Poll on Joe Biden’s Disastrous State Approval Ratings Shows Why Joe Manchin Holds All the Cards – Opinion

It never fails to amuse me to see assorted “progressive” Democrat politicians, self-important left-wing blue checks on Twitter and on the CNN/MSNBC fever swamps lay out their case for wanting to “primary” Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) over the fact that he so frequently bucks President Biden’s agenda and refuses to toe the “woke” party line.

Usually, it revolves around some variation of “he’s not doing what the American people want” or “Joe Manchin is ignoring the will of West Virginia voters.” What these arguments ignore are two things.

First, Manchin doesn’t have to do what the American people allegedly “want.” His job is to represent West VirginiaIn the United States Senate. And to that, which takes us to the second part of this, Manchin is not “ignoring” voters in the state.

Complicating the left’s case against Manchin is the stark (for them) reality that Manchin and his positions on the issues are in line with a majority of people in West Virginia if you look at recent polling. Further, when it comes to approval ratings, Manchin’s are typically well above Biden’s in the state even among Democrats (many of who are moderate/conservative Democrats), which ultimately would make primarying him an exercise in futility.

But new statewide polling numbers for Joe Biden across all 50 states show how deeply he is underwater in most of them, with West Virginia being the state where Biden’s approval rating is the lowest:

West Virginia is where Joe Biden has the least popularity. pic.twitter.com/WVEi7k4uHq

— Charles C. W. Cooke (@charlescwcooke) February 15, 2022

Side note: Why are there so many problems with Maryland, Massachusetts and Hawaii? While I think this is a good idea, I will let the comments and discuss it with others.

But back to Manchin, the numbers reaffirm why it’s him and not Biden who holds all the cards when it comes to the various stalemates between the two on issues like the filibuster, Build Back Better, and so-called “voting rights” legislation. Manchin is pretty close to “King of the Hill” territory in his state while Biden is floundering and flopping no matter what he does.

They also point to the reason that Manchin has publicly stated that he doesn’t care if Democrats try to primary him. Manchin knows that won’t go well.

Despite Manchin being unable to win the primary, his most vocal Democrat critics will likely be unsuccessful. However, Manchin could face another tough general election race if he runs for reelection in 2024. Manchin was narrowly victorious over his Republican opponent 2018 by 19,000 votes, in an election that saw the Libertarian nominee get 24,000 votes.

Sen. Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) knows this, which is why he keeps dangling the “party switch” carrot in front of Manchin and in a very public and calculated way.

Although Manchin is extremely popular, there’s a chance that he will face off against the popular Republican governor in 2024. Jim Justice could prove to be just as tough as Manchin’s 2018 re-election battle.

Related: Joe Manchin Causes Democrat Panic on SCOTUS Nominations – Then Walks It Back for Some Reason