Democrat Joe Manchin has represented West Virginia in the U.S. Senate for seven years. Manchin calls himself “pro-life,” voted to confirm all but four of President Donald Trump’s administration appointees, and recently praised Trump for overturning some of Barack Obama’s environmental regulations. Indeed, after serving as governor of West Virginia for five years, he rose to national prominence with a television ad showing him firing bullets into a copy of the House’s 2009 cap and trade bill.

His conservative positions are part of the political triangulation some Democrats say is necessary to win seats in red states. In the case of West Virginia, the formula is a strain of social conservatism mixed with deference to Big Coal, the dominant industry in the state. Both Republicans and Democrats use this template to varying degrees, and it has stoked the ire of grassroots activists who say that Manchin is part of a corrupt political class that props up coal barons at the expense of voters.

Now one of those activists seeks to unseat him. Paula Swearengin, 42, is an accounting clerk and single mother of four from Coal City, West Virginia. On May 9, she announced that she would challenge Manchin in the Democratic primary. She is a newcomer to politics and an early beneficiary of Brand New Congress, a political action committee founded by former members of Senator Bernie Sanders’s presidential campaign.

Swearengin herself recently appeared in a March televised town hall with Sanders and MSNBC’s Chris Hayes, where she appealed to Sanders for help with the state’s environmental woes. That’s a concern partially informed by her own family’s experiences: Her grandfather died of black lung, and her uncles all suffer from the same condition. Here, she talks to the New Republic about her campaign, and explains what motivates her long-shot bid to replace Manchin. This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.





How does your background inform your policy positions as a candidate?



I was born here in West Virginia, though I spent a little time in North Carolina when my step-dad got laid off from the coal mines. I’m really not a politician: I don’t have a political background, though I’ve been an activist fighting for my community for years. So I had to learn a lot about my government. The reason that I decided to get into politics is because I have begged, pleaded, and cried for years for our government to listen to us and they haven’t. I think they’re corrupt. It’s time for West Virginia to rise up because the economic structure that we have now is detrimental to our health, our heritage, and the environment. We don’t have a Plan B when coal is gone except for service jobs and possibly fracking. We deserve a diverse and clean economic infrastructure for our future.



Joe Manchin has had a long career in West Virginia politics. He’s been in the Senate since 2010. Why did you decide to run against him now?