justice declared his candidacy for Governor of West Virginia in the 2016 election as a member of the Democratic Party.[7] He had been a registered member of the Republican Party until changing his registration in February 2015.[22] This was his first time running for political office.[23] In May 2016, Justice won the Democratic nomination for governor and ran against Republican nominee Bill Cole in the general election.[24] On November 8, Justice won the election.[25][26]
In January 2019, Justice declared his re-election campaign to try to win another term.[28] For his second bid, he ran as a Republican after previously changing his party registration following a 2017 rally with President Donald Trump. During the primaries, he defeated multiple challengers within his party.[29]
Throughout the general election campaign season, he focused on his COVID-19 response, the state’s budget surplus, and his work on the substance abuse crisis.[30] Several polls had him winning by a large margin against Kanawha County Commissioner Ben Salango in the months leading up to Election Day.[31] On November 3, 2020, he defeated Salango in the race for the governorship,[30] with over 63% to Salango’s 30%. With his win, he became the first West Virginian Republican gubernatorial candidate to win since Cecil Underwood in 1996 and the first GOP incumbent to win a second term since Arch A. Moore Jr. in 1976.
The United Mine Workers endorsed Justice’s opponent Ben Salango after having previously endorsed Justice in his 2016 gubernatorial campaign. However, Justice did receive the endorsement of the West Virginia Coal Association, saying Justice had “worked to protect the miners, increase coal production, and explore innovative ways to use coal for new products and downstream job opportunities”.[32]
Governor of West Virginia
Justice at his inauguration in January 2017.
Justice took office as governor on January 16, 2017. He is known for using colorful metaphors and digs at political opponents.[33][34]
To improve West Virginia’s budget situation, he has proposed raising the state’s revenue by $450 million, primarily by increasing the consumer sales tax, reinstituting the business and occupation (B & O) tax, and establishing a “rich man’s” tax.[35] He also opposed plans to cut health and education spending.[36] On April 13, 2017, while vetoing a budget bill passed by the Republican-controlled West Virginia Legislature, Justice said the bill was “nothing more than a bunch of political you-know-what” and showed a prop featuring bull feces on a print copy of the bill.[37]
On August 3, 2017, Justice announced that he had rejoined the Republican Party. He made the announcement at a rally hosted by President Donald Trump in Huntington and also confirmed his support for the sitting president. Justice said that he was returning to the GOP because he could not support President Trump as a member of the Democratic Party. The announcement came as a surprise to his own staff.[38] This also made Justice the first Republican governor of West Virginia since Cecil Underwood in 2001.
Jim and Cathy Justice meeting Vice President Mike Pence in March 2017.
Even after switching to the Republican Party, Justice initially supported incumbent Democrat Joe Manchin for his reelection campaign in the 2018 Senate election in West Virginia.[39] However, later in the general election, Justice endorsed Republican Senate candidate, Patrick Morrisey.[40] In February 2021, when asked by The New York Times if he plans on running against Manchin, Justice said, “No, I’m really not . . . [i]f I can continue to do good stuff for West Virginia, I’m going to do it, and then probably fade off into the sunset.”[41]
In 2020 Justice signed into law the Critical Infrastructure Protection Act, which created felony penalties for protests targeting oil and gas facilities. The law, which was passed with the support of Dominion Energy, the West Virginia Oil and Natural Gas Association, and the American Fuel and Petrochemical Manufacturers trade association, was described by its sponsor John Kelly as having been “requested by the natural gas industry”.[42]
In January 2022 he postponed his annual State of the State address because he had contracted COVID-19 and was isolating at home.[43]
Justice posing for a photo with road workers in March 2017.
Justice campaigned and has governed with support for the coal industry.[48] He does not support raising taxes but has supported increasing teachers’ salaries, arguing that increased state revenue will pay for the increased budget spending.[49] In 2017, Justice said that he opposed budget cuts and supported raising sales taxes.[50] The libertarianCato Institute gave Justice an “F” grade based on their positions, but Justice voiced his disagreement with the rating.[51] Prior to Justice’s party change from Democratic to Republican, Senate President Mitch Carmichael described him as “more Republican in his philosophies. Where he has gotten away from that a little bit is his tax-and-spend policies.”[52]
In February 2021, Justice urged Senator Joe Manchin to vote for the $1.9 trillion stimulus package proposed by President Joe Biden, warning against being “fiscally responsible” and adding, “I don’t really know exactly what the thinking could possibly be there. I mean, we got people that are really hurting.”[41][53]
Abortion
Justice had said that he does not support abortion, but that the Supreme Court had decided the issue.[54] Later, Justice attended a rally supporting Amendment 1, a state constitutional amendment intended to ban abortion if Roe v. Wade is overturned.[55][56] He is considered pro-life and signed two anti-abortion bills into law.[57]
Gun control
Justice supports gun ownership and limited gun laws. In 2018, Justice signed into a law a bill allowing gun owners to keep their guns locked in vehicles on their employers’ property, a bill that was supported by the NRA.[58] He also signed a bill legalizing hunting on Sundays on private land.[59]
Justice stated that he respects the Supreme Court’s decision on Obergefell v. Hodges, which legalized same-sex marriage nationwide, and that it is settled law.[61] In 2017, Justice opposed a bill that would have allowed businesses to refuse service to LGBTQ customers.[62]
Environmental policy
According to the Charleston Gazette–Mail, Justice has equivocated on the scientific consensus on global warming. In a 2016 interview with the paper, he said: “There’s documentation that would give one concern, and I don’t think you should ignore that”, he said. “At the same time, I think there’s an awful lot of research that still should be done . . . I surely wouldn’t sit here and say I am a believer in global warming, but I wouldn’t sit here and say that I am not concerned.”[6]
At the beginning of his second term as governor, Justice said he was a believer in alternative energy, pointing to his welcoming of Clearway Energy Group to begin construction of a wind farm, which will increase state wind power by 15%.[41][63] But he added, “it is frivolous for us to think that today our nation can go forward without coal or without gas. There will be a day we transition away from fossil fuels. But I frankly don’t believe that it is now.”[41]
West Virginia, despite being one of the poorest states in the nation, was, early on, second only to Alaska in vaccine distribution for COVID-19. However, since then, they have lagged behind the rest of the nation, ranking 40th in percentage of the population covered as of May 6, 2020.[64][65] Justice encouraged West Virginians to get vaccinated with the slogan “Do It for Babydog”, based on Justice’s dog.[66]
Justice lives in Lewisburg, West Virginia. He was sued about his residency by former state house assistant minority whip Isaac Sponaugle, on the basis that Justice is not actually living in the West Virginia Governor’s Mansion in Charleston. The state constitution requires the governor to “reside at the seat of government,” Charleston. The lawsuit was eventually put before the West Virginia State Supreme Court which denied a motion for a writ of prohibition and Chief Justice Evan Jenkins defined “reside” in terms of statewide officeholders. On March 2, Justice resolved the lawsuit, agreeing to reside in Charleston and paying Sponaugle’s legal fees.[73]
On January 11, 2022, Justice tested positive for COVID-19 and described feeling “extremely unwell”.[74] He said that his heart rate and blood pressure were elevated.[74]
Youth sports
Since 1992, Justice has been president of Beckley Little League. His participation has helped the program expand to over 1,000 children playing on 80 teams.
Having lived in Lewisburg since 2001, he has been the girls basketball coach at Greenbrier East High School since 2003, having won the state championship in 2012. In 2011, he also became the head coach for the boys basketball teams, a position from which he stepped down in September 2017.[75] He was the only coach at the AAA level (the state’s largest classification) who coached both the girls and boys basketball teams. Justice stated that though he will place his business interests in a blind trust upon becoming governor, he will still coach basketball while serving.[76] In discussing the coaching position, Justice said, “There are three things I know that I can do, and that’s shoot a shotgun, make a deal, and coach basketball. I’m excited about it.” In February 2020, Justice apologized for calling the Woodrow Wilson High School girls’ basketball players “a bunch of thugs” after a heated basketball game between Greenbrier East and Woodrow Wilson.[77]
Electoral history
2016 West Virginia Democratic gubernatorial primary[78]
Thanks to Governor Justice’s leadership, the state’s economy is strong and growing stronger every day. In the last year, over 20,000 news jobs were created in West Virginia, and total personal income for the state increased by $3 billion. The state’s unemployment rate hit the lowest in over a decade, and the state recently hit the highest level of employment in over a decade.Governor Justice has delivered on his promise of diversifying our economy and creating jobs. West Virginia welcomed job growth and expansion from large and small companies, including Hino Motors, Toyota Motor Manufacturing, Facebook, MPLX, Pietro Fiorentini, Northrup Grumman, Proctor & Gamble, Pratt and Whitney, Hyperloop One, and Great Barrel Company to name a few.Working with his friend President Donald Trump, Governor Justice has worked to ensure our small businesses, entrepreneurs, and innovators have the investment, tools, and support they need to grow and hire more West Virginians. He will continue working with President Trump to encourage the location of more federal agencies and workers in the Mountain State.There are challenges ahead, and more work to do, and Governor Justice is focused every day on building on the successes he has achieved during his time in office.
Governor Justice believes every child in West Virginia deserves the opportunity to receive not just a good but an excellent education. He made education our centerpiece by working with education leaders, teachers, and parents to improve public schools. He delivered record pay raises for West Virginia’s teachers and school service personnel.
Governor Justice knows that education reform focused on paying hard working teachers well, increasing student achievement, and empowering parents with options that are best for their children will mean greater opportunities for our children and grandchildren.
