Jim Justice Switched Parties and Fired Joe Manchin’s Wife. Now, He’s Running for His Senate Seat

As Sen. Joe Manchin considers whether to run for reelection in West Virginia, his severely damaged relationship with the top Republican candidate looking to replace him has become a focus for Democrats in West Virginia and people close to the senator.

A half dozen sources close to Manchin describe a deeply fractured, bordering on acrimonious relationship with West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice – injured first by Justice's decision to become a Republican after Manchin helped get him elected governor as a Democrat, then irreparably damaged by Justice's decision to fire Manchin's wife, Gayle Manchin, from a top role in state government.

Manchin, in a phone interview with The Messenger on Friday, said he had an “amicable relationship with [Justice] until he fired my wife.”

“I would never have done that to his family,” Manchin added. “She was the most qualified person to run” the West Virginia Department of Education and the Arts.

The relationship between Manchin and Justice could take centerstage if the West Virginia Democrat decides to run for reelection and Justice is able to emerge from what could become a competitive Republican primary.

“Joe Manchin doesn't hate anybody. … It’s not who he is. This is a guy who works with Republicans just as much as he works with Democrats,” said Jonathan Kott, a partner at Capitol Counsel and a longtime adviser to Manchin. “But I don’t think they are hanging out drinking moonshine. At all.”

Over the course of Manchin’s career in state politics dating back to the early 1980s, West Virginia has turned from deep blue to deep red. Manchin is currently the only statewide Democrat in West Virginia, a state former President Donald Trump won by nearly 40 percentage points in 2020, and has said he will announce whether he will seek a fourth term by December. He is also teasing the idea of a presidential run on a third-party ticket.

But as the race takes shape, people close to Manchin say the senator is disgusted with the idea of Justice not only replacing him in the Senate but representing the state in Washington at all. The Justice campaign declined to comment. 

Several Democrats close to Manchin — many of whom requested anonymity to speak candidly about the relationship — said the senator's feelings about Justice could heat up an already pivotal race.

“It would bother him to be replaced by Jim Justice,” said a Democratic operative in West Virginia who has known Manchin for years. “Put aside to be beaten by the guy who fired his wife and betrayed him politically, I think he would just be really annoyed that Jim Justice would fill the seat once occupied by Bob Byrd and Joe Manchin.”

The operative added: “There is a part of him that would personally relish evening the score with Jim Justice by beating the pants off him.”

Manchin’s decision — whether driven by personal animus or not — is critical in the national fight for the Senate. Democrats privately concede that a Manchin retirement would slash any hopes of keeping the seat in their column. Republican operatives in West Virginia and Washington hope Manchin decides against running, which would make flipping this crucial Senate seat much easier considering Manchin is widely seen as the only Democrat still able to win statewide in the deep red state.

Before facing Manchin, however, Justice will have to win his own primary. He’s facing Rep. Alex Mooney, a congressman who has the backing of the anti-tax Club for Growth, an influential player in GOP primaries across the country. The governor is already facing attacks from his right, as well as from Democrats hoping to soften his positive image if Manchin does decide to run for reelection. 

“This is going to be a very interesting primary,” Manchin told The Messenger. “It'll be more competitive than people think. Mooney is not going to take this lightly. Mitch McConnell and the NRSC are running the campaign for Justice."

Manchin ‘helped create Jim Justice’ 

The source of Manchin’s animosity toward Justice was first political and then personal.

The start of the political rift stems from Justice’s dramatic turn from a West Virginia Democrat during his run for governor in 2016 to announcing he would become a Republican less than a year later at a Trump rally. The shift deeply angered Manchin and his broader political operation.

“Not only does he turn,” said the source close to Manchin, “but he does an unbelievable 180 toward Trump, too.”

Manchin not only endorsed Justice’s general election gubernatorial campaign in 2016 but he backed the wealthy coal magnate and hotelier in what was then a contested Democratic primary, saying Justice was “uniquely qualified to handle the major challenges that West Virginia is facing.” Larry Puccio, Manchin’s longtime friend and adviser who did not respond to requests for comment for this article, helped run Justice’s campaign. Manchin, as one source put it, “helped create Jim Justice,” and went to bat for him with people in Washington when Justice was largely seen as an unknown.

“If you look back at Justice’s consulting team, it was the Manchin consulting team that just moved over and did Justice’s stuff,” said Mike Plante, a West Virginia Democratic strategist who has worked for Manchin. “Joe went to bat with the Democratic Governors Association for him and helped him there. For Manchin, the way that he switched and did so quickly, really annoyed him.”

