He's not all bad. He has let the democrats get through as many judges as possible. That said, he is a bad look for the party hands down. He allows moderates to believe democrats have a plurality when really they are just being lead by the people the least to the left. So when things go wrong it was the other 48's fault but not really.

from an otherwise red state

Not really, his voters overwhelmingly support progressive policies.

It's just no progressive has a chance in the primary with the party blocking all of Manchin's primary opponents.

It has been on a downswing lately tho. 2016 there was more D than R voters, and 2021 it got tied up.

I do t know why everyone acts like all these "red states" are worth writing off, it really wouldn't be hard if we actually tried for them.

Thank you