West Virginia is as gone for the Democrats as Vermont is for Republicans.
When's the last time Vermont elected a Republican senator with 61% of the vote?
2000, and with 65% of the vote.
So 13 years ago, compared to 1 year ago for Manchin, which proves my point. If Manchin loses in 2018, then I'll be willing to say WV is permanently gone for the Democrats.
Governors are an entirely different beast. Even Wyoming elected a Democratic governor, as Vermont did a Republican one.
Manchin is not Hillary, and as PolitiJunkie said, a liberal will not win WV. Period.
One could argue that Maine is not a Democratic state because it has no Democratic statewide officials. Yet at the same time it has gone Democratic every cycle since 1992.
Statewide and national elections are two different things entirely. The NJ gubernatorial race is not Safe R. It is Safe Christie, just as the 2012 WV senate race was Safe Manchin, not Safe D. Often the statewide races are a great indicator of a state's national lean. But as in the case of WV, it is not.
So no, WV is not gone for
all Democrats, but almost no states are gone for
all Democrats or
all Republicans. WV is gone for all D presidential nominees, because the only type of Democrat that can be nominated is a Democrat far too liberal for West Virginia.
