West Virginia, unlike Arizona, is like a plus 22 red state. Joe Manchin is the only politician in that state who could win that seat for the Democrats. When Joe Manchin retires, that seat is going Republican.View on YouTube
Joe Manchin, then a Democratic U.S. senator from West Virginia, announced he would not seek re‑election to his Senate seat in the 2024 cycle, effectively retiring from that seat.(en.wikipedia.org) In the subsequent 2024 United States Senate election in West Virginia, Republican Governor Jim Justice won the open-seat race with about 68.8% of the vote to Democrat Glenn Elliott’s 27.8%, and he succeeded Manchin in the U.S. Senate.(en.wikipedia.org) Justice, a Republican, was sworn in as senator in January 2025, giving the Republican Party control of the seat Manchin had held.(en.wikipedia.org)
Therefore, the prediction that when Manchin retired his West Virginia Senate seat would go to the Republican Party was borne out by the 2024 election results.