In 2016, businessman Jim Justice ran for governor of West Virginia as a Democrat and won. Two years later, Joe Manchin was reelected to his senate seat as a Democrat in the Mountain state. Today, Justice is a Republican poised to flip that seat and maybe the Senate itself.
No state better represents the anachronistic Democratic Party of the 20th century than West Virginia, nor has any state retained so many of these dinosaurs for so long. But that seems about to change as the new Democrats abandon the center.