Senator Joe Manchin to not run for West Virginia governorship

Senator Joe Manchin will not be running for West Virginia governorship in 20202, according to media reports.

Manchin, who has won the job twice in the past, has decided to stay in the Senate as he said in a statement on Tuesday that he could best serve his state in the Senate.

“I have always said that ‘public service is not self-service.’ So, when considering whether to run for Governor, I couldn’t focus just on which job I enjoyed the most, but on where I could be the most effective for the Mountain State,” Manchin said.

“Ultimately, I believe my role as U.S. Senator allows me to position our state for success for the rest of this century.

“Our state is blessed with the resources and people to accomplish anything, and I am going to use every day I have left in the Senate to make sure West Virginians have that chance."

He is currently serving as the senior United States Senator from West Virginia, a seat he has held since 2010.

A member of the Democratic Party, he previously served as the 34th governor of West Virginia from 2005 to 2010 and the 27th secretary of state of West Virginia from 2001 to 2005.

Manchin is a moderate Democrat, a fact which has allowed him to win elections in West Virginia even as the state shifted from one of the most Democratic in the country to one of the most Republican.

He won the 2004 gubernatorial election by a large margin and was re-elected with an even larger margin in 2008

Manchin won the special election in 2010 to fill the Senate seat vacated by Robert Byrd when he died in office. Manchin was elected to a full term in 2012 with 60 percent of the vote and was later reelected in 2018 by a much narrower margin.

Manchin became the state's senior US Senator when Jay Rockefeller retired in 2015.