Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., announced Tuesday that he will not challenge sitting Gov. Jim Justice, a Republican, in the 2020 gubernatorial election, Politico reports.
“I have always said that public service is not self-service. So, when considering whether to run for governor, I couldn’t focus just on which job I enjoyed the most, but on where I could be the most effective for the Mountain State,” Manchin, who governed the state from 2005 to 2010, said in a statement. “Ultimately, I believe my role as U.S. Senator allows me to position our state for success for the rest of this century.”
The senator narrowly won re-election in 2018, besting Attorney General Patrick Morrissey by only three percentage points in a state that President Donald Trump won by 42 points in the 2016 presidential election. Manchin seemingly hinted at running for his old job during an interview with Politico in April, in which he described being governor of West Virginia as the “best job in the world,” and repeatedly complaining about issues in the U.S. House and Senate.
"Those who know me know how much I loved being the Governor of West Virginia," Manchin added in his statement, according to CNN. "I worked the daylights out of that job. I couldn't wait to wake up in the Governor's Mansion in the morning, and I didn't want to go to bed at night, because there was always more that I could do for our state."
Manchin declined to run for governor again in 2016, instead endorsing Justice, a businessman and billionaire who was a Democrat at the time, having changed his party affiliation from Republican to Democrat for the campaign before switching back to the GOP during his first year in office.
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