WASHINGTON — Millions of voters are heading to the polls on Tuesday, and party control of the U.S. Senate remains up for grabs.
Republicans see multiple paths toward winning a majority of seats in the chamber that they have not won since 2018, aided by one race which Republicans are widely expected to win in a landslide. The catch: a Republican hasn’t won the seat in nearly 70 years.
West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin, an independent who caucuses with the Democrats and was formerly a member of the party himself, is retiring. He won his current term in 2018, narrowly amidst a national blue wave, in a state that had voted for Donald Trump in 2016 by more than 40 points, Trump’s strongest showing in the nation.
Formerly a Democratic stronghold, represented by the likes of Senator Robert Byrd, West Virginia has seen a rapid and dramatic swing toward Republicans at every level of government. Manchin is a lone wolf as a Democratic-affiliated statewide office holder – a remnant of a past era.
Glenn Elliott, the former mayor of Wheeling, West Virginia and the Democratic nominee in this race, detailed his decision to run and his policy goals.
Answers have been edited for length and clarity.
What inspired you to take the plunge for national office?
When Senator Manchin announced that he was not seeking reelection, I did give it a lot of thought. I had begun my career 30-plus years ago working for Senator Robert Byrd in the U.S. Senate. So I then spent five years there and really developed an appreciation for the institution for the value that a small State like West Virginia can get out of a Senator. At the time, this was in the 1990s, the Senate was in some respects a source or a place where bipartisanship could occur. It was starting to fracture then into what we see today, but there were still examples of bipartisanship. And so I’ve always held the Senate in high regard. And so, after eight years as Mayor of Wheeling, when Senator Manchin announced he was not seeking reelection, I gave it serious consideration and jumped into the race.
What are your top priorities?
Well, West Virginia is a state with no shortage of needs. We have a predominantly senior population, so programs like Medicare and Social Security hold an extra importance here.
Second issue, though, of course, is restoring women’s reproductive rights. I’ve seen firsthand here in West Virginia, where my opponent actually signed into law a very regressive ban on women’s reproductive rights that can have a very bad impact on women. It’s causing young women to leave the state. It’s putting those with unwanted pregnancies in harm’s way and forcing them to leave the state.
Do you think that reproductive rights are possible with your voters, given that West Virginia is considered a socially conservative state?
In 2018, abortion was on the ballot in West Virginia. It was in a constitutional amendment that said two things: there is no constitutional right to abortion in West Virginia, and that there should be no taxpayer funding of abortion. That constitutional amendment only passed by, I believe 52%, and that was in a pre-Dobbs scenario. There was a balance there. What we have right now is anything but a balance, and I think if it were put on the ballot — Republicans in the state will not put it on the ballot, but if it were — I think overturning the ban would have a good chance of passing.
You’re running at a time when the Democratic Party is in a historically-weak position in West Virginia. How would you say you differ from the national party, and how would you want to move the party if you were elected?
I have a pretty good feel for the wants and needs and concerns of rural America here in West Virginia. I think the perception of the Democratic Party is that it only cares about urban America and has forgotten rural America. I think it’d be great to see national Democrats coming to West Virginia and reminding people that Democrats are the party that created Social Security and created Medicare. They gave unions the right to collectively bargain. Clean water is a big issue in many parts of the State right now, and Democrats have been the party that supports clean water. You talk to a lot of coal miners and they’ve been convinced that Democrats are out to get coal when in reality Democrats have been pushing for a coal silica dust rule to cut in half the amount of silica dust that is legal in mines, something that actually will be saving miners lives, and the Republicans are actively going at it in Congress.
Do you see a necessary transition to renewable energy, and how should we combat climate change?
Anyone who denies where the future is headed in terms of renewables is just putting their head in the sand. I recognize that the world is going to be changing, and you know, whether or not West Virginia continues to make coal and natural gas a priority. But oh, it’s not a stretch to suggest that in 10 or 15 years, Fortune 500 companies are going to have written into the bylaws that they can only consume energy produced by clean and renewable sources. So I think that the world is going to move forward. The question is: what is West Virginia’s role in that process going to be? We do have a large number of jobs still dependent on the fossil fuel industry. I’m not running for the U.S. Senate to end those jobs, but I think, as the world transitions, it’s very important that West Virginia have a seat at the table. No state has paid a bigger price to power the rest of the nation than we have over the last century. Fossil fuel extraction has led to a lot of negative outcomes here in terms of miners actually killed in the mines, of miners who develop black lung, of damage to our clean water system and our ecosystems.\
We need to be diversifying our impact, and there are parts of the state where we have invested in solar and wind energy. But I’m also very interested in exploiting some hydropower opportunities that we have. We have a lot of waterways running through the state.
What would you say to Trump voters you’re trying to win over who are concerned about Senate control?
We just actually sent out an open letter to West Virginia Republicans. It basically makes the case that it is a fact that if you elect me to the U.S. Senate, there are going to be a handful of votes where I may not vote in the way that you want. But at the end of the day, I think we need to recognize that being a Senator is more than a few controversial votes on culture war issues that come up every year. Being a senator is showing up. My opponent, Jim Justice, has made a habit of being a part-time governor during his eight years in office and has told his aides privately that he has no intention of being a full-time senator.
Are you supporting Vice President Harris?
Yes, I’m supporting the Democratic ticket. I wish I could have a sit down with Vice President Harris, and talk about West Virginia and some of the specific concerns West Virginians have about the Democratic Party. I think that adding Governor Tim Walz to the ticket was an acknowledgement that Democrats need to do better in rural America, and I applaud that because I think he was the right type of candidate to add some balance to the ticket. But I do think at the end of the day, Democratic policies are by and large, better for West Virginians.
Anything else you want to say?
I guess the one thing I would say is that West Virginia is a state that has not had the best national reputation for some time, and I think some of that is just inevitable. We’ve always been a poor state. We’re an older state in terms of our population. I think as a result, a lot of national pundits have oversimplified the West Virginia voter, and I think that is a mistake. I think if you talk to people here, we’re not as monolithic as the national media may sometimes suggest and when they paint us as ruby red, I think the only thing that has served to do is to discourage qualified Democratic candidates from seeking office in West Virginia when they read that we’re hopelessly red.
Is there anything that you’ve done in your tenure as mayor that you would want to model your Senate work after?
I’m very proud of the way that we achieved a lot of our successes in a bipartisan way. The other thing is, I felt it was important that Wheeling be a leader in West Virginia on the front of civil rights. Our state is one of the several out there that does not provide employment and housing protections for members of the LGBTQ community. People may think Wheeling is pretty culturally conservative, but we were able to pass an LGBTQ+ nondiscrimination ordinance in wheeling by a vote of 7-to-0 back in 2016, when no one said it could be done. I’m very proud of that.
Polls close in West Virginia at 7:30 p.m.