After years of neglect, Governor Jim Justice is making historic improvements to our highways and secondary roads. Over the last year, the Division of Highways completed a record-setting 27,000 miles of road paving and maintenance.
Governor Justice’s Roads to Prosperity Program has resulted in nearly $2 billion for construction and maintenance of highways and roads, including The Coalfields Expressway, the King Coal Highway, and the next phase of Corridor H. Other major highway work recently awarded, include road work on the I-70 Bridges Project in Wheeling, the I-64 Nitro/St. Albans Bridge, the U.S. 35 Project, and I-64 widening work.
Drug Abuse & Addiction
Governor Justice addressed the drug abuse crisis with a three-pronged attack: go after the drug runners, offer addicts a way out, and create jobs to solve the core problem. He created the West Virginia Narcotics Intelligence Unit to use state-of-the-art data analytics, forensic accounting, and support to every West Virginia law enforcement agency to crack down on drug trafficking activity.
Governor Justice created the Jobs & Hope Program to help combat the state’s drug crisis by offering free addiction treatment while, at the same time, offering free career and technical education. This effort has been an enormous success. Over 1,200 West Virginians have been referred to the program, and people are graduating with skills and training for exciting new careers.
Conservative Leadership
With Governor Justice and President Trump, West Virginians have a strong, conservative leadership team. Governor Justice appointed the most conservative state Supreme Court in state history. He is a pro-life champion and staunchly pro-life. He is a strong supporter of Second Amendment rights and an avid outdoorsman. Governor Justice stands with President Trump and will prevent the establishment of sanctuary cities in West Virginia.
West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice said Friday that he didn’t know of any examples of transgender athletes trying to gain an unfair advantage in sports despite signing a bill Wednesday barring transgender athletes from competing in girls’ and women’s athletics.
MSNBC anchor Stephanie Ruhle pressed the governor on the new law Friday morning, following up with Justice, a Republican, after he responded that he did not “have that experience exactly to myself right now” when asked for an example in his state where a transgender athlete gained an unfair advantage in women’s or girls’ sports.
“Can you give me one example of a transgender child trying to get an unfair advantage, just one, in your state? You signed a bill about it,” Ruhle said.
West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice said Friday that he didn’t know of any examples of transgender athletes trying to gain an unfair advantage in sports despite signing a bill Wednesday barring transgender athletes from competing in girls’ and women’s athletics.
MSNBC anchor Stephanie Ruhle pressed the governor on the new law Friday morning, following up with Justice, a Republican, after he responded that he did not “have that experience exactly to myself right now” when asked for an example in his state where a transgender athlete gained an unfair advantage in women’s or girls’ sports.
“Can you give me one example of a transgender child trying to get an unfair advantage, just one, in your state? You signed a bill about it,” Ruhle said.
Senators are elected for terms of four years and delegates for terms of two years. These terms are staggered, meaning that not all 34 State Senate seats are up every election: some are elected presidential election years and some are up during midterm elections.[1]
Organization
Regular sessions of the legislature commence on the second Wednesday of January of each year. However, following the election of a new governor, the session starts in January with the governor’s address but then adjourns until February. On the first day of the session, members of both the House and the Senate sit in joint session in the House chamber where the governor presents his or her legislative program. The length of the general session may not go beyond 60 calendar days unless extended by a concurrent resolution adopted by a two-thirds vote of each house. The governor may convene the Legislature for extraordinary sessions. Given the part-time nature of the legislature of West Virginia, multiple extraordinary sessions are not uncommon.
Legislative process
Bills, even revenue bills, and resolutions may originate in either house.[1] Bills must undergo three readings in each house before being sent to the governor.[1] Bills cannot contain multiple subjects and do not take effect until 90 days following adjournment, unless specifically approved to take effect immediately by two-thirds of the membership of each house.[1]
Bills are drafted by the Office of Legislative Services or legislative staff counsel, reviewed by the sponsor of the bill and submitted for introduction to the clerk of the chamber of which he or she is a member.[2] Bills are assigned to committees that make recommendations about a bill in the form of a committee report.[2]
The governor has the power to veto bills.[1] For budget bills or supplementary appropriations bills, two-thirds of the members elected to each house are required to override the governor’s veto of a bill or line-item veto.[1] For all other bills, a simple majority of each house is required.[1]
Current Position: US Senator since 2011 Affiliation: Democrat Former Position(s): Governor from 2005 – 2010; Secretary of State from 2001 – 2005; State Senator from 1986 – 1996
Featured Quote: As the Appropriations Committee continues to work, I will fight tirelessly for West Virginia’s priorities. Click here to view my new, interactive map and see Congressionally Directed Spending requests from your county:
Featured Video: Joe Manchin: I’m not a ‘roadblock’ to Biden’s agenda
Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin on Monday pushed back on several politically sensitive positions his party leaders are taking at a crucial time for President Joe Biden’s domestic agenda.
The West Virginia Democrat, who holds a pivotal vote in the 50-50 Senate, indicated to CNN that he disagrees with the strategy top Democrats are pursuing in the standoff with Republicans over raising the national debt limit. Manchin said that Democrats “shouldn’t rule out anything,” including a budget process that Democratic leaders have made clear they will not employ. Speaking to reporters, Manchin also would not commit to the new timeline set by party leaders to find a deal on the social safety net expansion by October 31. And he sounded resistant to calls from progressives and other top Democrats to raise his $1.5 trillion price tag for the package, which many in his party view as too low to achieve key policy objectives.
In a stark warning sign to progressives, Manchin also indicated the package must include a prohibition against using federal funds for most abortions. “The Hyde Amendment is a red line,” he said. Manchin’s stance puts him at odds with progressives, with Congressional Progressive Caucus Chair Pramila Jayapal saying Sunday she would not support a package that included the Hyde Amendment.
Moderate Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia made clear Thursday that $1.5 trillion was the price tag he was willing to settle on for his party’s plan to expand the social safety net, putting him $2 trillion away from the lowest number progressive Democrats have said they would accept. Manchin said he informed President Joe Biden that was his number, and Biden said he needed more than that.
“I’ve never been a liberal in any way, shape or form,” Manchin said. “I’m willing to come from zero to 1.5 (trillion).”
The Democrats’ Build Back Better Act would expand the child tax credit and Medicare’s ability to cover vision, hearing and dental care, fund community college and universal pre-kindergarten initiatives, combat climate change, and fund elder care and paid leave programs. The $3.5 trillion bill would be paid for, at least in part, by tax increases primarily on corporations and the wealthy.
But Manchin has noted that Congress has spent $5.4 trillion since last March in response to the pandemic. In a statement Wednesday, Manchin asked, “At some point, all of us regardless of party must ask the simple question — how much is enough?”
Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema hold the reins on President Joe Biden’s jobs and families plan, and their fellow Democrats are struggling with how to handle it.
Led by Manchin’s media tour on Sunday shows and in the Wall Street Journal op-ed pages, the two moderate senators are essentially dictating the final terms of what their colleagues have envisioned as a transformational social spending, tax and environmental package. Manchin’s willingness to take his argument to the public has progressives seething and has made him the focal point of angst within the Democratic Party’s small majorities.
Asked if he was aligned with Manchin on reconciliation, Sen. Jon Tester (D-Mont.) cracked: “Are you crazy? Are you trying to get me shot? I’d never, ever want to be aligned with Joe Manchin. My wife would divorce me.”
“Joe is Joe. Joe is going to hammer it out, the way he wants to hammer it out and go from there. We both have similar values but we certainly don’t think alike,” added Tester, who’s been more comfortable with the $3.5 trillion spending number that Manchin has rejected but wants it paid for. He said the two have not discussed the reconciliation bill in detail.
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Current Position: US Senator since 2011 Affiliation: Democrat Former Position(s): Governor from 2005 – 2010; Secretary of State from 2001 – 2005; State Senator from 1986 – 1996
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Featured Video: Joe Manchin: I’m not a ‘roadblock’ to Biden’s agenda
Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin on Monday pushed back on several politically sensitive positions his party leaders are taking at a crucial time for President Joe Biden’s domestic agenda.
The West Virginia Democrat, who holds a pivotal vote in the 50-50 Senate, indicated to CNN that he disagrees with the strategy top Democrats are pursuing in the standoff with Republicans over raising the national debt limit. Manchin said that Democrats “shouldn’t rule out anything,” including a budget process that Democratic leaders have made clear they will not employ. Speaking to reporters, Manchin also would not commit to the new timeline set by party leaders to find a deal on the social safety net expansion by October 31. And he sounded resistant to calls from progressives and other top Democrats to raise his $1.5 trillion price tag for the package, which many in his party view as too low to achieve key policy objectives.
In a stark warning sign to progressives, Manchin also indicated the package must include a prohibition against using federal funds for most abortions. “The Hyde Amendment is a red line,” he said. Manchin’s stance puts him at odds with progressives, with Congressional Progressive Caucus Chair Pramila Jayapal saying Sunday she would not support a package that included the Hyde Amendment.
Moderate Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia made clear Thursday that $1.5 trillion was the price tag he was willing to settle on for his party’s plan to expand the social safety net, putting him $2 trillion away from the lowest number progressive Democrats have said they would accept. Manchin said he informed President Joe Biden that was his number, and Biden said he needed more than that.
“I’ve never been a liberal in any way, shape or form,” Manchin said. “I’m willing to come from zero to 1.5 (trillion).”
