West Virginia Governor Jim Justice (R) and US Senator Joe Manchin (L), Democrat of West Virginia, attend a roundtable discussion on the opioid epidemic with local and state officials on the Cabell-Huntington Health Department in Huntington, West Virginia, July 8, 2019.
Saul Loeb | AFP | Getty Images
West Virginia’s Republican Gov. Jim Justice is gearing as much as launch a 2024 Senate campaign this week, mounting a possible challenge to Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin in one in all the country’s most significant Senate races, a Republican source near the governor told CNBC on Monday.
Justice is ready to make the announcement Thursday at 5 p.m. ET at The Greenbrier, his luxury hotel in White Sulphur Springs, the source said, confirming earlier reporting by Politico. The event is going down on Justice’s 72nd birthday.
The long-anticipated move by Justice, who switched parties in 2017 and has since change into one in all the deep-red state’s most popular politicians, could further imperil Democrats’ efforts to maintain their slim 51-49 majority within the Senate. West Virginia offers the GOP perhaps its best likelihood to flip a Democratic seat next 12 months.
Justice shall be joined at Thursday’s event by a crowd of family, friends, business associates and others from across the state, the GOP source said, adding that other senators may attend the event. Justice’s three-and-a-half-year-old English bulldog, Babydog, can also be expected to be a outstanding a part of the Senate campaign, the source confirmed.
On the campaign trail, Justice plans to criticize the Biden administration while contrasting himself with each Manchin and declared GOP candidate Rep. Alex Mooney, the source said.
Manchin, one in all the Senate’s most conservative Democrats, has said he won’t resolve whether to run for reelection until closer to the top of the 12 months, no matter Justice’s plans. Justice’s team believes a Senate bid by the governor could make Manchin less more likely to seek reelection, the GOP source told CNBC last month.
To face Manchin or one other possible Democratic candidate, Justice would first need to win the state’s Republican primary, where Mooney has already won a $10 million pledge from the conservative Club for Growth. Former President Donald Trump, who’s deeply popular in West Virginia, backed Mooney in his most up-to-date House election.
Mooney’s campaign manager, John Findlay, on Monday called Justice’s planned Senate bid a “terrible idea.”
“Jim Justice has a liberal record. Republican primary voters will soon see he’s a Democrat in sheep’s clothing,” Findlay said in a press release to CNBC.
Meanwhile, national Republicans have seen Justice, reportedly his state’s wealthiest resident, as a top recruit of their bid to win the seat.
The National Republican Senatorial Committee and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., have encouraged Justice to run for the seat. He’s term-limited from running for governor again.
Spokespeople for Manchin didn’t immediately reply to CNBC’s requests for comment on Justice’s announcement plans.
If Manchin decides to not run for a 3rd term, Democrats will face a significantly more daunting challenge keeping the seat from whichever Republican nominee emerges from the first.
But victory is hardly a guarantee for Manchin if he runs again. Despite his incumbent advantage, hefty war chest and fame for breaking with fellow Democrats, Manchin’s party affiliation could also be too great an obstacle to beat in a state that voted for Trump by nearly 40 points in 2020.
Manchin won his last Senate race in 2018 by just 3 percentage points.
Justice is ready to announce his Senate bid at his own resort, furthering intermingling the governor’s business and politics. That dynamic got here under scrutiny in a 2019 ProPublica investigation and garnered criticism from Manchin.
