2020 Dems Come Out Swinging at Joe Manchin
The first, overt intra-party salvos of the 2020 Democratic primary have been launched, and history will show that they came over the membership of a committee in the United States Senate.
Over the past day, two potential candidates for president have put out statements demanding that Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV), a conservative pro-coal Democrat, not be given the position of ranking member of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee.
The statements, issued from Governor Jay Inslee (D-WA) and Democratic financier Tom Steyer, have elevated an otherwise arcane process for filling out committee hierarchy and, in doing so, conspicuously set a benchmark for other potential presidential candidates—including several of Manchin’s Senate Democratic colleagues.