The Democrats’ Build Back Better Act would expand the child tax credit and Medicare’s ability to cover vision, hearing and dental care, fund community college and universal pre-kindergarten initiatives, combat climate change, and fund elder care and paid leave programs. The $3.5 trillion bill would be paid for, at least in part, by tax increases primarily on corporations and the wealthy.
But Manchin has noted that Congress has spent $5.4 trillion since last March in response to the pandemic. In a statement Wednesday, Manchin asked, “At some point, all of us regardless of party must ask the simple question — how much is enough?”
Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema hold the reins on President Joe Biden’s jobs and families plan, and their fellow Democrats are struggling with how to handle it.
Led by Manchin’s media tour on Sunday shows and in the Wall Street Journal op-ed pages, the two moderate senators are essentially dictating the final terms of what their colleagues have envisioned as a transformational social spending, tax and environmental package. Manchin’s willingness to take his argument to the public has progressives seething and has made him the focal point of angst within the Democratic Party’s small majorities.
Asked if he was aligned with Manchin on reconciliation, Sen. Jon Tester (D-Mont.) cracked: “Are you crazy? Are you trying to get me shot? I’d never, ever want to be aligned with Joe Manchin. My wife would divorce me.”
“Joe is Joe. Joe is going to hammer it out, the way he wants to hammer it out and go from there. We both have similar values but we certainly don’t think alike,” added Tester, who’s been more comfortable with the $3.5 trillion spending number that Manchin has rejected but wants it paid for. He said the two have not discussed the reconciliation bill in detail.
U.S. Senator Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) was sworn into the United States Senate on November 15, 2010 to fill the seat left vacant by the late Senator Robert C. Byrd. For Senator Manchin, serving as West Virginia’s Senator is truly an honor and a privilege.
Born and raised in the small coal mining town of Farmington, W.Va., Sen. Manchin grew up learning the values that all West Virginians share — family, common sense, fairness and hard work. As a small businessman, he learned firsthand from his grandfather, Papa Joe, who was an Italian immigrant and the town grocer, the importance of serving the public. As a young man, his beloved grandmother, Mama Kay, inspired Senator Manchin’s belief in public service through her unflagging compassion and desire to help those less fortunate.
From his days as a state legislator to his six years as Governor to his current role, Senator Manchin has always been committed to his philosophy of “retail government” — in other words, connecting with all of his constituents and making service to them his top priority.
As a Senator, Joe Manchin is committed to bringing this same spirit of bipartisanship to Washington. As he has done throughout his entire life, he remains committed to working with Republicans and Democrats to find commonsense solutions to the problems our country faces and is working hard to usher in a new bipartisan spirit in the Senate and Congress.
Legislatively, job creation is Senator Manchin’s top priority and he believes that government should act as a partner, not an adversary, in helping to create the environment that produces good American jobs. Senator Manchin also firmly believes that our nation can and must do what he did in West Virginia – put our fiscal house in order. He believes we must find commonsense ways to cut spending while keeping our promises to our seniors and veterans by protecting Social Security and Medicare.
Senator Manchin is strongly committed to developing a balanced national energy plan that utilizes all of our resources and recognizes that fossil fuels will be a vital part of our energy mix for decades to come. He believes that a balanced, commonsense approach that considers the needs of our environment and the demands of our economy, can and must be developed if we are to achieve energy independence within this generation.
Senator Manchin currently serves as the Chairman of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, and also serves on the Senate Committee on Appropriations, the Senate Committee on Armed Services, and the Senate Committee on Veterans’ Affairs – four critical committees that tackle the important work of addressing our nation’s energy needs, overseeing discretionary spending, standing up for our Veterans, and defending our nation.
Senator Manchin is an avid pilot, outdoorsman, hunter, angler and motorcyclist. He has been married for more than four decades to the former Gayle Conelly of Beckley. They have three children: Heather, Joseph IV and Brooke, and are the proud grandparents of Joseph V, Sophie, Kelsey, Madeline, Chloe, Jack, Carly, Vivian, Beaux and Knox.
Manchin won the 2004 West Virginia gubernatorial election by a large margin and was reelected by an even larger margin in 2008. Manchin won the 2010 special election to fill the Senate seat vacated by incumbent Democrat Robert Byrd‘s death with 53% of the vote. He was elected to a full term in 2012 with 61% of the vote and reelected in 2018 with just under 50% of the vote. Manchin won elections in West Virginia even as the state became heavily Republican, with Manchin being the only Democrat in West Virginia’s congressional delegation or holding statewide office in 2021.[8]
After the 2020 elections, Manchin became the “most important swing vote” in the Senate,[12] which is split 50–50 between Democrats and Republicans, but controlled by Democrats because Vice PresidentKamala Harris is the tiebreaker. Since passing legislation with only Democratic support requires Manchin’s vote, he wields a large influence in the 117th Congress.[13]
Manchin’s father owned a carpet and furniture store, and his grandfather, Joseph Manchin, owned a grocery store.[22] His father and his grandfather both served as Farmington’s mayor. His uncle A.J. Manchin was a member of the West Virginia House of Delegates and later the West Virginia Secretary of State and Treasurer.[23]
Manchin founded the coal brokerage Enersystems in 1988,[27] and helped run it until he became a full-time politician.[28] When he was elected West Virginia secretary of state in 2000, he gave control of Enersystems to his son Joseph. In Manchin’s financial disclosure for 2020, he reported that his non-public shares of Enersystems were worth between $1 million and $5 million and that between 2011 and 2020 he was paid $5,211,154 in dividend income from them.[29][30] In 2020, he received over $500,000 in dividends.[31] Enersystems is 71% of Manchin’s investment income and 30% of his net worth.[32]
Other investments
Since his election to the U.S. Senate in 2010, Manchin has listed AA Properties as a non-public asset on his annual financial disclosures.[33][34] AA Property is reportedly 50% controlled by Manchin, and has, among other things, been an investor in Emerald Coast Realty, which owns a La Quinta hotel in Elkview, West Virginia.[35]
In 2003 Manchin announced his intention to challenge incumbent Democratic Governor Bob Wise in the 2004 Democratic primary. Wise decided not to seek reelection after a scandal, and Manchin won the Democratic primary and general election by large margins. His election marked the first time since 1964 that a West Virginia governor was succeeded by another governor from the same party.
In July 2005, Massey EnergyCEODon Blankenship sued Manchin, alleging that Manchin had violated Blankenship’s First Amendment rights by threatening increased government scrutiny of his coal operations in retaliation for Blankenship’s political activities.[38] Blankenship had donated substantial funds into campaigns to defeat a proposed pension bond amendment and oppose the reelection of state Supreme Court Justice Warren McGraw,[39] and he fought against a proposed increase in the severance tax on extraction of mineral resources.[40] Soon after the bond amendment’s defeat, the state Division of Environmental Protection (DEP) revoked a permit approval for controversial new silos near Marsh Fork Elementary School in Raleigh County. While area residents had complained for some time that the coal operation there endangered their children, Blankenship claimed that the DEP acted in response to his opposition to the bond amendment.[41]
During the Sago Mine disaster in early January 2006 in Upshur County, West Virginia, Manchin confirmed incorrect reports that 12 miners had survived; in actuality only one survived.[42] Manchin later acknowledged that a miscommunication had occurred with rescue teams in the mine.[43] On February 1, 2006, he ordered a stop to all coal production in West Virginia pending safety checks after two more miners were killed in separate accidents.[44] Sixteen West Virginia coal miners died in mining accidents in early 2006. In November 2006, SurveyUSA ranked Manchin one of the country’s most popular governors, with a 74% approval rating.[45]
Manchin easily won reelection to a second term as governor in 2008 against Republican Russ Weeks, capturing 69.77% of the vote and winning every county.[46]
Due to Senator Robert Byrd‘s declining health, there was speculation about what Manchin would do if Byrd died. Manchin refused to comment on the subject until Byrd’s death, except to say that he would not appoint himself to the Senate.[47] Byrd died on June 28, 2010,[48] and Manchin appointed Carte Goodwin, his 36-year-old legal adviser, on July 16.[49]
On July 20, 2010, Manchin announced he would seek the Senate seat.[50] In the August 28 Democratic primary, he defeated former Democratic Congressman and former West Virginia Secretary of State Ken Hechler.[51] In the general election, he defeated Republican businessman John Raese with 53% of the vote.
Manchin ran for reelection to a full-term in 2012. According to the Democratic firm Public Policy Polling, early polling found Manchin heavily favored, leading Representative Shelley Moore Capito 50–39, 2010 opponent John Raese 60–31, and Congressman David McKinley 57–28.[52] Manchin did not endorse President Barack Obama for reelection in 2012, saying that he had “some real differences” with the presumptive nominees of both major parties, finding fault with Obama’s economic and energy policies and questioning Romney’s understanding of the “challenges facing ordinary people.”[53]
Manchin defeated Raese and Mountain Party candidate Bob Henry Baber, winning 61% of the vote.[54]
In 2018, Manchin ran for reelection.[55] He was challenged in the Democratic primary by Paula Jean Swearengin. Swearengin is an activist and coal miner’s daughter who was supported by former members of Bernie Sanders‘s 2016 presidential campaign. She criticized Manchin for voting with Republicans and supporting Trump’s policies.[5][56] Manchin won the primary with 70% of the vote.
