David Axelrod recently stated that he does not see a political future for Joe Manchin. The former advisor to Barack Obama said that the current senator was "kind of [a] dead man walking in West Virginia" since "there’s nowhere for him to go." At the same time, he did not rule out the possibility that he may eventually enter the presidential arena. Less than 24 hours later, a spokesman for the moderate came out to answer him.
Manchin, the former governor of West Virginia, first arrived to the Senate in 2010 to replace the late Robert Byrd and has since been successfully re-elected twice. However, the third time may not be the charm.
The latest survey conducted by ECU shows Jim Justice 22 points ahead of Manchin in a hypothetical race. "Deeper analysis of the approval numbers shows barely half (51%) of self-identified Democrats in West Virginia approve of Senator Manchin’s job performance. The senator’s approval drops to 37% among independents and to just 22% among Republicans", the report added.
This scenario provoked Axelrod's comments, which did not go down well with the senator's entourage, so they were quick to respond to him. "This is a funny comment about polls since the same smart pollsters said Barack Obama’s poll numbers proved he had no chance against Hillary Clinton, Donald Trump could never win the first election, and Republicans would win huge in 2022," his spokesman said in an interview with The Hill.
"Sen. Manchin’s focus is on doing the best job for West Virginia and the American people. The only poll that matters is the one on Election Day," he added.
For Jonathan Kott, a Democratic strategist who served as an aide for Manchin, his colleague's approach is not at all accurate. "David Axelrod doesn’t know a lot about West Virginia politics and is a brilliant strategist but probably doesn’t spend much time in West Virginia with Joe Manchin and should before he counts him out", he said.
According to Kott, Republicans are undervaluing the electoral appeal of Alex Mooney, Justicie's rival in the Republican primary. "It’s way early in the game to be prognosticating who’s going to be the nominee for the Republicans," Democratic strategist Mike Plante added on the subject.
Axelrod also fueled the senator's flirtation with a third party presidential bid. It should be noted that the nonpartisan group No Labels is raising $70 million to get a third party candidate on the presidential ballot.
