We may see a significant change coming to West Virginia as the current Republican Governor Jim Justice is considering running for the Senate seat held by Democrat Joe Manchin and a new poll shows the governor with a major lead.
Among likely Democrat voters in West Virginia, 52% of Democrats approve of the job Gov. Jim Justice is doing in West Virginia and only 49% approve of the job Sen. Joe Manchin is doing in Congress. The Morning Consult poll also showed the senator as having a 24 point higher disapproval rating than the governor.
With independent and Republican voters, the governor shows a significant lead. Independent voters score the governor with a 63% approval rating while Manchin received a 35%. Among Republican voters, the governor has a 43 point lead over Manchin.
Another critical indicator come from those supporting the candidates, as 86% of the supporters for Manchin approve of the governor, while only 49% of the supporters of the governor approve of the job Manchin has done in the Senate.
According to Politico, the two term governor met with Republican leadership in March looking to garner support for his possible Senate election bid.
If Gov. Justice decides to run for Manchin’s Senate seat, he would first face a primary challenge from Rep. Alex Mooney who is backed the conservative political action committee, the Club for Growth. Both candidates would mostly likely look for an endorsement from former President Trump to bolster their campaigns.
According to a National Public Affairs poll, the governor is much more popular than Rep. Mooney among likely Republican voters with a 78% to 48% margin respectively. This is most likely due to his name recognition as the current governor.
In a February poll from the Tarrance Group, it showed in a matchup between Gov. Jim Justice vs. Sen. Joe Manchin, the governor would win by 10 points. If Mooney got the nomination and ran against Manchin, the poll showed that he would lose to Manchin by 15 points.