On the Republican side, Manchin was challenged by West Virginia attorney generalPatrick Morrisey. In August 2017, Morrisey publicly asked Manchin to resign from the Senate Democratic leadership. Manchin responded, “I don’t give a shit, you understand?” to a Charleston Gazette-Mail reporter. “I just don’t give a shit. Don’t care if I get elected, don’t care if I get defeated, how about that?”[57]
Manchin won the November 6 general election, defeating Morrisey 49.57%-46.26%.[58]
Manchin plans to run for reelection to a third full term in 2024.[59] He has a lead in the polls.[60]
Tenure
Obama years (2010–2017)
Manchin was first sworn in to the U.S. Senate by Vice President Joe Biden on November 15, 2010, succeeding interim Senator Carte Goodwin.[55] In a 2014 New York Times interview, Manchin said his relationship with Obama was “fairly nonexistent.”[61]
According to FiveThirtyEight, which tracks congressional votes, Manchin voted with Trump’s position 50.4% of the time during his presidency.[62]
Manchin initially welcomed Trump’s presidency, saying, “He’ll correct the trading policies, the imbalance in our trade policies, which are horrible.” He supported the idea of Trump “calling companies to keep them from moving factories overseas.”[18] Manchin voted for most of Trump’s cabinet nominees. He was the only Democrat to vote to confirm Attorney General Jeff Sessions[63] and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin,[64] one of two Democrats to vote to confirm Scott Pruitt as EPA Administrator, and one of three to vote to confirm Secretary of State Rex Tillerson.[65]
Manchin voted for Trump’s first two Supreme Court nominees, Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh. In the former case, he was one of three Democrats (alongside Joe Donnelly and Heidi Heitkamp) to vote to confirm; in the latter case, he was the only one. He opposed the nomination of Amy Coney Barrett, citing the closeness to the upcoming presidential election.[66]
Manchin voted to convict Trump in both impeachment trials, the second taking place shortly after the inauguration of Joe Biden.
Biden years (2021–present)
According to FiveThirtyEight, Manchin has voted with Biden’s position 97.4% of the time as of December 2021.[67] Since the beginning of the Biden administration, the Senate has been evenly divided between Democratic and Republican members; Manchin’s ability to deny Democrats a majority has made him very influential.[68][69]
In December 2021, Manchin signaled that he was not likely to vote for the Build Back Better Act, saying, “I cannot vote to continue with this piece of legislation. I just can’t. I’ve tried everything humanly possible. I can’t get there.”[70] Manchin cited growing inflation, the national debt, and the Omicron variant as reasons for opposition. The White House responded to his statements with press secretary Jen Psaki saying they “represent a sudden and inexplicable reversal in his position, and a breach of his commitments to the president and the senator’s colleagues in the House and Senate.”[71] The United Mine Workers of America (UMWA), which represents West Virginia coal miners and endorsed him in the 2018 United States Senate election in West Virginia,[72] urged Manchin to revisit his opposition, noting that the bill includes an extension of a fund that provides benefits to coal miners suffering from black lung disease, which expires at the end of the year. The UMWA also touted tax incentives that encourage manufacturers to build facilities in coalfields that would employ thousands of miners who lost their jobs.[73]
On March 25, 2022, Manchin announced that he would vote to confirm Ketanji Brown Jackson to the Supreme Court.[74]
Manchin received the most funding from the oil and gas industry of any senator from May 2020 to May 2021,[75] including $1.6 million in donations from fossil fuel PACs.[76] He also receives funding from individuals and PACs connected to law and real estate, among others.[77]
In June 2021, ExxonMobil lobbyist Keith McCoy said that Manchin was one of its key targets for funding and that he participated in weekly meetings with the company.[78][32] Many senators and journalists have criticized Manchin’s opposition to climate-change legislation given his funding by the fossil-fuel industry and his shares in his family-owned coal business.[79]
On September 30, 2021, an MSNBC news reporter asked Manchin about his opposition to H.R.5376 – Build Back Better Act, accusing him of having a conflict of interest with provisions within the bill: “Sir, the company you founded, Enersystems, provides coal to power plants that would be impacted by one of the proposals in the plan. How is that not a conflict of interest?” Manchin replied, “I’ve been in a blind trust for 20 years. I have no idea what they’re doing.”[80]
Manchin identifies as “pro-life“.[3] He has mixed ratings from both abortion-rights and anti-abortion movements political action groups. In 2018, Planned Parenthood, which supports access to abortion, gave Manchin a lifetime grade of 57%. National Right to Life (NRLC), which opposes abortion, gave Manchin a 100% score in 2019 and NARAL Pro-Choice America gave him a 72% in 2017.[87] On August 3, 2015, he broke with Democratic leadership by voting in favor of a Republican-sponsored bill to terminate federal funding for Planned Parenthood both in the United States and globally.[6] He has the endorsement of Democrats for Life of America, a Democratic PAC that opposes abortion.[88]
On March 30, 2017, Manchin voted against H.J.Res. 43, which allowed states to refuse to give Title X grant money to organizations for reasons unrelated to their ability to provide the services needed.[89] Trump signed the bill.[90] In April 2017, Manchin endorsed the continued funding of Planned Parenthood.[91][92] Also in 2017, Planned Parenthood gave him a rating of 44%.[93] In January 2018, Manchin joined two other Democrats and most Republicans by voting for a bill to ban abortion after 20 weeks.[94] In June 2018, upon Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy‘s retirement, Manchin urged Trump not to appoint a judge who would seek to overturn Roe v. Wade but to instead choose a “centrist”.[95]
In 2019, Manchin was one of three Democrats to join all Republicans in voting for a bill to require that doctors care for infants born alive after a failed abortion.[96]
In February 2022, Manchin was the only Democratic senator to vote against an abortion proposal, Women’s Health Protection Act,[97] that would have included limiting the states’ ability to restrict abortion access, among other expansions.[98]
In May 2022, Manchin said that he would vote against his party’s bill to codify federal abortion rights as the Supreme Court appeared poised to overturn Roe v. Wade. Manchin said the bill went too far and that he would support a narrower measure. He was the only Senate Democrat to oppose the legislation.[99][100]
Airports
After Manchin and Shelley Moore Capito announced $2.7 million from the Department of Transportation‘s Essential Air Service program for the North Central West Virginia Airport in October 2019, Manchin called air travel critical for both economic growth and the tourism industry in West Virginia and said that reliable air service to North Central West Virginia “opened up the area to more visitors and new economic opportunities, including an aerospace industry that has generated more than $1 billion worth of economic impact in the surrounding region.”[101]
Bipartisanship
In his first year in office, Manchin met one-on-one with all 99 of his Senate colleagues in an effort to get to know them better.[102]
On December 13, 2010, Manchin participated in the launch of No Labels, a nonpartisan organization “committed to bringing all sides together to move the nation forward.”[103] Manchin is a co-chair of No Labels.[104]
Manchin was one of only three Democratic senators to vote against Senate Majority leader Harry Reid‘s move to implement the nuclear option, which switched the Senate away from operating on a supermajority basis, to requiring only a simple majority for certain decisions, on November 21, 2013.
