Washington (AFP) - Democratic US Senator Joe Manchin won re-election Tuesday in West Virginia, projections showed, helping his party's efforts to hold its own in states where Donald Trump won big in 2016.
Manchin defied the political trends in Appalachian coal country, defeating the state's Attorney General Patrick Morrisey in a state that voted more heavily for Trump than any other except Wyoming.
"Thank you, West Virginia!" Manchin posted on Twitter.
The 71-year-old senator substantially helped his own cause last month, when he became the chamber's only Democrat to vote to confirm Trump's nominee Brett Kavanaugh to the US Supreme Court.
But in a blow to long-shot Democratic hopes of flipping the Senate, incumbent Democrat Joe Donnelly went down to defeat in the Rust Belt state of Indiana, losing to businessman Mike Braun.
And the Appalachian state of Tennessee managed to keep an at-risk Senate seat in Republican hands, as conservative Marsha Blackburn was projected the winner over the state's former governor Phil Bredesen.
