Gov. Jim Justice (R-WV) said he's just about made up his mind on whether to challenge Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) for his Senate seat and teased that he’ll make an announcement “real soon.”
The Republican governor has been hinting at a Senate run for months, telling reporters in January he would be confident in his chances against the centrist Democrat. A win for Justice would be a major victory for Republicans as they seek to gain control of the Senate in 2024.
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“I’m not one to jerk people around,” Justice told journalist Julie Mason, adding that he plans to make a decision sometime in the next two or three weeks. “We’re on the home stretch now. … I’ve pretty much made my decision on what I’m going to do, and I thought really seriously about it, my family talked about it a bunch of times. We’ll get to a decision here real quick.”
Justice said he wanted to hold off on making a decision until the state legislature concludes its current session, which is scheduled to end on March 11. That timeline extends previous comments from the West Virginia governor, in which he said he would make an announcement by the end of February.
A race between Justice and Manchin would set up a major political battle between two of the state’s most prominent politicians and could give Republicans an opportunity to flip a crucial seat in the 2024 cycle.
Manchin has not yet indicated whether he will run for reelection, retire, or seek higher office. However, should he run again for his Senate seat, he is considered one of the most vulnerable Democrats in the 2024 cycle, as he would be running in a state that former President Donald Trump carried by 38.9 percentage points in 2020.
Manchin has established a reputation as a centrist Democrat willing to work across the aisle and has drawn the ire of the Left for opposing more progressive elements of the Democrats' agenda. Manchin held considerable power in the last Congress, in which the Senate was split evenly and Democrats needed to secure his support for party-line votes.
Meanwhile, Manchin has also left the door open to a White House run in 2024, teasing that while he could be the centrist candidate voters are looking for, there are “a lot of different players in the game.”
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Justice has previously expressed confidence he'd win a head-to-head matchup with Manchin, telling supporters in a town hall meeting last month he’d bill himself as “reliably Republican.”
"I'm rock-solid as a Republican and being entrenched in those values," Justice said, despite campaigning as a Democrat in 2016 and switching his party affiliation just months into his term. "Joe Manchin will be formidable, I'll tell you that. If Joe and I are running [against each other] today, I win. … The people of West Virginia really believe in me and trust me."