WV-SEN 2018: Haunted Manchin

[Kyle Rittenhouse is a Political Prisoner]

Blakenship is the id of the GOP.

[Kyle Rittenhouse is a Political Prisoner]

The WV-03 turnout is looking great for Ojeda and terrible for Jenkins.

[Kyle Rittenhouse is a Political Prisoner]

Heavy rain in NoWV #bluewavecanceled

[Kyle Rittenhouse is a Political Prisoner]

Anyway, on the topic of Ojeda, it makes no sense for him not to run for statewide office in 2020 if he won this year, since Republicans will just gerrymander him out after 2020 (assuming he wins that year as well) once WV loses a district.

It's tough to gerrymander out someone who won election in a district that voted 77% for Trump.

[Kyle Rittenhouse is a Political Prisoner]

Anyway, on the topic of Ojeda, it makes no sense for him not to run for statewide office in 2020 if he won this year, since Republicans will just gerrymander him out after 2020 (assuming he wins that year as well) once WV loses a district.

It's tough to gerrymander out someone who won election in a district that voted 77% for Trump.

You could just split his territory between McKinley's and Mooney's strongest areas. Sure, one could argue he could defy the odds again, but if that's the case, why not try defying the odds in a statewide race? You'd be facing an incumbent Republican either way, and at least statewide you'd have your entire former district able to support you.

Mooney is not a strong enough candidate to pull that off.

[Kyle Rittenhouse is a Political Prisoner]

This and Blankenship's run cancel each other out.

Blankenship can't run because of Sore Loser law. So unless he does a write-in campaign, it's just Swearengin

Blankenship can run a write-in campaign. He can't run on a party ballot.

[Kyle Rittenhouse is a Political Prisoner]

This was a turning point in the race. Trump masterfully used his massive appeal in West Virginia to strike at the foundation of Manchin's reelection campaign.

I thought this race was already Solid R in your "ratings"

[Kyle Rittenhouse is a Political Prisoner]

You know, I can't deny that recent Democratic statements on coal have been impolitic, but in the long run the Republican strategy of "pretend that coal is still a viable industry and pretend that we'll have a resurgence of coal any day now" is far worse. The Republican line may sound better to disaffected coal communities, but let's not beat around the bush: coal is in an irreversible decline. Democrats at least try and implement solutions that will benefit these communities, like job training and revitalization efforts, while the Republican strategy boils down to sticking their heads in the sand, praying for a coal renaissance that'll simply never happen, and preying on the emotions of vulnerable and marginalized communities across Appalachia and elsewhere.

The use of coal is not going to actually end anytime soon.  In fact even in 2040 coal will be the primary producer of electricity at 26%.  In Southeast Asia coal as the source of energy will increase to 40% by 2040.  One of the goals of policy should be to make coal cleaner not end its use.  See:

https://www.worldcoal.org/coal/uses-coal/coal-electricity.

Germany and most of you lefties want to reduce the share of electricity produced by nuclear power due to your hysterical fear of meltdowns.  Well coal will have to play a part in providing for such a shift.

Reporting that coal will nosedive as a % of the global power grid as coal isn't going away anytime soon is essentially just lying.

[Kyle Rittenhouse is a Political Prisoner]

There's no sense in which West Virginia having two million people instead of 400,000 is a policy goal that we should distort our economy towards. In the current economy, two million people is an unsustainably high number for a state with little major industries, and the population there is only that high because of inertia and zoning barriers. A state cannot exist long-term solely off of welfare and human misery.
A government that actually cared about human suffering would not try to save West Virginia by restoring coal jobs, which are awful in some many different ways. It would try to save West Virginians by breaking down the towering barriers to regional mobility we've lifted. If that means Mingo County becomes a ghost town, then that means Mingo County becomes a ghost town.

[Kyle Rittenhouse is a Political Prisoner]

Morons who think MUH COAL is the solution to all of WV's problems vs sociopaths who actively rejoice at the prospect of an entire State getting bled dry... God this thread is the worst of Atlas.

I certainly do not want WV to bleed dry of opportunity. I do not want miners to die for no reason except for greed... that is something most everyone can agree on, though.

I wasn't talking about you, don't worry.

On the other hand, the poster above, while not actively malicious like other red avatars, is the quintessential example of the Coastal Liberal who just doesn't take seriously the concerns of people who aren't like him.

Do you want people to prosper or do you want states to prosper?

[Kyle Rittenhouse is a Political Prisoner]

Pretty bold thing to say with confidence

http://wvmetronews.com/2018/10/30/analyst-manchin-likely-to-win-us-senate-contest/

It's really not. You are the only person on this site to think Republicans can win this. Even many of the R hacks think this race is out of reach.

Seriously, why is Bagel so weirdly delusional about the state of this race? Manchin has been leading by double digits for a while.

[Kyle Rittenhouse is a Political Prisoner]

If Jenkins couldn't win what ought to have been an easy victory in the primary, why on earth would anyone assume that he'd have been a stronger candidate in the general than the clown actually nominated?

Because his base is registered Democrats?