I don’t know much about West Virginia, except that most of the people running it still havedeep political ties to the Hatfields/McCoys feud. I handled litigated coal miner’s lung insurance cases for a while, and that came up again and again, to the point that that our local legal manager would monitor the family ties of local defense firms and judges.

I wouldn’t be surprised if that’s really what got manchin elected, but it’s also something that could work for lots of potential candidates