September 3rd, 2019 by WCBC Radio

Senator Joe Manchin III, Democrat of West Virginia, does not plan to run again for his old job as governor and will remain in the U.S. Senate. Manchin had been toying for most of the summer with a possible campaign for his old job, which he left in 2010 after winning a special election for the Senate seat of the late Senator Robert C. Byrd, also a Democrat.

In a statement released Tuesday, Manchin's enthusiasm for the top executive office in the state was clear. He said that serving as governor had been the "greatest honor of my life" and "[n]othing made my heart swell with pride more than bragging about the wonderful state I represented." 

But he went on to say, ""I have always said that 'public service is not self-service.' So, when considering whether to run for Governor, I couldn't focus just on which job I enjoyed the most, but on where I could be the most effective for the Mountain State."