Playbook: “Schumer needs Manchin to pass Biden’s agenda, and there’s a lot of eye-rolling from senior Democrats across Washington about the way the left has attacked the senator. We’re told he privately scoffs at the notion that progressive activists understand West Virginia politics better than he does.”
“At best the in-your-face tactics might simply strengthen Manchin’s position back home. At worst it could eventually push him to switch parties, something there’s increasing chatter about among top Dems. Manchin did not hit 50% in his last reelection, and Trump won the state by almost 40 points. Politics is nationalized now, and there are few remaining states that vote for different parties for the Senate and presidency, making Manchin an extreme outlier.”
“Democrats whose memory of politics stretches beyond the rise of Trump have been reminding us that in 2001, Sen. Jim Jeffords (I-VT), who was relentlessly attacked by conservatives, left the Republican Party and threw the 50-50 Republican-controlled Senate to the Democrats.”
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