Justice told Trump on stage in 2017, in front of an audience of Trump supporters, that he couldn’t “help you anymore being a Democrat governor.” He announced he was switching parties and lauded Trump as someone who “cares about America” and “cares about us in West Virginia.”

The turn culminated in Justice endorsing and campaigning for Attorney General Patrick Morrisey’s Senate race in 2018, whom Manchin went on to defeat by three percentage points. He urged voters to back Morrisey at a Trump rally months before Election Day.

“He needs you to go out and be warriors and deputies for him,” Justice told the crowd. “He can win this, and this man needs him,” Justice said, pointing back at Trump. 

‘Would you like a guy who fired your wife?’

But the reason Manchin’s disdain turned white hot, according to multiple Democrats close to Manchin, stems from Justice’s decision to terminate Manchin’s wife, Gayle, in 2018.

“You are married, right?” one Democrat close to Manchin asked. “Would you like a guy who fired your wife?”

Justice terminated Gayle Manchin, who he appointed to serve as Secretary of Education and the Arts in 2017, after she put out a statement on a state bill that would have dramatically altered her position and department and suggested there was “political pressure” on the governor because she was Manchin’s wife. The senator was up for reelection that year.

“I want to sit down with the Governor, and if it helps, I’ll resign to remove any political pressure to save all of these important programs for West Virginians,” Gayle Manchin wrote.

Justice responded by saying that Gayle Manchin ignored the recommendations of his chief of staff and made the political situation worse with her statement.

“In her press release she offered to resign and remove any political cloud. If there weren't any earlier political cloud, now there surely is one. She was very critical, made it political, and put me in a very, very bad position,” Justice said in a statement. “She was told that we accepted her resignation, she refused, and we terminated her.”

In the wake of the firing, Gayle Manchin insinuated her marriage to the senator was a factor in Justice’s decision.

“To me, they were eliminating it because it was me,” Gayle Manchin told radio host Hoppy Kercheval. “I don’t think it’s just because I’m Joe Manchin’s wife. I believe they think they need to get Democrats out of positions of influence.”

Gayle Manchin is now the federal co-chair of the Appalachian Regional Commission. She told The Messenger on Friday that she had “moved on” from her back-and-forth with Justice.

“When you’ve lived in the world of politics as long as I have, you can’t hold grudges,” she said. “Now Governor Justice and I work collaboratively to move forward ARC projects that improve the economic health of our beloved West Virginia, and the entire Appalachian region.”

A source close to Justice, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to speak candidly about the relationship, said Gayle Manchin’s ouster, as well as the growing relationship at the time between Justice and Trump, had a “chilling effect” on the relationship between the two West Virginia political titans. Part of Manchin’s animosity towards Justice, they said, could be because of the changing political landscape of the state and Justice’s growing influence. 

“I’ve never been around the governor where he’s expressed vitriol or personal dislike for Senator Manchin,” the source told The Messenger. “Now obviously there’s some political competitive fire, but nothing like ‘Oh, I hate that guy.’ Nothing like that.” 

‘He doesn’t care about you’

While Justice has defended Manchin from time to time over the past few years, he criticized Manchin during negotiations of the American Rescue Plan two years ago.

Justice urged Congress to go “bigger” with their relief package and criticized Manchin’s role in shaping the legislation, accusing the state’s senior senator of “still trying to make it big” during a COVID-19 press briefing in March 2021. In particular, Justice was critical of language in the bill that dictated how the state could use the federal funds distributed by Congress. 

“He doesn’t care about you. He doesn’t care about the people in this state,” Justice said, responding to a question about the American Rescue Plan. “Literally, Joe Manchin is selling his influence and making money. I mean, you think about this. Joe Manchin’s been a politician forever, yet he’s a rich man. How could possible that be?” 

“Absolutely he makes money selling his influence,” he added.

Manchin, a former governor of West Virginia himself, has largely seen Justice’s tenure as governor as a failure, Democrats said, contributing to his issues with the Republican. One Democratic operative in West Virginia said he, on more than one occasion, has heard Manchin privately say he thinks Justice has “squandered” his opportunity as governor, citing criticism Justice has received for being absent on the job.

Manchin publicly responded to Justice’s criticisms by calling them “political attacks that do nothing to help hard-working West Virginians”

“I welcome the opportunity to speak with Governor Justice about the best possible ways to improve the lives of West Virginians with the more than $2 billion in federal funding that I secured for our state in this bill,” he said in a statement.