Manchin worked with Senator Pat Toomey (R-PA) to introduce legislation that would require a background check for most gun sales.[105]
Before his Senate swearing-in in 2010, rumors suggested that the Republican Party was courting Manchin to change parties.[107] Republicans later suggested that Manchin was the source of the rumors,[108] but they attempted to convince him again in 2014 after retaking control of the Senate.[109] He again rejected their overtures.[110] As the 2016 elections approached, reports speculated that Manchin would become a Republican if the Senate were in a 50–50 tie,[111] but he later said he would remain a Democrat at least as long as he remained in the Senate.[112]
Manchin criticized Democrats for not standing for President Trump’s 2018 State of the Union Address, saying, “I’ve seen it on both sides when Obama gave speeches, Republicans. That’s disrespectful and last night was disrespectful.”[113]
On January 8, 2019, Manchin was one of four Democrats to vote to advance a bill imposing sanctions against the Syrian government and furthering U.S. support for Israel and Jordan as Democratic members of the chamber employed tactics to end the United States federal government shutdown of 2018–2019.[114] In April 2019, he endorsed Republican Senator Susan Collins in her 2020 reelection campaign.[115]
In March 2022, during the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Manchin and Senator Lisa Murkowski led the drafting of the Ban Russian Energy Imports Act. The act would declare a national emergency pursuant to existing law and ban most fossil fuel imports from Russia for the war’s duration. At introduction it was sponsored by 18 senators, a mixture of Republicans, Democrats, and independents.[116][117]
Broadband
In December 2018, following the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) announcing a pause on the funding program for wireless broadband during its conduction of an investigation regarding the submission of coverage data by major wireless carriers, Manchin announced his intent to hold the renomination of Brendan Carr in protest of the move. Manchin lifted his hold the following week, after the FCC promised that rolling out funding for wireless broadband in rural areas would be a priority.[118]
In March 2019, Manchin was a cosponsor of a bill that would have included consumer-reported data along with data from state and local governments into consideration during mapping of which areas have broadband and that would take into consideration the measures used to challenge broadband services. Manchin called himself “the only member of Congress to formally challenge a federal broadband coverage map through the Mobility Fund Phase II challenge process” and referred to the bill as “a good first step” in implementing public input in provider data.[119]
In August 2019, Manchin sent FCC Chairman Ajit Pai eight letters that contained results from speed tests across his state of West Virginia as part of an effort to highlight incorrect broadband coverage maps in the state. Manchin opined that “devastating impacts on the tourism industry” in West Virginia were being caused by a lack of broadband access and that the same things that had attracted people to visit West Virginia such as its tall mountains, forests, hills, and rapids had made “broadband deployment astronomically expensive.”[120]
China
In April 2017, Manchin was one of eight Democratic senators to sign a letter to President Trump noting government-subsidized Chinese steel had been placed into the American market in recent years below cost and had hurt the domestic steel industry and the iron ore industry that fed it, calling on Trump to raise the steel issue with President of the People’s Republic of ChinaXi Jinping in his meeting with him.[121]
In July 2017, he urged Trump to block the sale of the Chicago Stock Exchange to Chinese investors, arguing that China’s “rejection of fundamental free-market norms and property rights of private citizens makes me strongly doubt whether an Exchange operating under the direct control of a Chinese entity can be trusted to ‘self-regulate’ now and in the future.” He also expressed concern “that the challenges plaguing the Chinese market – lack of transparency, currency manipulation, etc. – will bleed into the Chicago Stock Exchange and adversely impact financial markets across the country.”[122]
In November 2017, in response to efforts by China to purchase tech companies based in the US, Manchin was one of nine senators to cosponsor a bill that would broaden the federal government’s ability to prevent foreign purchases of U.S. firms through increasing the strength of the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS). The scope of the CFIUS would be expanded to allow it to review along with possibly decline smaller investments and add additional national security factors for CFIUS to consider including if information about Americans would be exposed as part of transactions or whether the deal would facilitate fraud.[123]
In November 2017, following the West Virginia Commerce Department announcing an agreement with China Energy to invest $83.7 billion in shale gas development and chemical manufacturing projects in West Virginia after state Commerce Secretary Woody Thrasher and China Energy President Ling Wen signed a Memorandum of Understanding, Manchin said that he was thrilled with the signing and that he was satisfied that China Energy recognized West Virginians as the hardest working people in the world.[124]
In March 2018, Manchin cited China as responsible for President Trump’s imposing of tariffs on steel and aluminum imports, noting that the United States was the largest importer of steel while 50 percent of steel was produced in China, and that he did believe the theory that prices would increase as a result of the tariffs.[125]
In May 2019, Manchin was a cosponsor of the South China Sea and East China Sea Sanctions Act, a bipartisan bill reintroduced by Marco Rubio and Ben Cardin that was intended to disrupt China’s consolidation or expansion of its claims of jurisdiction over both the sea and air space in disputed zones in the South China Sea.[126]
D.C. and Puerto Rico statehood
In a November 10, 2020, interview, Manchin said that he did not “see the need for the D.C. statehood with the type of services that we’re getting in D.C. right now” and that he was “not convinced that’s the way to go.” Of Puerto Rico statehood, Manchin said that he opposed it but was open to discussion.[127] In a January 10, 2021 interview, he did not affirm his opposition to statehood for D.C. or Puerto Rico, saying only, “I don’t know enough about that yet. I want to see the pros and cons. So I’m waiting to see all the facts. I’m open up to see everything”.[128] On April 30, 2021, Manchin came out against the D.C. Statehood bill that had passed the House of Representatives, suggesting that D.C. could instead be given statehood by constitutional amendment.[129]
Disaster relief
In May 2019, Manchin and John Cornyn introduced the Disaster Recovery Funding Act, a bill that would direct the Office of Management and Budget to release $16 billion for disaster relief funding within 60 days to nine states and two U.S. Territories. Manchin said that West Virginia had been awaiting funding for rebuilding for three years since a series of floods in June 2016 and that he was proud to work with Cornyn on a bipartisan solution; the bill died in committee.[130]
In August 2019, as Manchin announced $106 million in disaster relief funding for West Virginia, he said the Trump administration had finally heeded his request by releasing “this desperately needed funding to the people of West Virginia and other areas of the country that are still rebuilding and recovering from horrible natural disasters”, and promoted the funding as helping West Virginia “rebuild smarter and stronger and reduce the potential future catastrophic flooding in this area.”[131]
Dodd-Frank
In 2018, Manchin was one of 17 Democrats to break with their party and vote with Republicans to ease the Dodd-Frank banking rules.[132]
In May 2012, in an effort to reduce prescription drug abuse, Manchin successfully proposed an amendment to the Food and Drug Administration reauthorization bill to reclassify hydrocodone as a Schedule II controlled substance.[135]
In March 2017, Manchin was one of 21 senators to sign a letter led by Ed Markey to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell that noted that 12% of adult Medicaid beneficiaries had some form or a substance abuse disorder and that one third of treatment for opioid and other substance use disorders in the United States is financed through Medicaid, and opined that the American Health Care Act could “very literally translate into a death spiral for those with opioid use disorders” due to the insurance coverage lacking adequate funds for care, often resulting in individuals abandoning substance use disorder treatment.[136]
Education
In February 2019, Manchin said the collapse of an omnibus education reform proposal resulted from state lawmakers not laying groundwork for broad support for the proposal, saying, “You don’t do major reform, policy changes, for the whole education system in a 60-day session without public hearings. There should have been a whole year of going out and speaking to the public.” He stated his support for home school and private school as well as his opposition to funding “them with public dollars.”[137]
In a September 2019 letter to United States Secretary of EducationBetsy Devos, Manchin noted that the West Virginia Education Department had identified over 10,000 children as “homeless for the 2018-2019 school year” and argued that West Virginia was receiving insufficient resources through the McKinney-Vento program and a Title I program.[138]
Energy and environment
President Barack Obama and then-Vice President Joe Biden speak to a bipartisan group of governors about building a clean energy economy, February 2010
Manchin sits on the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee and supports a comprehensive, “all-of-the-above” energy approach that includes coal.[139]
Manchin’s first bill in the Senate dealt with what he called the EPA’s overreach. After the EPA vetoed a previously approved permit for the Spruce Mine in Logan County, West Virginia, he offered the EPA Fair Play Act,[140] which would “clarify and confirm the authority of the Environment Protection Agency to deny or restrict the use of defined areas as disposal sites for the discharge of dredged or filled material.”[141] Manchin said the bill would prevent the EPA from “changing its rules on businesses after permits have already been granted.”[142]
On October 6, 2010, Manchin directed a lawsuit aimed at overturning new federal rules concerning mountaintop removal mining. Filed by the state Department of Environmental Protection, the lawsuit “accuses U.S. EPA of overstepping its authority and asks the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of West Virginia to throw out the federal agency’s new guidelines for issuing Clean Water Act permits for coal mines.” In order to qualify for the permits, mining companies need to prove their projects would not cause the concentration of pollutants in the local water to rise five times above the normal level. The New York Times reported that EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson said the new legislation would protect 95% of aquatic life by banning operators from dumping mine waste into streams.[143]
Environmentalists have criticized Manchin for his family ties to the coal industry. He served as president of Energysystems in the late 1990s before becoming active in politics. On his financial disclosures in 2009 and 2010, his reported earnings from the company were $1,363,916 and $417,255, respectively.[28] Critics have said his opposition to health regulations that would raise industry expenses are due to his stake in the industry; West Virginia’s Sierra Club chapter chair Jim Sconyers said, “he’s been nothing but a mouthpiece for the coal industry his whole public life.”[28] Opinions on the subject are mixed; The Charleston Gazette wrote, “the prospect that Manchin’s $1.7 million-plus in recent Enersystems earnings might tilt him even more strongly pro-coal might seem remote, given the deep economic and cultural connections that the industry maintains in West Virginia.”[144]
On November 14, 2011, Manchin chaired his first field hearing of that committee in Charleston, West Virginia, to focus on Marcellus Shale natural gas development and production. He said, “We are literally sitting on top of tremendous potential with the Marcellus shale. We need to work together to chart a path forward in a safe and responsible way that lets us produce energy right here in America.”[145]
Manchin supports building the Keystone XL Pipeline from Canada. He has said, “It makes so much common sense that you want to buy oil off your friends and not your enemies.” The pipeline would span over 2,000 miles across the United States.[146]
On November 9, 2011, Manchin and Dan Coats introduced the Fair Compliance Act. The bill would “lengthen timelines and establish benchmarks for utilities to comply with two major Environmental Protection Agency air pollution rules. The legislation would extend the compliance deadline for the Cross-State Air Pollution Rule, or CSAPR, by three years and the deadline for the Utility MACT rule by two years—setting both to January 1, 2017.”[147]
