Let me get ready for Cuddles before I say this. If I lived in W Virginia I would vote for Jim Justice for Senator over Joe Manchin.(Polls show most WV democrats will too.)
Surprising no one (what is it you called it, a false equivalency?): edit; nvmnd bad read, you threw in there the red in VA then the dem in MO so I got your argument mixed up.
I'm guessing you're saying dems would rather vote opposite their interests in VA and GOP would rather vote opposite their interest in MO because of popular dem. Dem working class takes are by default popular because quite frankly there are more poors/middle class people. This can be seen from poll overlap of interests between dems and repugs (culture war distractions notwithstanding). Everyone wants a decent wage, good standard of living, good roads, healthcare, etc... The inverse isn't true, nor should it be, as a populist take from the right is by default fascistic and corporatist. Think of any right wing populist in history and it will always be nationalistic demagoguery persecuting the "others". Again, this should come as no surprise as the populist left take aims to improve the life of the majority while the takes from the populist right aims to improve the minority biz/wealthy/status quo. A left populist movement can and have become demagoguery as well, but I've never seen a right populist movement ever become a working class movement. Now on the Manchin/Jim Justice take. Manchin is no Kamala, or Joe, or (insert run of the mill dem). Dude actively sabotages dem bills and votes against them. Kamala and Biden may have opposed dem bills before but I'd be willing to bet their records are nowhere near close to Manchin's. He may as well be a GOP plant. I know nothing of this Jim Justice character...he may be right of center which is a different breed than MAGA. Thirdly, I never claimed leftists don't vote opposite their interests (cue Berniebros voting Trump), just that I don't understand the logic behind that mistake. Righties get suckered away from the default "popular left take" w/culture war distractions and lies, the opposite can be true as well. In fact, there are such youtube characters playing on the "anti-dem suckering". Jimmy Dore, Aaron Mate, Bari Weiss, Tulsi Gabbard, Matt Taibbi, etc... that are basically pipelines for disillusioned dems into the right wing.