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Three Top West Virginia Democrats to Skip Convention

Sen. Joe Manchin won't be attending the Democratic National Convention later this summer. (Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call)
Sen. Joe Manchin won't be attending the Democratic National Convention later this summer. (Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call)

Three high-profile Democrats from West Virginia are not planning to attend the Democratic National Convention in September.

Sen. Joe Manchin, Rep. Nick Rahall and Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin have opted not to go to the convention in Charlotte, according to a West Virginia Democratic Party press release.

President Barack Obama is not popular in the state, and in 2010, Manchin ran a TV ad openly attacking the administration on cap-and-trade. Manchin, who is on the ballot again in November and does not face a difficult race, had already said this spring he wasn’t sure he would vote for Obama’s re-election.

In the state’s May 8 Democratic presidential primary, a federal inmate took more than 40 percent of the vote and won 10 counties over the president. In the 2008 Democratic primary, Obama lost to then-Sen. Hillary Clinton by a 40-point margin in West Virginia.

The state’s other Democratic federal elected official, Sen. Jay Rockefeller, does plan to attend the convention.

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