Manchin and John Barrasso introduced the American Alternative Fuels Act on May 10, 2011. The bill would remove restrictions on development of alternative fuels, repeal part of the 2007 energy bill restricting the federal government from buying alternative fuels and encourage the development of algae-based fuels and synthetic natural gas. Of the bill, Manchin said, “Our unacceptably high gas prices are hurting not only West Virginians, but all Americans, and they underscore a critical need: the federal government needs to be a partner, not an obstacle, for businesses that can transform our domestic energy resources into gas.”[148]
In 2011, Manchin was the only Democratic senator to support the Energy Tax Prevention Act, which sought to prohibit the EPA from regulating greenhouse gas.[149] He was also one of four Democratic senators to vote against the Stream Protection Rule.[150] In 2012, Manchin supported a GOP effort to “scuttle Environmental Protection Agency regulations that mandate cuts in mercury pollution and other toxic emissions from coal-fired power plants”, while West Virginia’s other senator, Jay Rockefeller, did not.[151]
In December 2014, Manchin was one of six Democratic senators to sign a letter to the EPA urging it to give states more time to comply with its rule on power plants because the final rule “must provide adequate time for the design, permitting and construction of such large scale capital intensive infrastructure”, and calling for an elimination of the 2020 targets in the final rule, a mandate that states take action by 2020 as part of the EPA’s goal to reach a 30% carbon cut by 2030.[152]
Manchin criticized Obama’s environmental regulations as a “war on coal” and demanded what he called a proper balance between the needs of the environment and the coal business.[153] The Los Angeles Times wrote that while professing environmental concerns, he has consistently stood up for coal, saying “no one is going to stop using fossil fuels for a long time.” Manchin “does not deny the existence of man-made climate change”, the Times wrote, but “is reluctant to curtail it.”[154] In February 2017, he was one of two Democratic senators to vote to confirm Scott Pruitt as Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency.[155] In June 2017, Manchin supported Trump’s withdrawal from the Paris climate accord, saying he supported “a cleaner energy future” but that the Paris deal failed to strike “a balance between our environment and the economy.”[156]
In June 2017, Manchin introduced the Capitalizing American Storage Potential Act, legislation ensuring a regional storage hub would qualify for the Title XVII innovative technologies loan guarantee program of the Energy Department. He argued the Appalachian Storage Hub would grant West Virginia and its neighboring states the ability “to realize the unique opportunities associated with Appalachia’s abundant natural gas liquids like ethane, naturally occurring geologic storage and expanding energy infrastructure” and that the regional storage hub would “attract manufacturing investment, create jobs and significantly reduce the rejection rate of natural gas liquids.” The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee approved the bill in March 2018.[157]
In April 2018, Manchin and Capito introduced the Electricity Reliability and Fuel Security Act, a bill providing a temporary tax credit for existing coal-fired power plants that would help cover a part of both operation and maintenance costs. Manchin said that he knew “coal-fired power” was the engine of the West Virginia economy and that “coal-fired power plants have kept the lights on when other forms of energy could not”.[158]
In July 2018, along with fellow Democrat Heidi Heitkamp and Republicans James Risch and Lamar Alexander, Manchin introduced the Recovering America’s Wildlife Act, a bill that would reallocate $1.3 billion annually from energy development on federal lands and waters to the Wildlife Conservation Restoration Program intended to conserve fish and wildlife.[159]
In February 2019, in response to reports that the EPA intended to decide against setting drinking water limits for perfluorooctane sulfonic acid (PFOS) and perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) as part of a national strategy to manage those chemicals, Manchin was one of 20 senators to sign a letter to Acting EPA Administrator Andrew R. Wheeler calling on the EPA “to develop enforceable federal drinking water standards for PFOA and PFOS, as well as institute immediate actions to protect the public from contamination from additional per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS).”[160] In April 2019, he was one of three Democratic Senators who voted with Republicans to confirm David Bernhardt, an oil executive, as Secretary of the Interior Department.[161]
In February 2019, after Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell called for a vote on the Green New Deal in order to get Democratic members of the Senate on record regarding the legislation, Manchin expressed opposition to the plan:
The Green New Deal is a dream, it’s not a deal. It’s a dream. And that’s fine. People should have dreams in the perfect world what they’d like to see. I’ve got to work in realities and I’ve got to work in the practical, what I have in front of me. I’ve got to make sure that our country has affordable, dependable, reliable energy 24/7, but you can’t just be a denier and say, “Well, I’m not going to use coal. I’m not going to use natural gas. I’m not going to use oil.”[162]
In April 2019, Manchin was one of 12 senators to sign a bipartisan letter to top senators on the Appropriations Subcommittee on Energy and Water Development advocating that the Energy Department be granted maximum funding for carbon capture, utilization and storage (CCUS), arguing that American job growth could be stimulated through investment in viable options to capture carbon emissions and expressing disagreement with Trump’s 2020 budget request to combine the two federal programs that include carbon capture research.[163]
In April 2019, Manchin was the only Democrat to cosponsor the Enhancing Fossil Fuel Energy Carbon Technology (EFFECT) Act, legislation intended to increase federal funding for developing carbon capture technology and simultaneously commit to fossil fuel use. In a statement, he cited the need for the United States “to lead in technological innovations designed to reduce carbon emissions” while noting that energy experts who had testified before the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources had concurred on the continued use of fossil fuels through 2040. He called the bill “a critical piece of the solution addressing the climate crisis.”[164]
In April 2019, Manchin was the lead sponsor the Land and Water Conservation Fund Permanent Funding Act, bipartisan legislation that would provide permanent and dedicated funding for the Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF) at a level of $900 million as part of an effort to protect public lands.[165]
In May 2019, Manchin, Lisa Murkowski and Martha McSally introduced the American Mineral Security Act, a bill that would codify current methodology that the United States used to list critical minerals and require the list to be updated at least once every three years. McSally’s office also said the bill would mandate nationwide resource assessments for every critical mineral.[166]
In September 2019, Manchin was one of eight senators to sign a bipartisan letter to congressional leadership requesting full and lasting funding of the Land and Water Conservation Act in order to aid national parks and public lands, benefit the $887 billion American outdoor recreation economy, and “ensure much-needed investment in our public lands and continuity for the state, tribal, and non-federal partners who depend on them.”[167]
In February 2021, Manchin was one of seven Democratic U.S. Senators to join Republicans in blocking a ban of hydraulic fracturing, commonly known as fracking.[168]
In 2021, Manchin opposed the “Clean Electricity Performance Program” in the reconciliation bill, leading to its removal.[169][76]
Manchin has expressed strong opposition to entitlement reform, describing Mitch McConnell‘s comments in October 2018 on the need to reform entitlement programs such as Social Security, Medicaid and Medicare as “absolutely ridiculous.”[173] In January 2019, Manchin supported both Republican and Democratic bills to end a government shutdown.[174] He was the only Democrat to break from his party and vote in favor of the Republican proposal.[175]
On August 1, 2019, the Senate passed a bipartisan budget deal that raised spending over current levels by $320 billon and lifted the debt ceiling for the following two years in addition to forming a course for funding the government without the perceived fiscal brinkmanship of recent years. Manchin joined Tom Carper and Republicans Mitt Romney and Rick Scott in issuing a statement asserting that “as former Governors, we were responsible for setting a budget each year that was fiscally responsible to fund our priorities. That’s why today, we, as U.S. Senators, cannot bring ourselves to vote for this budget deal that does not put our country on a fiscally sustainable path.”[176]
Foreign policy
Manchin is critical of American military intervention overseas, particularly in Afghanistan and Syria. He has repeatedly demanded the withdrawal of American troops from Afghanistan and has opposed most military intervention in Syria.[177][10][178][11]
On June 21, 2011, Manchin delivered a speech on the Senate floor calling for a “substantial and responsible reduction in the United States’ military presence in Afghanistan.” He said, “We can no longer afford to rebuild Afghanistan and America. We must choose. And I choose America.”[179] Manchin’s remarks were criticized by Senator John McCain (R-AZ) as “at least uninformed about history and strategy and the challenges we face from radical Islamic extremism.”[10] Manchin made similar remarks in a press conference on January 7, 2014, arguing that “all of the money and all of the military might in the world will not change that part of the world.” He said that by the end of the year, the American troops in that country should be at Bagram Airfield alone.[177] After the deaths of three American soldiers in Afghanistan in November 2018, Manchin renewed his calls for the withdraw of American troops from the country, saying that both presidents Obama and Trump had expressed support for taking troops out of the country but had not done so. “They all seem to have the rhetoric, and no one seems to have the follow up. It’s time to come out of there,” he said.[10]
Manchin introduced legislation to reduce the use of overseas service and security contractors. He successfully amended the 2013 National Defense Authorization Act to cap contractors’ taxpayer-funded salaries at $230,000.[180]
Following the Ghouta chemical attack in August 2013 during the Syrian Civil War, Manchin said, “There is no doubt that an attack occurred and there is no doubt it was produced under the Assad regime. It’s not clear cut if Assad gave the order himself. It has not been proven.” He opposed any strikes on the Syrian Government in retaliation for the attacks. Instead, he introduced a joint resolution with Senator Heidi Heitkamp (D-ND) requesting that President Obama come up with a long-term strategy on Syria and work diplomatically to ensure the destruction of Syria’s chemical weapons.[178] On September 16, 2014, Manchin announced that he would vote against a possible Senate resolution to arm Syrian opposition fighters. “At the end of the day, most of the arms that we give to people are used against us. Most of the people we train turn against us,” he said. He referred to plans calling for ground troops in Syria, which had been proposed by some Republican senators, including Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, as “insanity,”[11] but supported the 2017 Shayrat missile strike launched by order of President Trump in response to a chemical weapons attack allegedly perpetrated by the Syrian Government. Manchin said that “yesterday’s strike was important to send a message to the Syrian regime and their Russian enablers that these horrific actions will not be tolerated.”[181]
In April 2017, following a North Korea senior official declaring that the U.S. had created “a dangerous situation in which a thermonuclear war may break out at any minute,” Manchin stated that North Korea had “to understand that we will retaliate” and that he did not believe the U.S. would not respond if North Korea continued to play “their games.”[182] In May 2018, Manchin accused Kim Jong-un of accelerating “the nuclear threat” of North Korea in a manner that would enable him to receive concessions and that Kim Jong-un was “in a serious, serious problem with his country and the people in his country” without China.[183]
In June 2017, Manchin was one of five Democrats who, by voting against a Senate resolution disapproving of arms sales to Saudi Arabia, ensured its failure. Potential primary opponent Paula Jean Swearengin charged that because of Manchin’s vote, weapons sold to the Saudis “could possibly end up in the hands of terrorists.”[184]
