A day earlier, Manchin had called on President Trump to “not leave any ambiguity about these hate groups—there aren’t two sides, there is only right and wrong” after the president blamed “both sides” for the violence in Charlottesville. But when I asked Manchin after the town hall if the president’s handling of the tragedy made it harder to work with him, he immediately dismissed the idea. “No, I’m not putting that barrier up at all. My job is to do the best I can to represent the state of West Virginia, the people here, the interests they have, and how they need assistance. So for me to say, ‘Well he said that, and I’m just mad as hell, and I’m not going to do anything,’ I’m not taking that position.”

This is what it looks like, in 2017, for a Democrat to try to win over voters in Trump country. Manchin, the Senate’s most conservative Democrat, is up for re-election next year in West Virginia, a state the president won in a landslide last November. Ever since Democrats lost the White House, Manchin has walked a fine line between working with Trump, working with his party, and trying to prove that whatever happens in Washington, and the rest of the country, he’ll put the voters of West Virginia first.

While the Democratic Party’s center of gravity has shifted in favor of the liberal populism championed by Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, Manchin remains a centrist Democrat with a political brand that recalls an earlier and more bipartisan era. His willingness to work with Trump puts him at odds with progressive activists demanding opposition to the administration. West Virginia’s conservative tilt has convinced Republicans, who plan to attack Manchin as out of step with the state, that they can win his Senate seat.

In Congress, Manchin has voted in support of the president’s priorities more often than any other Senate Democrat. The senator talks about speaking with Trump regularly, and has said he has a better relationship with Trump than he did with Obama. There’s even been speculation that Manchin might join the administration, though he said at his town hall that he plans “to continue to work in the United States Senate,” a plan that includes trying “to work with President Trump every way I possibly can.”

But Manchin hasn’t been a rubber stamp for the White House. He’s opposed several of the president’s high-profile cabinet nominations, including Education Secretary Betsy DeVos and Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price. And, along with every other Senate Democrat, he has steadfastly opposed Republican efforts to repeal the Affordable Care Act.

Manchin’s appeal cuts across party lines, but it may be difficult for the Democratic Party to replicate, and might not be enough to return him to the Senate. The West Virginia senator is being targeted by Republicans, despite his friendly relationship with Trump, and scorned by liberal activists despite his vital role in helping foil repeal of former President Obama’s signature healthcare law. Whether or not the Democratic Party moves back toward the center where Manchin stands, he is poised to play an important role in its future. If he loses next year, the party may have an even harder time fighting the president’s agenda.