Former U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin Endorses Shawn Fluharty In W.Va. Senate Race
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Former U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin is looking for independent minds to support and endorse in the 2026 election season. He believes he found one in Del. Shawn Fluharty.
Manchin, I-W.Va., has officially endorsed Fluharty, D-W.Va., in the West Virginia State Senate District 1 race against incumbent Sen. Laura Wakim Chapman, R-Ohio. Manchin said he has known and worked with Fluharty in the past on projects and finds him to be the type of person who can get past partisanship to make sure what’s best for West Virginia is done.
“Shawn is an independent-minded person,” Manchin said Wednesday. “That’s who I’ve always been and I’ve always liked that.
“We have a good relationship,” he continued. “He’s hard-working, he’s tough and he’s trying to make things happen.”
Manchin also appreciates how Fluharty has worked across the aisle in the West Virginia House of Delegates to get things done. That type of bipartisanship, he said, is disappearing in modern politics.
“Any time I’ve worked with people who are independent-minded, that means they look at a Republican as their friend with a different idea, not their enemy,” Manchin said, “or they look at a Democrat as a friend with a different idea and not their enemy. We need more of that, much more of that. This party loyalty all this crap about the other side being the enemy is something I can’t stand.”
Wakim Chapman has secured some significant endorsements of her own. West Virginia Gov. Patrick Morrisey has endorsed her since the GOP primary in May.
Manchin said the latest election cycle has disappointed him with the level of venom shown in attack ads. He vehemently denounced Ohio GOP gubernatorial candidate Vivek Ramaswamy’s attack ad against Democratic opponent Dr. Amy Acton, which featured Acton’s estranged mother. That isn’t the only vitriolic ad that has angered him this year, and he feels such behavior must end. He hopes the state and nation can heal from that negativity once the elections are over.
“It has to heal,” he said. “We can’t continue to go down the tube. It can’t get much worse, but it will unless it’s corrected.”