In June 2017, Manchin co-sponsored the Israel Anti-Boycott Act (S.270), which made it a federal crime, punishable by a maximum sentence of 20 years imprisonment,[185] for Americans to encourage or participate in boycotts against Israel and Israeli settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories if protesting actions by the Israeli government.[186]
In 2019, Manchin and Republican Marco Rubio drafted a Middle East policy bill with provisions that rebuked President Trump over withdrawals of troops from Syria and Afghanistan and a measure authorizing state and municipal governments to punish companies after they oppose Israel via boycott, divestment or sanctions. The measure also reauthorized at least $3.3 billion for Israel’s military financing in addition to extending Jordan’s security aid, granting new sanctions on individuals giving their support to the Syrian government and ordering the Treasury Department to determine whether the Central Bank of Syria was money laundering. The bill passed in the Senate in a 77 to 23 vote in February 2019.[187]
In October 2019, Manchin was one of six senators to sign a bipartisan letter to Trump calling on him to “urge Turkey to end their offensive and find a way to a peaceful resolution while supporting our Kurdish partners to ensure regional stability” and arguing that to leave Syria without installing protections for American allies would endanger both them and the US.[188]
Guns
In 2012, Manchin’s candidacy was endorsed by the National Rifle Association (NRA), which gave him an “A” rating.[189] Following the Sandy Hook shooting, Manchin partnered with Republican senator Pat Toomey to introduce a bill that would have strengthened background checks on gun sales. The Manchin-Toomey bill was defeated on April 17, 2013, by a vote of 54–46; 60 votes would have been required to pass it.[105] Despite the fact that the bill did not pass, the NRA targeted Manchin in an attack ad.[190][191][192]
Manchin was criticized in 2013 for agreeing to an interview with The Journal in Martinsburg, West Virginia, but demanding that he not be asked any questions about gun control or the Second Amendment.[193]
In 2016, referring to the difficulty of keeping guns out of the hands of potential terrorists in the aftermath of the Orlando nightclub shooting, Manchin said, “due process is what’s killing us right now.” This comment drew the criticism of both the NRA and the Cato Institute, which accused Manchin of attacking a fundamental constitutional principle. “With all respect,” commented Ilya Shapiro of Cato, “due process is the essential basis of America.”[194][195]
In October 2017, following the Las Vegas shooting, Manchin stated that it was “going to take President Trump, who looks at something from a law-abiding gun owner’s standpoint, that makes common sense and gun sense” for progress to be made on gun legislation and that he would not rule out reviving the Manchin-Toomey bill if the legislation attracted enough Republican cosponsors.[196]
In a March 2018 interview, a month after the Stoneman Douglas High School shooting and shortly before the March For Our Lives demonstrations, Manchin stated that the Manchin-Toomey bill should serve as the base for a new gun control law and that Trump expressing support for background checks would set his legacy and “give Republicans enough cover to support this in the most reasonable, responsible way.”[197]
In August 2019, following two more mass shootings in El Paso, Texas, and Dayton, Ohio, Manchin said that Trump had “a golden opportunity to start making America safe again by starting with this basic building block of background checks.” Manchin also noted his disagreement with the position of House Minority Whip Steve Scalise that existing gun background check measures were sufficient, adding that even though he was “a law-abiding gun owner,” he would not sell a gun through a gun show or online to someone whose history he was unsure of.[198] On September 5 of that year, Manchin and Trump met in the White House for a discussion on gun-control legislation. According to a White House official, Trump told Manchin of his “interest in getting a result” so dialogue could resume “to see if there’s a way to create a reasonable background check proposal, along with other ideas.”[199]
Health care
In 2010, Manchin called for “repairs” of the Affordable Care Act and repeal of the “bad parts of Obamacare.”[200][201] On January 14, 2017, Manchin expressed concern at the strict party-line vote on repealing Obamacare and said he could not, in good conscience, vote to repeal without a new plan in place. He added, however, that he was willing to work with Trump and the GOP to formulate a replacement.[202] In June 2017, Manchin and Bob Casey Jr. of Pennsylvania warned that repealing Obamacare would worsen the opioid crisis.[203] In July 2017, he said that he was one of about ten senators from both parties who had been “working together behind the scenes” to formulate a new health-care program, but that there was otherwise insufficient bipartisanship on the issue.[204]
In September 2017, Manchin released a statement expressing that he was skeptical of a single-payer health care system being “the right solution” while noting his support for the Senate considering “all of the options through regular order so that we can fully understand the impacts of these ideas on both our people and our economy.”[204]
During 2016–17, Manchin read to the Senate several letters from constituents about loved ones’ deaths from opioids and urged his colleagues to act to prevent more deaths. Manchin took “an unusual proposal” to President Trump to address the crisis and called for a “war on drugs” that involves not punishment but treatment. He proposed the LifeBOAT Act, which would fund treatment. He also opposes marijuana legalization.[205][206] In January 2018, Manchin was one of six Democrats who broke with their party to vote to confirm Trump’s nominee for Health Secretary, Alex Azar.[207]
In his 2018 reelection campaign, Manchin emphasized his support for Obamacare, running an ad where he shot holes in a lawsuit that sought to repeal the Affordable Care Act.[201]
In January 2019, Manchin was one of six Democratic senators to introduce the American Miners Act of 2019, a bill that would amend the Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act of 1977 to swap funds in excess of the amounts needed to meet existing obligations under the Abandoned Mine Land fund to the 1974 Pension Plan as part of an effort to prevent its insolvency as a result of coal company bankruptcies and the 2008 financial crisis. It also increased the Black Lung Disability Trust Fund tax and ensured that miners affected by the 2018 coal company bankruptcies would not lose their health care.[208]
In a May 2019 letter to Attorney General William Barr, Manchin and Republican Susan Collins wrote that the Affordable Care Act “is quite simply the law of the land, and it is the Administration’s and your Department’s duty to defend it” and asserted that Congress could “work together to fix legislatively the parts of the law that aren’t working” without letting the position of a federal court “stand and devastate millions of seniors, young adults, women, children and working families.”[209]
In September 2019, amid discussions to prevent a government shutdown, Manchin was one of six Democratic senators to sign a letter to congressional leadership advocating for the passage of legislation that would permanently fund health care and pension benefits for retired coal miners as “families in Virginia, West Virginia, Wyoming, Alabama, Colorado, North Dakota and New Mexico” would start to receive notifications of health care termination by the end of the following month.[210]
In October 2019, Manchin was one of 27 senators to sign a letter to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer advocating the passage of the Community Health Investment, Modernization, and Excellence (CHIME) Act, which was set to expire the following month. The senators warned that if the funding for the Community Health Center Fund (CHCF) was allowed to expire, it “would cause an estimated 2,400 site closures, 47,000 lost jobs, and threaten the health care of approximately 9 million Americans.”[211]
Homelessness
When Manchin and Capito announced over $3.3 million to combat child homelessness in West Virginia in October 2019, Manchin reported that there were at least 10,500 homeless children and youth in West Virginia and pledged to continue working to get financial aid for West Virginia children in his capacity as a member of the Senate Appropriations Committee.[212]
Housing
In April 2019, Manchin was one of 41 senators to sign a bipartisan letter to the housing subcommittee praising the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Section 4 Capacity Building program for authorizing “HUD to partner with national nonprofit community development organizations to provide education, training, and financial support to local community development corporations (CDCs) across the country” and expressing disappointment that President Trump’s budget “has slated this program for elimination after decades of successful economic and community development.” The senators wrote of their hope that the subcommittee would support continued funding for Section 4 in Fiscal Year 2020.[213]
Immigration
Manchin is opposed to the DREAM Act, and was absent from a 2010 vote on the bill.[214] Manchin supports the construction of a wall along the southern border of the United States.[215][7] He opposed the Obama administration’s lawsuit against Arizona over that state’s immigration enforcement law.[216] Manchin voted against the McCain-Coons proposal to create a pathway to citizenship for some undocumented immigrants without funding for a border wall and he voted against a comprehensive immigration bill proposed by Susan Collins which gave a pathway to citizenship for Dreamers as well as funding for border security; he voted ‘yes’ to withholding funding for ‘sanctuary cities‘ and he voted in support of President Trump’s proposal to give a pathway to citizenship for Dreamers, build a border wall, and reduce legal immigration.[217][218] On June 18, 2018, he came out against the Trump administration family separation policy.[219] In September 2019, Manchin was the only Democrat on the Senate Appropriations panel to vote for a $71 billion homeland security measure that granted Trump the $5 billion he had previously requested to build roughly 200 miles of fencing along the U.S.-Mexico border.[220]
Manchin has mixed ratings from political action committees opposed to illegal immigration; NumbersUSA, which seeks to reduce illegal and legal immigration, gave Manchin a 55% rating and the Federation for American Immigration Reform, which also seeks to reduce legal immigration, gave him a 25% rating.[221]
On February 4, 2021, Manchin voted against providing COVID-19 pandemic financial support to undocumented immigrants.[222]
Infrastructure
In response to a leaked story that the Biden administration would pursue a $3 trillion infrastructure package,[223] Manchin appeared to support the spending, calling for an “enormous” infrastructure bill.[224] He also expressed openness to paying for the bill by raising taxes on corporations and wealthy people, despite the fact that this would likely eliminate any possible bipartisan support.[225][226]
LGBT rights
On December 9, 2010, Manchin was the sole Democrat to vote against cloture for the 2011 National Defense Authorization Act, which contained a provision to repeal Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell. In an interview with The Associated Press, Manchin cited the advice of retired military chaplains as a basis for his decision to vote against repeal.[227] He also indicated he wanted more time to “hear the full range of viewpoints from the citizens of West Virginia.”[228] A day later, he was publicly criticized at a gay rights rally for his position on the bill.[229] On July 26, 2017, he voiced opposition to Trump’s proposed ban on transgender service in the United States military.[230]
As of 2015, Manchin was the only member of the Senate Democratic Caucus to oppose same-sex marriage.[231] He is the only Democratic senator to not have declared support for same-sex marriage.[232][233] On February 14, 2018, he cosponsored S.515, a bill that would amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to clarify that all provisions shall apply to legally married same-sex couples in the same manner as other married couples.[234] As of March 18, 2019, he is the only member of the Senate Democratic Caucus who is not a cosponsor of the Equality Act. He has said that he believes “no one should be afraid of losing their job or losing their housing because of their sexual orientation” but does not believe the current version of the Equality Act “provides sufficient guidance to the local officials who will be responsible for implementing it.”[231] In March 2021, Manchin was the only Democrat to vote for a failed amendment to rescind funding from public schools that allow transgender youth to participate in the sporting teams of their gender identity.[235][236]
The Human Rights Campaign, the largest LGBT rights group in America, gave Manchin a score of 48% in the 116th Congress.[237] He received a score of 30% in the 115th Congress, 85% in the 114th Congress, and 65% in the 113th Congress.
