First Person is a series of quick videos from the Cook Political Report editors exclusively for our premium members.

On Thursday, Democratic West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin announced his retirement. With the contest moving to Solid Republican, Amy breaks down what this means for the battle for Senate control. Amy also questions what Manchn will do now and what a presidential candidacy would look like.

Amy Walter: [00:00:00] Hello, welcome to First Person. I'm Amy Walter, and as I'm recording this, some big news just broke, and that is that Senator Joe Manchin, Democrat from West Virginia, announced that he will not be running for re-election. Now, there's part of this that really isn't particularly surprising. Manchin was already looking at a very tough race against, most likely, the governor, Jim Justice.

Jim Justice, the Republican governor has a primary, but he just got the endorsement from Donald Trump and seems pretty well positioned to win that nomination. A matchup between Justice and Manchin, we've seen it in the polling, is one that benefits Justice significantly. So, not

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