United States Senate election in West Virginia, 2012
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| Turnout | 46.3% (voting eligible) | ||||||||||||||||
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U.S. Senate election results map. Blue denotes counties/districts won by Manchin. Red denotes those won by Raese.
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The 2012 United States Senate election in West Virginia was held on November 6, 2012. Incumbent Democratic U.S. Senator Joe Manchin won re-election to a first full term.
Robert Byrd held this seat in the U.S. Senate since 1959, after having served in the House of Representatives since 1953, making him the longest-serving person in Congress. Byrd led his party in the Senate from 1977 to 1989, as Majority Leader or Minority Leader. Afterward, as the most senior Democrat in the Senate, he served as President pro tempore of the Senate whenever his party was in the majority, including at the time of his death.
After Byrd's death, West Virginia Secretary of State Natalie Tennant initially announced that a special election would be held on the same day as the regular election for the six-year term. However, that special election was rescheduled to 2010 for it to coincide with the 2010 mid-term elections.
Governor Joe Manchin made a temporary appointment of Carte Goodwin to the vacant seat. Goodwin was later replaced by Manchin who won the 2010 special election.
One debate took place at Shepherdstown University on October 2, 2012. It included United States Senator Joe Manchin (Democratic), Bob Baber (Mountain), and John Raese (Republican).
Raese filed a rematch against Manchin, arguing that he now had more material to criticize Manchin for. One example is how Manchin lost his long-time endorsement from West Virginians for Life because of his vote against defunding Planned Parenthood, the nation's largest abortion provider. Another example is how he is undecided about whether or not to support Obama's re-election campaign. Senior Obama campaign advisor David Axelrod commented in response, "His concern is about his own political well-being." In addition, he voted against U.S. Congressman Paul Ryan's Republican budget.
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