'Do you really want to take that on?' Manchin freezes governor's primary [View all]

West Virginia’s senior senator continues to flirt with the concept of leaving Congress to run for governor, leaving a race frozen and onlookers scratching their heads.

Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., won reelection and a six-year term in November. By January, he began teasing the notion of challenging incumbent Gov. Jim Justice in 2020. He elucidated those remarks this week in a radio interview with WV MetroNews.

“By this fall, with all of my family involved, I should be able to make a decision,” he said.

State Democrats, meanwhile, can’t make heads or tails of Manchin’s waffling. Some say he’s just saving space for a surrogate candidate; some take him at his word that he’s weighing a run in earnest; most all agree that he’s boxed out any newcomers to race, for fear of going toe-to-toe with one of the most formidable political brands in West Virginia.

Read more: https://www.wvgazettemail.com/news/politics/do-you-really-want-to-take-that-on-manchin-freezes/article_6127f406-812f-5142-b7ba-d3ff66a38c46.html