WV Governor doesn't rule out Senate run after Manchin cave

West Virginia Republican Gov. Jim Justice on Wednesday declined to rule out a senatorial bid in 2024.

"I don’t really know what I’m going to do right yet," the governor told local outlet The Intelligencer, per The Hill. "Maybe you’ll see me... you know... sticking around and running for national office. But right now, I don’t know."

Justice's term as governor ends in 2024, the same year during which Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin will face reelection. The state's other Senator, Shelley Moore-Capito, is a Republican. 

Justice was elected in 2016 as a Democrat but joined the GOP after taking office. In 2018, he removed Gayle Manchin, the senator's wife from her post as Secretary of Education and the Arts, according to the outlet.

Justice's comments as Joe Manchin grapples with a major political defeat. On Tuesday, the West Virginia Democrat failed to secure 60 votes to pass a continuing resolution that included an energy permitting reform plan that would expedite the approval of a pipeline project running through his state.

He had traded his vote on the $740 billion Inflation Reduction Act in exchange for a promise from Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer to use the CR to pass his plan. Bipartisan opposition, however, forced the removal of the permitting plan from the CR prior to its passage, leaving Manchin with nothing.