West Virginia Democrat Sen. Joe Manchin, has won his bid for re-election, taking down an opponent who positioned himself as an ally of President Donald Trump in a state where the president is very popular.

Manchin, a former governor of the state, once again was able to win the favor of West Virginian voters, two-thirds of whom voted to put Trump in office in the 2016 presidential election.

Chris Hamilton, senior vice president of the West Virginia Coal Association, told S&P Global Market Intelligence ahead of the election that Manchin had longed helped the industry, but said this year the sector was thinking more about supporting the president's "team" in order to enable to better accomplish an agenda favorable to the industry. Coal production has long been declining for years in the state, but a recent uptick in export demand has helped out West Virginia coal producers.

Manchin has led legislative efforts to permanently extend healthcare benefits for retired union miners, secure funding for black lung programs and protect miners' pensions.

Rejecting ACA repeal efforts, confronting opioid crisis

Manchin has consistently voted against Republican efforts to repeal the 2010 Affordable Care Act — former President Barack Obama's signature legislative achievement — giving a thumbs-down again last year to three bills aimed at dismantling the law.

Manchin made his efforts on Capitol Hill to address the U.S. opioid epidemic a key part of his re-election campaign — rallying Democrats and Republicans alike to come together to help his state, which has the highest rate per capita of overdose deaths in the nation and is considered ground zero for the crisis.

The West Virginia lawmaker co-sponsored a number of the more than 70 provisions that were included in the law signed Oct. 24 by Trump aimed at tackling the epidemic.

Manchin was out front of his legislative colleagues in confronting the opioid crisis, even becoming the first senator to testify before a U.S. Food and Drug Administration panel about the drugs.

Nine months after he pleaded with the FDA in January 2013 to put tighter restrictions on hydrocodone drugs, like Vicodin and Lortab, the agency backed the idea.

But Manchin has often found himself in a tight spot when it comes to the controversy over high U.S. drug prices, given his daughter, Mylan N.V. CEO Heather Bresch, has been at the center of the firestorm because of the high cost of her company's emergency anaphylaxis medicine EpiPen.