“My worst day as governor,” Joe Manchin often lamented, “was better than my best day as a senator.”

The West Virginia Democrat spent a combined total of 20 years in those two jobs, so he knows what he’s talking about. And it’s hard to argue with the comment he made to Time’s Jon Meacham in 2014: “I know dysfunctional families that function better than the Senate does. It’s just crazy.”

The traditional career path in U.S. politics has been for state-based politicians, including governors, to seek a national platform. A dozen former chief executives sit in the Senate today. But the dysfunction in Washington that Manchin describes is driving a small but significant number of lawmakers to reverse that pattern, return home and run for governor.

Three senators have already announced their cam

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