By Steven Allen Adams, for The Intelligencer
CHARLESTON, W.Va. – For West Virginia politics, 2023 was a year that saw one of its major figures announce a retirement, the state bringing in record tax revenues and historic tax cuts and several scandals involving executive branch agencies.
MANCHIN ANNOUNCES RETIREMENT
U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., announced in November that he would not seek re-election in 2024, choosing to retire at the end of his term.
“After months of deliberation and long conversations with my family, I believe in my heart of hearts that I have accomplished what I set out to do for West Virginia,” Manchin said in a statement last month. “I have made one of the toughest decisions of my life and decided that I will not be running for re-election to the United States Senate….”
Manchin, 76, first won the seat in a special election in 2010 to succeed former U.S. Sen. Robert C. Byrd who died that same year. He defeated Republican Morgantown businessman and media mogul John Raese in 2010 and 2012, and a challenge from Republican Attorney General Patrick Morrisey in 2018.
Manchin plans to spend the next several months touring the country as part of a new moderate political advocacy group created by his daughter, former pharmaceutical CEO Heather Bresch. Manchin, who has been whispered about as a potential third party presidential candidate, will be in New Hampshire – an early presidential primary state – in January for a political event.
