It’s no secret that politics were in play as Senate Democrats who are on the ballot in 2018, many from states carried by Donald Trump, staged a shutdown showdown to highlight the plight of coal miners from states like West Virginia.

Sen. Joe Manchin III, the Mountain State’s senior senator, worked hard to hold up the continuing resolution that extended funding for federal agencies and programs through April 28 in a bid to get concessions on health care benefits for retired miners and their widows — the kind of folks who helped President-elect Donald Trump win the election.

And Democrats have begun to signal they will employ similar tactics on other policy issues affecting working-class voters, a demographic they must win back to improve their chances in the 2018 midterm elections, and if they hope to win back the White House in 2020.

At the same time, two of the Democratic incumbents who took part in the showdown may be under consideration for Cabinet positions in the Trump administration. If Trump follows through, that could improve the odds of replacing them in the Senate with a Republican in 2018, or sooner.

Manchin is one of the Democratic incumbents who’s likely in for a hard fight in 2018. Trump won West Virginia by more than 42 points, appealing to the state’s down-on-their-luck working-class population, many of them registered Democrats who felt abandoned by the party.