Poll: West Virginians approve of Dem senator more than Trump

West Virginia voters are more likely to approve of their Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin than President Trump, according to a MetroNews West Virginia poll released on Thursday. 

Fifty-one percent of West Virginia voters polled said they approved of Manchin, while 48 percent approved of Trump. 

West Virginia gave Trump his highest margin of victory in the 2016 election; he won nearly 69 percent of the vote there.

Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (W.Va.) trailed her Democratic counterpart, with 40 percent of voters polled saying they approved of the Republican. 

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Manchin, who is the only Democrat from his state in Congress, faces a daunting 2018 reelection bid in the predominately red state. 

The centrist senator, who was floated as a possible Trump Energy secretary, worked to lead talks with his colleagues on possible bipartisan action on healthcare, as opposed to the Republican plan to repeal and replace ObamaCare. 

Capito also walked a fine line on healthcare, voicing her concerns about Republican plans to roll back Medicaid expansion in West Virginia. 

The Republican senator ultimately voted with her conference for the repeal-and-replace effort, which failed when three of her GOP colleagues voted with Democrats to kill it. 

Thursday’s West Virginia poll also showed that Gov. Jim Justice’s (R) recent decision to switch to the Republican Party has not necessarily been beneficial, with only 34 percent of voters polled saying they approved of him as the state’s top executive. 

The Metro News West Virginia poll was conducted Aug. 11-20 among a sample size of 400 likely West Virginia voters, with a margin of error of plus or minus 4.9 percentage points.