CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Recently retired U.S. Senator Joe Manchin sat just a few feet from West Virginia’s new chief executive, Gov. Patrick Morrisey, at Morrisey’s inauguration Monday and he had a flashback. “It was 20 years ago this month that Gayle and I were here and I was inaugurated as governor,” Manchin said reflecting back to January 2005.

West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice signed a number of socially conservative laws during his two terms in office. But he rarely pushed for them. The Democrat-turned-Republican, now heading to the U.S. Senate to take over the seat of former Independent U.