Jim Justice Is Trying to Be the GOP’s Version of Joe Manchin

There’s an ironic twist to the GOP’s urgent effort to unseat Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) in 2024: if Republicans succeed, they might just wind up with their own version of Manchin.

Gov. Jim Justice’s résumé seems designed to make a GOP loyalist break into a cold sweat. He’s a former Democrat who supported the Affordable Care Act. He expanded Medicaid in his state when he was governor. He backed President Joe Biden’s $1.9 trillion stimulus in 2021 before Manchin did, then supported Biden’s $1 trillion infrastructure bill. And he pushed a tax increase into law.

All those factors, plus Justice’s past penchant for running roughshod over his own party in the legislature, sparked no confidence votes, calls for his resignation, and at least one GOP lawmaker to dub him “disturbingly self-centered.”

Read more at The Daily Beast.