Joe Manchin
U.S. Senator from West Virginia
Joseph Manchin III was born in August 1947 in Farmington, West Virginia. He earned an undergraduate degree in business administration from West Virginia University, then went to work at his family’s business, a carpet and furniture store.
At the age of 35, he was elected to the West Virginia House of Delegates. Four years later, he was elected to the West Virginia Senate where he remained for ten years. He made an unsuccessful run for governor, but was later elected as Secretary of State of West Virginia. Four years later, he ran again for Governor of West Virginia and was elected. He served there for five years when, on the death of Senator Robert Byrd, he announced he would run for Byrd’s Senate seat. He won a special election and assumed his office in November 2010.
He is married to Gayle Heather Conelly and they have three children. He is a Catholic.
In the News…
For the past several weeks following the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis, calls of protesters to “defund the police” have spread nationwide. There is no way the kind of treatment Mr. Floyd experienced should be accepted in America, Senator Joe Manchin of West Virginia said.
“So, we’ve got to change. How do you change? Someone says, ‘well, they’re going to get rid of policing or defund.’ I said, ‘that is the craziest thing I’ve ever heard in my life. You can’t defund the police and have militia or anarchy going on. That would be horrible,’” Manchin said.
In the Senate, the Justice Act, a bill sponsored by South Carolina Senator Tim Scott, is aimed at reforming policing. President Trump issued an executive order to encourage police departments to adopt high professional standards for serving their communities—“standards as high and as strong as there is on Earth.”
Senator Manchin said, “We’ve been dissecting both Tim Scott’s bill and the president’s executive order. Some of the things that just make common sense that all of us can agree on is, first of all, is a chokehold necessary? … Chokeholds should be banned, period, so I think that’s something we can agree on. The other thing we can agree on is a national registry that every policeman [who] puts on the uniform or badge and takes an oath of office anywhere in the country should go into a national registry, and his record follows him or her.”
But one of the major areas without agreement is the matter of ending a 50-year-old doctrine shielding law enforcement officers from civil lawsuits against them personally. Senator Manchin said that on all policy issues, people should debate and let the process work.
Contact this Leader…
Did you pray for Senator Manchin today? You can let him know at:
The Honorable Joe Manchin
Senator from West Virginia
306 Hart Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510
