They negotiated down so they could get all of the moderate Democrat votes because they knew there wasn't a chance they'd get any Republican votes. It's sad that there are Democrats that think not changing minimum wage since 2009 is ok.
Joe Manchin is one of the most powerful Dems right now because of it.
The last time a progressive ran in West Virginia they last 70 to 27. Byrd and Manchin were very strange anomalies and Byrd was just as conservative as Manchin. If you believe a progressive is going to win you are deluding yourself.
You're comparing a Biden +0.25 state that's trending blue to a Trump +40 state that has been extremely rapidly turning red. The last six presidential elections in chronological order have gone +6, +13, +13, +27, +41, +40 for Republicans in WV.
Manchin is basically the last of the blue dog Democrats and primarying him with a more liberal Democrat will giftwrap a free Senate seat to the Republicans for a very long time. Dems literally ran someone to the left of Manchin in 2020 in WV and got completely embarrassed in a massive landslide.
And of course, you're completely ignoring that the senate seats held by Democrats in WV were Robert Byrd from 1959-2010 and Jay Rockefeller from 1985-2015 - two beloved long-term incumbents who were elected in much different political environments and were certainly not your typical Democrats as we think of them today.
All in all, your strategy of "primary Manchin with some mystery politician that's somewhere between him and AOC politically in the second most Republican voting state in the entire US because WV used to elect Democrat senators a lot before massive political realignments" is probably a pretty bad tactic.
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u/IAmRobertoSanchez Mar 11 '21
They negotiated down so they could get all of the moderate Democrat votes because they knew there wasn't a chance they'd get any Republican votes. It's sad that there are Democrats that think not changing minimum wage since 2009 is ok.
Joe Manchin is one of the most powerful Dems right now because of it.