Facing anti-Washington winds, Senate Democrats point to home
CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) — Democratic senators in GOP-leaning states are working to convince voters they're free of Washington's stigma.
The Democrats seeking re-election this fall in states Republican Donald Trump carried are portraying themselves as independent actors and known entities in hopes of inoculating themselves against Republican accusations that they are lockstep obstructionists to Trump's agenda.
Among them: West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin, who wasted no time after Tuesday's GOP primary telling the many Republicans who have backed him over the decades he is no creature of Washington.
He says: "If it makes sense for West Virginia, makes sense to me, I vote for it, doesn't matter whether it's Democrat or Republican." He is facing the most difficult re-election campaign of his 30-year career.
