And did you know their state bird is the cardinal?
I don’t mean to pull a Colbert-style “Better Know a State” here, but I’m a little surprised by how under-the-radar this West Virginia Senate race has been. Figured a bit of background was useful for context.
From a political standpoint, West Virginia has always been one of the more interesting states. It was the only state formed during the Civil War, breaking away from Virginia to stay with the Union. Whether or not it can be counted as a Union state is a murkier question. Like Kentucky, Tennessee, or my own Maryland, it’s really a question of technicality and divided allegiances.
Throughout the 20th century, it was one of the most reliably Democratic states, having one of the highest per capita rate of union membership (union, as in labor union… I’ve moved on from Union vs. Confederacy stuff). The term “redneck” was popularized during the West Virginia coal miners strike of 1912-13, in which UMW supporters wore red bandannas around their necks.
During the mid-century political realignments – which basically resulted in the wealthiest states voting for Democrats and the poorest voting Republican* – West Virginia was, for decades, a stubborn exception. It sided with Humphrey over Nixon in ’68, Carter over Reagan in 1980, Dukakis over Bush in ’88, and was right there with Clinton for his two runs. Before 2000, if you take out the 2 huge landslide elections of ’72 and ’84, you’d have to go back to the ‘50s to find West Virginia showing a preference for a Republican in the White House.
Even within the Democratic Party, they’ve never really been predictable, providing the tipping point in 1960 for Kennedy to beat Humphrey – one of the most pro-labor politicians in the land (and a Protestant running in a deeply Protestant state to boot) – in the primary. And it has always seemed a bit of an anomaly that the poorest state in the nation is represented by a Rockefeller in the Senate. All states seem quirky when viewed up close, but that seems particularly true in this case.
In the last three Presidential elections, West Virginia has finally succumbed to some of that rich state/poor state realignment – and by increasing margins each time. Early in the 2000 campaign, it was a swing state. It ended up a 6-point margin for Bush. By 2004, the spread had expanded to 13 points and that 13-point gap held up in ’08, despite, obviously, much stronger national numbers for Obama than there had been for Kerry. Read into that what you will.
Anyway, while it’s been tough watching one of the last hold-outs slipping, at least they’ve stayed with their Democratic roots in non-Presidential voting. But now, with the race to replace Bob Byrd, the Senate seat is listed as a toss-up. The fact that Byrd’s seat may switch parties hasn’t drawn near the attention that the Kennedy-seat flip did last year, even though there had been a Republican Senator from Massachusetts as recently as 1979 (by contrast, the last Republican Senator from West Virginia served a half-term that ended in 1959). We’re sort of pre-conditioned to assume Massachusetts is one type of state – the type that elects Democrats – while West Virginia is another type of state.
Joe Manchin isn’t a great candidate, but he’s not a particularly bad candidate either. He’s a popular governor and well-known throughout the state. He had a nice response, I thought, to the GOP casting call for “hickey” actors to portray West Virginians, and he carried himself well in yesterday’s Senate debate – the only one scheduled for the campaign.** But he could just as easily lose as win. Byrd’s seat (sorry, Scott Brown, I meant “the people’s seat”) could fall, and one of the last realignment holdouts could inch closer to completing the new map. To me, that will be a far more concerning storyline in two weeks than Delaware or Nevada or any other headline-grabbing races.
*There are a couple of exceptions on the list – notably Utah and Alaska.
**My brother would kill me if I didn’t mention the Mountain Party candidate, Jesse Johnson. Jesse ran for the 2010 Green Party Presidential nomination (with my brother’s support) and lost the nomination to Cynthia McKinney. He participated in yesterday’s debate and gets a nice quote at the end of the Washington Post article. There. Mentioned.
West Virginia Democrats much perferred Hillary over Barrack I believe?
In West Virginia its all about working and working in mines, steel mills, foundrys, machine shops, or on farms and in the woods. Guns, whiskey, and tobacco are big and they’re not that interested in diversity or multiculturalism. By and large most of these folks came from the Scot-Irish clans that fled western Pennsyltucky during the Whiskey Rebellion and consequently there’s an anti-gummint gene in there somewhere.
They vote Democrat because Roosevelt’s depression scarred them bad and, that may be the only reason because they aren’t real fond of killing their young, the transfer of wealth, or the ATF.
Poor old Joe Manchin is a pretty typical WVA Democrat politician and Raese is a pretty typical Big Gummint Republican. I suppose it all depends on what these people think of Barry’s first couple of years and his efforts to curtail mining …it all depends on whether or not there’s work in the mines.
“…a whole lotta nothing can make a man feel ill at ease.”Report
What is now West Virgina was the part of pre-civil war Virginia that did not hold slaves. If you read about state history you find that the tidewater and the area that is now West Virginia had no use for each other. So in 1863 the folks from western virgina set up a rump Virginia legislature (no reps from the seceeded part of the state) and approved the splitting off of West Virginia and then immediately came together as the constitutional convention of West Virginia.Report
@Lyle, I thought Lincoln said you couldn’t secede?Report
@Robert Cheeks, You could not seeceed from the union, but under the terms of the constitution if a state legislature approved a state could be split. Lincoln was concerned about staying under federal juristiction. At that time Va was full of traitors and the like, so the rump Va legislature followed the rules of the consitution, and approved the split. Note interestingly that Va had much earlier approved cutting KY off as well as the old northwest, and NC cut Tn away, as Ga did Al and MS.Report
@Lyle, Thanks Lyle, however we’ve got a little problem with the idea of a ‘constitution’ in that the several northern/northwestern counties of the secessionist state “West Virginia” are not, in fact, a constitutional entity. The state is illegitimate. There were some good Confederate regiments from western Virginia and some wonderful battles!Report
West Virginia was not the only state formed during the Civil War. Nevada was “Battle Born”: becoming a state just before the election of 1864.Report
So the GOP is the party of rich people and poor states but the Democrats are the party of rich states and poor people? Confusing or just idiosyncratic?Report