U.S. Senator Joe Manchin, a maverick Democrat who has often bucked party leadership, told a radio station in his home state of West Virginia on Thursday that he is “thinking seriously” about leaving the party.
“I’m not a Washington Democrat,” Manchin said in the interview on Talkline with Hoppy Kercheval, a West Virginia Metro News show. “I’ve been thinking seriously about that (becoming an independent) for quite some time.”
Manchin and Democratic-turned-independent colleague Senator Kyrsten Sinema have been thorns in top Senate Democrat Chuck Schumer’s side since the party won its majority in 2020. Democrats hold a 51-49 majority, including three independents who caucus with them.
Last month Manchin further stirred Democratic concerns with an appearance in the early-voting state of New Hampshire with the “No Labels” group, where he mulled starting a third-party presidential campaign in 2024, challenging Democratic President Joe Biden. Having a third-party candidate would “threaten” the two major political parties, Manchin said.
Manchin has used his influence to block legislation that he opposes - including expanding voting rights protections and child tax credits - and to ensure passage of bills he supports, such as a major tax and climate law that passed last summer.
He faces a tough re-election bid next year in Republican-leaning West Virginia, which former President Donald Trump won by almost 39 percentage points in 2020. Manchin has not yet said if he will seek re-election, but he would face an even steeper road if he spurned his party and the fundraising support it can provide.
West Virginia Governor Jim Justice, a former Democrat-turned Republican, began his campaign in April for the Republican nomination to seek Manchin’s seat.
Manchin, a popular former governor who was first elected to the U.S. Senate in 2010, has kept his seat in part by maintaining a reputation as a rare conservative Democrat in Washington.
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It’s not about chasing every opportunity, it’s about changing the strategy that underpins the democratic party’s efforts to reach people and get votes. It’s about admitting that now, as we see our personal liberties and economic stability stripped away with Democrats doing nothing to stop it over the last 40 years, the philosophy of neoliberalism has failed to address the needs of the majority of Americans and to confront the aggressive intrusion of fascism and corporate influence into our democratic system.
Better maybe to show you. You don’t have to watch all the analysis, but just watch this right-wing woman’s video that I’ve timestamped here. This is someone who, if you bother to field someone who will speak their vernacular and speak to their needs, is ripe to be brought onboard with a wider pro-working class message. Not by “reaching across the aisle” to fascist serpents and corporate shills like Manchin, but by side-stepping all the cultural nonsense and speaking directly to Americans material need in a way that they can make sense of.
We saw it work in Pennsylvania with the senate race. Fetterman knew what issues to emphasize and how to show himself as a genuine representative of that region, not as just some careerist spouting a bunch of empty promises (which is how independents and working class voters see both your standard Democrats and Republicans).
Instead, these kinds of people have been abandoned to believe the lies from people like Trump and DeSantis about their economic struggles being caused by immigrants and trans athletes. Because the democratic establishment would rather give up on these areas than to take any stance that would work against the interests of those they truly represent; corporate entities and the ultrawealthy. They don’t want to risk having to actually do anything that will slow the flow of the corporate money-hose that got turned on with Citizens United.
This would be incorrect.