By Steven Allen Adams, The Parkersburg News and Sentinel
CHARLESTON, W.Va. — National groups that monitor congressional elections have listed the U.S. Senate seat on West Virginia’s ballot this year as either safe Republican or solid Republican, but two Democratic candidates are running to keep the seat blue while a third has his own reasons for running.
Wheeling Mayor Glenn Elliott, Princeton-based community organizer Zachary Shrewsbury, and former Massey Energy CEO Don Blankenship are seeking the Democratic nomination for U.S. Senate for the seat held by U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin since 2010 and previously held by the late U.S. Sen. Robert C. Byrd from 1959 until his death in the summer of 2010.
Manchin, D-W.Va, announced his retirement last year from the U.S. Senate effective at the end of 2024 after winning a special election for Byrd’s seat in 2010 and winning two six-year terms in 2012 and 2018.
Manchin’s U.S. Senate seat is the last elected statewide office in West Virginia still in the Democratic Party’s hands as the state has shifted to a solid red state. The winner of the May primary will face either popular two-term Republican Gov. Jim Justice or U.S. Rep. Alex Mooney, R-W.Va., now in his fifth two-year term in the House of Representatives.
EDITOR’S NOTE: Listen to the full interviews with the three Democratic candidates for U.S. Senate on the Mountain State Views podcast, available on most major podcast platforms.
