Bernie Sanders seems to have a lot to say about Joe Manchin these days. But do the people of West Virginia really care about what a loudmouthed anti-billionaire millionaire from Vermont thinks? And should Joe Manchin be concerned that “Independent” Bernie Sanders might support a Democrat primary opponent against him if Manchin runs again?
Bernie Sanders and his comrades in the leftist media project the impression that the moderate Manchin should be worried about what the socialist Sanders thinks about him. Why is that? It may simply be wishful thinking by the mainstream media. Perhaps the delusion that Sanders is going to be able to bully Manchin into capitulating to the socialist spending spree bill is rooted in a false sense of Sanders’ importance in the state of West Virginia: Sanders defeated Hillary Clinton in West Virginia’s Democratic primary in 2016. But the circumstances of that primary election actually show that West Virginia is really not that into Bernie Sanders.
Firstly, Clinton’s loss to Sanders in every county in West Virginia in the 2016 Democratic primary was more likely an indictment of Clinton than it was a resounding endorsement of Bernie Sanders. After all, Clinton’s comment during a March 2016 CNN town hall that she was “going to put a lot of coal miners and coal companies out of business” was one that she later reflected upon in her 2017 post-election-loss memoir as the comment she regretted the most. Gee, you think?
But setting aside Clinton’s self-inflicted damage to her election effort, it was evident from the exit polling that Bernie, though the winner of the Democratic primary, was not really that popular in West Virginia. NBC exit polling of the 2016 West Virginia Democratic primary reflected that a whopping 39% of those who voted for Sanders said they would vote for Donald J. Trump over Sanders in a match-up in the general election in the fall. See, Donald Trump supporters boost Bernie Sanders in West Virginia, by Alex Seitz-Wald, May 11, 2016, nbcnews.com. CBS exit polling reflected that an even higher percentage –44% – of Sanders voters in the West Virginia Democratic primary intended to vote for Trump that November. See, Over Four in 10 Sanders voters in West Virginia would vote for Trump, by M. Herrmann, J. De Pinto, & E. Uchimiya, May 10, 2016, cbsnews.com.
Indeed, Trump’s popularity in the state of West Virginia is evidenced by his incredibly wide margin of victory in the 2016 general election against Clinton, where he trounced her with 68.63% of the vote to her measly 26.48%. Furthermore, the results of the 2020 election reflect that West Virginia voters overwhelmingly approved of Trump’s first-term performance, in that Trump defeated Joe Biden in the state by a similar margin of victory with 68.63% to 29.70%. See, sos.wv.gov.
Ironically, “Independent” Bernie Sander’s musings of potentially supporting a primary opponent against Manchin in the future does nothing to advance President Biden’s socialist agenda, but instead has the effect of damaging the Democratic Party. Four years ago, Manchin easily won the West Virginia Democratic primary contest by garnering nearly 70% of the vote. He had more difficulty with the general election, edging out his Republican opponent by only about 3%. Manchin’s slim window of victory in the general election should serve as a warning to extreme-left senators like Sanders to cease their campaign of ill-advised verbal attacks against Joe Manchin: Manchin won’t lose to a progressive in a West Virginia primary, but the Democrats could ultimately lose the seat to a Republican.
At the end of the day, it really doesn’t matter what Bernie Sanders, or anyone else outside of West Virginia for that matter, (including me), thinks about Joe Manchin. What matters is what the people of West Virginia think about Joe Manchin. Manchin answers to his constituents in West Virginia, not to some left-wing member of Congress. And, regardless of what Bernie Sanders or AOC or some other disgruntled socialist thinks, it is clear what the people who matter – the people of West Virginia – think about Joe Manchin. Recent polling shows that the people of West Virginia are happy with the job that Joe Manchin is doing, and, just like the rest of the nation, are unhappy with the job that Joe Biden is doing. See, Joe Manchin’s Approval Nearly Double Biden’s in West Virginia as He Opposes Dem Priorities, by Jason Lemon, Jan. 14, 2022, newsweek.com.
Joe Manchin appears to have read the room well. Joe Biden has not.
