No politician dominates “the lost decade” in West Virginia more than Joe Manchin III, who, at the time of writing, is currently serving his second term in the US Senate. With the Democrats taking control of the Senate in January 2021, Manchin is now chairman of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, through which all energy-related legislation must pass, and thus has ascended to become the point person on energy and climate legislation.1 Moreover, as the most conservative Democrat in the Senate, Manchin has outsized influence on the scope of virtually all elements of President Biden’s spending agenda under the current Senate rules shaped by his predecessor, Robert C. Byrd.

Manchin has held office at the state and federal level almost continuously since 1982, when he was elected to the West Virginia House of Delegates at the age of thirty-five. After two terms in the House, he served ten years in the state Senate.