Manchin’s Senioritis & Gallego’s Silicon Valley Swipe

Joe Manchin has yet to decide whether he will run for re-election in West Virginia, where he may battle centi-millionaire governor Jim Justice.
Joe Manchin has yet to decide whether he will run for re-election in West Virginia, where he may battle centi-millionaire governor Jim Justice. Photo: Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images
Tara Palmeri
February 23, 2023

Chuck Schumer has likely been up all night with desert-hued nightmares of the 2024 Arizona Senate race—in particular, how the current murder-suicide pact between Ruben Gallego and Kyrsten Sinema could deliver the seat to the election-results denying Kari Lake, essentially a more telegenic Marjorie Taylor Greene. As that showdown looms in the distant-but-not-too-distant future, Gallego has peeled off much of Sinema’s Silicon Valley donor base, the same crew of influential female philanthropists who paved the way for her 2018 election in the name of girl power and turning purple Arizona blue. Critically, Gallego has won over rising mega-donor Karla Jurvetson, who famously gave Elizabeth Warren’s super PAC a $15 million check when her 2020 campaign was low on cash.