WASHINGTON – He’s known her for as long as he can remember, once challenging “Shel” to a heart-pumping zipline race down a rugged mountaintop.
The way she tells it, they actually first met when he came to measure the carpeting for her new house in the 1970s. The two U.S.
senators from West Virginia, Democrat Joe Manchin and Republican Shelley Moore Capito, grew up in politically prominent families and now find themselves playing central roles in President Joe Biden’s infrastructure plans.
Manchin is a crucial 50th vote for Democrats on Biden’s sweeping proposals. Capito is the lead Republican negotiator on an alternative.