Minimum wage
On February 2, 2021, Manchin announced his opposition to an increase from $7.25 to $15 per hour in the federal minimum wage, but said he was open to a smaller increase, perhaps to $11.[238] Along with seven other Democrats,[239] Manchin opposed a 15$ minimum wage proposal by Bernie Sanders as part of the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 and forced Democrats to limit extended unemployment benefits in the same bill.[240]
Opioids
In December 2017, in a letter to then-Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Scott Gottlieb, Manchin called for changes in the FDA’s response to the opioid crisis including mandatory and continuing education for healthcare providers, reviewing every opioid product on the market, and removing an older opioid from the market for every new opioid approved. Manchin cited the over 33,000 deaths in the United States from opioid overdoses in 2015 and over 700 deaths of West Virginians from opioid overdoses in 2016 as his reason for supporting the establishment of the Opioid Policy Steering Committee by the FDA.[241]
In 2018, Manchin secured a provision in the Opioid Crisis Response Act that ensured additional opioid funding for West Virginia after the bill had previously granted funding based on states’ overall opioid overdose death counts as opposed to the overdose death rate. Manchin stated that the bill before his intervention was “basically using a blanket before when giving money” and added that the bill was incentivizing “companies to do the research to produce a product that gives the same relief as the opioid does, but is not (addictive).” The bill passed in the Senate in September.[242]
Number of yearly U.S. opioid overdose deaths from all opioid drugs
In April 2019, Manchin cosponsored the Protecting Jessica Grubb’s Legacy Act, legislation that authorized medical records of patients being treated for substance use disorder being shared among healthcare providers in case the patient provided the information. Cosponsor Shelley Moore Capito stated that the bill also prevented medical providers from unintentionally providing opioids to individuals in recovery.[243]
In May 2019, when Manchin and Capito announced $600,000 of funding for West Virginia through the Rural Communities Opioid Response Program of the Department of Health and Human Services’ Health Resources and Services Administration, Manchin stated that the opioid epidemic had devastated every community in West Virginia and that as a senator “fighting against this horrible epidemic and helping fellow West Virginians have always been my top priorities.”[244]
In July 2019, Manchin issued a release in which he called for a $1.4 billion settlement from Reckitt Benckiser Group to be used for both programs and resources that would address the opioid epidemic.[245]
Senior citizens
To help locate missing senior citizens, Manchin introduced the Silver Alert Act in July 2011 to create a nationwide network for locating missing adults and senior citizens modeled after the AMBER Alert.[246] Manchin also sponsored the National Yellow Dot Act to create a voluntary program that would alert emergency services personnel responding to car accidents of the availability of personal and medical information on the car’s owner.[247]
Manchin said in 2014 that he “would change Social Security completely. I would do it on an inflationary basis, as far as paying into payroll taxes, and change that, to keep us stabilized as far as cash flow. I’d do COLAs—I’d talk about COLA for 250 percent of poverty guidelines.” Asked whether this meant he would “cut benefits to old people,” Manchin said that “a rich old person… won’t get the COLAs.” He asked: “Do you want chained CPI? I can live with either one.”[248]
Taxes
Manchin opposed Trump’s Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017. He called it “a closed process” that “makes little impact in the paychecks of the people in his state.” At the same time, he posited the bill contains “some good things… Initially people will benefit,” although ultimately voting against it. In turn, NRSC spokesman Bob Salera stated that he had “turned his back and voted with Washington Democrats.”[249][250]
In March 2019, Manchin was a cosponsor of a bipartisan bill to undo a drafting error in the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act that mandated stores and restaurants to have to write off the costs of renovations over the course of 39 years via authorizing businesses to immediately deduct the entirety of costs of renovations.[251]
Veterans
In February 2017, Manchin and Roy Blunt introduced the HIRE Veterans Act, legislation that would recognize qualified employers if they met particular criteria designed to encourage businesses that were friendly toward veterans including calculating what new hire or overall workforce percentages contain veterans, the availability of particular types of training and leadership development opportunities, and other factors that showed commitment on the part of an employer to offer support for veterans after their military careers. The bill passed in the Senate in April, which Manchin applauded in a press release as “tremendous news” given that the bill was “one more step we can take toward making it easier for our service men and women to find opportunities for good-paying jobs.”[252]
In December 2018, Manchin was one of 21 senators to sign a letter to United States Secretary of Veterans AffairsRobert Wilkie calling it “appalling that the VA is not conducting oversight of its own outreach efforts” in spite of suicide prevention being the VA’s highest clinical priority and requesting Wilkie “consult with experts with proven track records of successful public and mental health outreach campaigns with a particular emphasis on how those individuals measure success.”[253]
In January 2019, Manchin was one of five senators to cosponsor the VA Provider Accountability Act, a bipartisan bill meant to amend Title 38 of the United States Code to authorize the under secretary of health to report “major adverse personnel actions” related to certain health care employees at the National Practitioner Data Bank along with applicable state licensing boards. Manchin said that the VA’s efforts were inadequate and called for strict guidelines to be implemented to ensure veterans “are receiving the highest quality of care, and I believe our legislation provides a fix that can be supported by my colleagues on both sides of the aisle”.[254]
In July 2019, Manchin and Republican Marsha Blackburn introduced the Providing Veterans Access to In-State Tuition Act, a bill that would remove a three-year post-discharge requirement and thereby enable student veterans eligibility to receive in-state tuition rates from public schools in the event they decide to use their Post 9/11 GI Bill benefits.[255]
In August 2019, when Manchin and Capito announced a collection of grants that totaled to over $7 million intended to aid homeless veterans under the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs’ (VA) Supportive Services for Veteran Families (SSVF) Program, Manchin opined that the funding would “help veterans secure housing, which in turn helps them secure steady jobs and gives them another opportunity to contribute to their communities.”[256]
Voting rights
On June 6, 2021, in an op-ed published in the Charleston Gazette-Mail, Manchin expressed his opposition to the For the People Act due to its lack of bipartisan support. But he has expressed his support for a reinforced version of the John Lewis Voting Rights Act and urged its passage in the Senate.[257][258] Shortly thereafter, several Democratic lawmakers accused Manchin of supporting Jim Crow laws by opposing the For the People Act, a signature piece of legislation of the Democratic majority, aiming to expand voting rights, among other provisions.[259]
The bill has universal Republican opposition, and so would require the filibuster to be eliminated in order to pass. Manchin defended his opposition to it, saying, “I think there’s a lot of great things in that piece of legislation, but there’s an awful lot of things that basically don’t pertain directly to voting.” In the op-ed, he also elaborated on his view of eliminating the filibuster: “I cannot explain strictly partisan election reform or blowing up the Senate rules to expedite one party’s agenda.”[258]
In December 2012, Manchin voiced his displeasure with MTV‘s new reality show Buckwild, set in his home state’s capital Charleston, and asked the network’s president to cancel the show, which, he argued, depicted West Virginia in a negative, unrealistic fashion.[265] The show ended after its first season.[266][267]
In a lawsuit filed in July 2014, John Manchin II, one of Manchin’s brothers, sued Manchin and his other brother, Roch Manchin, over a $1.7 million loan. The lawsuit alleged that Joe and Roch Manchin borrowed the money to keep the doors open at the family-owned carpet business run by Roch, that no part of the loan had yet been repaid, and that the defendants had taken other measures to evade compensating John Manchin II for non-payment.[268] John Manchin II withdrew the suit on June 30, 2015.[269]
As of 2018, according to OpenSecrets.org, Manchin’s net worth was more than $7.6 million.[270]
^Prior to 2022, members of the West Virginia House of Delegates were elected from multi-member districts. Since voters could vote for multiple candidates, there is no percentage.
^Cohen, Richard E.; Barnes, James A.; Holland, Keating; Cook, Charlie; Barone, Michael; Jacobson, Louis & Peck, Louis (2016). The Almanac of American Politics: Members of Congress and Governors: their profiles and election results, their states and districts. Bethesda, Maryland: Columbia Books & Information Services. ISBN 978-1-93851-831-7. OCLC927103599.
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