Either he’s calling their bluff or he’s really stupid:
Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.V.) says he welcomes a primary challenge from a progressive candidate backed by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) supporters.
In an exchange with a political activist during a phone call with West Virginia voters, Manchin noted that Sanders is not a Democrat, and challenged his supporters to find a candidate to challenge him.
“What you ought to do is vote me out,” Manchin said, Politico reported. “Vote me out. I’m not changing. Find somebody else who can beat me and vote me out."
An activist responded to that remark by asking if it was “an invitation or a threat.”
“Sure, it’s an invitation, you ought to,” Manchin quipped. “I can tell that, because we’re on different pages. Are you a Bernie Sanders guy?”
After a brief exchange, the person admitted to standing “with West Virginians who voted for Bernie Sanders in the primary, in all 55 counties where he won," according to Politico.
Sanders decisively defeated rival Hillary Clinton in West Virginia during the state’s 2016 Democratic primary.
Now I don’t like Manchin either and I think he should be removed from the party leadership. Whether or not he stays in the Senate is a different conversation. What does anger me the most are Manchin’s votes for Jeff Sessions and Steve Mnuchin. Neither of these votes are guaranteed to win him over Republican support and his vote for Sessions might anger black voters. As for Mnuchin, he didn’t have to side with Wall Street. Secretary of State Natalie Tennant (D. WV) may have lost to Rep. Shelley Moore Capito (R. WV) in 2014 due to the big red trend but she wasn’t afraid to side with Senator Elizabeth Warren (D. MA) when it came to the economic populist and anti-Wall Street message that Sanders ran on and resonated with West Virginia voters. Because Sanders won West Virginia in the primary, it’s not a serious threat. However, there are those who argue that Manchin shouldn’t be a top target for the Left:
Some on the left argue that a political strategy based on accommodating “Blue Dog” Democrats is an outdated approach. “[T]his is mind-blowing in its defeatism,” writes Paul Blest. “Not only has the Blue Dog strategy completely fallen apart since 2010 — just 17 Democrats remain as members of the House Blue Dog Coalition — but it doesn't take into account the fact that lefty economic populism has won in West Virginia before.”
This is convoluted logic. The Blue Dog caucus shrunk because of a backlash to President Obama’s aggressive legislating in conservative-leaning districts. Moreover, while Trump proved that a form of economic populism packs punch in areas once represented by Blue Dogs, it was a right-wing populism that included broadsides against immigrants and Black Lives Matter.
We also know from the 2014 midterm election results that red state Democrats, even those with deep roots in their states, take a big risk if they vote the party line too much. Mark Pryor of Arkansas and Mary Landrieu of Louisiana, both long-time senators with family names synonymous with their state’s politics, were easily defeated after advertising barrages tarred them with voting on the side of Obama more than 90 percent of the time.
That cold political reality doesn’t require the entire Democratic Party to adopt a “Blue Dog strategy.” Hillary Clinton’s “Stronger Together” message won three million more votes than Trump’s, so a hard tack rightward is also political suicide. But to maximize party strength in a Congress structured to favor rural America, in a nation nearly evenly divided along cultural lines, a little tolerance for opposing views inside the party tent is required.
Certainly there’s a point at which a party member can distance oneself so far that they cease to have value. In 2003, Sen. Zell Miller wrote a book stingingly titled “A National Party No More,” which excoriated his fellow Democrats for their liberalism. He followed that up by endorsing Republican George W. Bush’s re-election and accusing the Democratic nominee, Sen. John Kerry, of wanting to “outsource” our national security to “Paris” and arm our military with “spitballs.” Now that’s a Democrat in Name Only. Manchin is nowhere near that point.
He takes many positions that offend my liberal sensibilities. He opposed President Obama’s efforts to avert a climate crisis. He opposed federal funding of Planned Parenthood. He has expressed support for requiring photo IDs to vote. Any West Virginian sitting in that Senate seat is going to take similar positions. But not every West Virginian would help make Chuck Schumer Senate majority leader and stifle the vast majority of Trump’s conservative agenda.
The urge to purge has failed the left before. As I have previously noted in this space, the 2010 primary challenge of “Blue Dog” Arkansas Sen. Blanche Lincoln helped soften her up for a general election defeat. The 2006 challenge to Connecticut Sen. Joe Lieberman successfully ousted him from the party, but not from the Senate, since he won in November as an independent and proceeded to move farther right. A frustrated President Franklin Roosevelt tried to dislodge several conservative Democrats in the 1938 primaries, but only succeeded in tightening their informal alliance with Republicans.
Yeah, saying that he’s better than Zell Miller isn’t a winning argument. Plus let's look at the context with Lincoln and Lieberman. In Arkansas back in 2010, Halter lost in the runoff because 42 polling places were shut down to 2 in Halter strongholds. With Lieberman, Connecticut law allowed to still run in the general election as an Independent. So these aren’t great examples to make this argument.
Now there are times where bad Democrats do need to go but without a credible candidate, the call for primary challenge is a hollow threat. The only name I can think of off the top of my head would be former West Virginia Senate Minority Leader and former Gubernatorial candidate, Jeff Kessler (D. WV), who endorsed Sanders in the primary one year ago. So if Sanders backers want to get serious about this primary challenge, they need to find a candidate soon that can pose a real threat.
We don’t have many pickup opportunities this year. I’d be ok to spare Claire McCakill (D. MO) from a primary challenge because she is more likely to vote more in our direction plus she acknowledges that a primary threat is real. I would also spare Joe Donnelly (D. IN) because, despite some of the conservative leanings, he is still an economic populist and didn’t waste time making Tom Price and Medicare a top campaign priority. There have been rumors that Bill Nelson (D. FL) could face a primary battle but his potential opponents like Tim Canova, aren’t exactly strong options. Plus Florida Democrats would rather spend the time, money and resources in keeping Governor Rick Scott (R. FL) out of the U.S. Senate. Jon Tester (D. MT) hasn’t earned enough scorn to receive a primary challenger. He’s mostly had a good record and caught a break with Rep. Ryan Zinke (R. MT) becoming a member of the Trump Administration. As for Heidi Heitkamp (D. ND), Democrats don’t have a real bench in North Dakota. So that leaves Manchin. There could be a real opportunity for someone to emerge. Jay Rockefeller (D. WV) and even Robert Byrd (D. WV) were nowhere near as conservative as Manchin, despite being from coal country. So if Sanders activists are serious about taking Manchin’s invite seriously, they need to start fielding candidates now and we will need to see how they pose against whoever might emerge as Manchin’s GOP opponent. Stay tuned.