West Virginia Candidates and Overview

Joe Manchin won election in 2004 with 62 percent of the vote. In 2008, he easily defeated Republican challenger Russ Weeks with 70 percent of the vote.

Manchin was first elected to the West Virginia House of Delegates in 1982 and won re-election in 1984. He was elected to the first three, four-year terms to the state Senate in 1986.

His first attempt at the governor's office in 1996 resulted in an unsuccessful primary campaign. He rebounded politically four years later, winning election as secretary of state. It was from that statewide platform that Manchin again launched a bid for governor.

(Last updated by Brian Farkas on April 6, 2009.)

Robert Byrd, a nine-term senator, was first elected to the U.S. Senate in 1958.

He was re-elected to consecutive terms, and in 2006 he received 64 percent of the vote and was elected to a ninth term despite questions about his ability to serve another six years. Byrd has rebuffed concerns about his health and fitness, but agreed to step down as appropriations chairman after brief hospitalizations in 2008.

Byrd has continuously held elected office since 1946 when he began serving in the West Virginia Legislature first in the House of Delegates, from 1946 to 1950, and then in the state Senate, from 1950 to 1952.

Byrd was elected to the U.S. House in 1952.

(Last updated by Brian Farkas on April 6, 2009.)

Jay Rockefeller was elected to the Senate in 1984, narrowly defeating another wealthy businessman, Republican John Raese.

He was re-elected in 1990, defeating Republican John Yoder with 68 percent of the vote and in 1996 with 77 percent of the vote over Republican Betty Burks. Rockefeller defeated Republican Jay Wolfe in 2002 with 63 percent of the vote.

In 2008, Rockefeller won his fifth six-year term. He defeated Wolfe once more with 64 percent of the vote.

Rockefeller came to West Virginia as a 27-year-old VISTA volunteer in 1964, and by 1966 he had entered state politics, being elected to the West Virginia House of Delegates.

In 1968, he was elected the state's Secretary of State.

In 1976, he was elected to the first of two terms as governor.

(Last updated by Brian Farkas on April 6, 2009.)