Embattled Sen. Joe Manchin, who traded barbs on Twitter last week with Vice President Mike Pence, will ask his colleagues in the Senate on Tuesday to sign a pledge to promise they won't campaign against other sitting senators.
"If you go to work and you know somebody's been in your state campaigning against you — it might be a person you've worked with and you considered a friend — I can tell you, that deteriorates that trust and that friendship level that you had before," the West Virginia Democrat told CNN on Monday.
Manchin, a moderate Democrat, is facing a tough re-election bid in his state, which overwhelmingly voted for President Donald Trump in 2016. He said Monday that when senators campaign against their colleagues, it creates a "hostile environment."
The senator told CNN that he does not think he'll get a lot of support when he presents his plea on the Senate floor, but "if I get one other person, that'd be a big win."
Anyone signing the pledge would promise not to campaign against sitting colleagues; not to directly fundraise against them; not to distribute direct mail against them; not to appear in ads or endorse ads directed at them; and not to use or endorse social media campaigns attacking them, according to a copy of the document given to CNN.
The senator said his pledge only covers races with a sitting senator, not open Senate races.
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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