Not only that, what he's done to the West Virginia Democratic Party is criminal. In the Nineties, when Manchin first began his rise, the WV Dems controlled the governorship, both U.S. Senate seats, most U.S. House seats and the legislature. The WV Dems started to go into decline when Manchin lost the Democratic gubenatorial primary to a moderate progressive named Charlotte Pritt, he refused to endorse her and all-but endorsed Cecil Underwood, an ancient former governor who'd won the GOP nomination. Underwood won when he never otherwise would have, due to Manchin's refusal to support his own party's candidate. This began what has now been 26 years of continuous decline for the WV Dems, which has now led to a situation where Manchin is the only Democrat in statewide office and where the GOP hold the governorship, the other U.S. Senate seat, the entire U.S. House delegation and both houses of the legislature.

Ousting Manchin in the primary in '24, even if it threw the seat to the GOP- and we can't assume it would, given that Bernie himself won WV in '16 and that is a sign that support for an economic justice agenda is stronger than establishment Dems might think- that might be the only way to put the WV Dems on anything like a path to recovery.