Joe Manchin’s first 2024 GOP challenger has Cuban heritage

Rep. Alex Mooney, a Republican from West Virginia, announce Tuesday that he would be challenging Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin for his seat in 2024.

The son of a Cuban refugee, Mooney said in a local news radio interview said that he wanted to be “part of the solution” in the upper chamber, reports Fox News.

"West Virginia values are at risk in this country. We’re bankrupting America. I want to be a part of the solution there," Mooney said MetroNews Talkline.

"It’s been talked about a lot, but I’m going to announce. I’m announcing it right now that I’m running for the U.S. Senate," Mooney added. "I’m all in."

His mother, Lala Mooney (née Suarez), was born and raised in communist Cuba where she was once imprisoned by the Castro regime for political activism. She escaped to the United States at age 21 and later married Vincent Rooney, who served in Vietnam.

Her brother, Xavier Suarez, was the first Cuban-born mayor of Miami. This means the West Virginia congressman is a cousin of Francis X. Suarez, Miami’s current mayor and Xavier’s son.

The two-term senator has been eyed as a top target for Republicans despite breaking ranks to vote with them more often than any other Senate Democrat. He and Arizona Sen. Democrat Kyrsten Sinema have helped Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell fend off attempts to overhaul the chamber’s filibuster rule.

Manchin narrowly won reelection in 2018 with a 3-point margin over his GOP challenger, a significant drop from his 24-point victory in 2012. Potential GOP challengers are looking to highlight his support for the Inflation Reduction Act, which includes climate change provisions that could harm the state’s flagging coal industry.

A spokesman for Manchin told Fox News that the senator welcomes all challengers.

Among others who may step up in the state’s 2024 GOP Senate primary is West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey, who lost to Manchin in 2018.