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.

  •  Karzyn   ( @Karzyn@beehaw.org ) 
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    Many comments here are complaining about Manchin without taking the time to consider the political acrobatics necessary to win a statewide office in West Virginia as a Democrat. Yes, he’s been a pain in the ass but a Republican in that seat would be much, much worse. If nothing else, he’s a point towards control of the chamber. Sinema is a different story because she ran as being more progressive than she ended up being and because Kelly is proof positive that an actual Democrat could have won on Arizona. Manchin has never shied away from what he stands for and is probably the only person who could keep the seat blue. So yeah, hate his politics all you want but recognize that him leaving the party would be a terrible thing.

  • lol byyyyyye. if he ain’t leaving they should kick him out anyway. i know good electoral politics means coalition-building, but i don’t see the point in building a coalition with people like Manchin and Sinema who seem to share none of the party’s common goals.

    • If Manchin didn’t exist, not a single piece of Biden’s agenda over the past two years would have passed, including things like Justice Jackson joining the Supreme Court.

      Yes, he’s incredibly annoying, but he’s also representing the people of West Virginia, of all places. Would you really prefer a 6-2 Supreme Court? I wouldn’t.

      • Assuming you’re a wage earner, none of it matters. The Democrats had a supermajority under Obama and all we got for it was more expensive health care, another 500 billion for war every year and a Republican SCOTUS nominee that he didn’t even have the balls to fight for.

        We have bipartisanship, and it’s always there for the worst things. The US spending a trillion-plus dollars a year on war is a permanent thing because of bipartisanship. Abortion is no longer a right because of bipartisanship. You can legally be paid $7 an hour for whatever job you do every day because of bipartisanship.

        But they’ll make three trillion appear overnight to prop up your investment portfolio, or another trillion appear overnight for a so-called tax cut.

        You can pretend someone’s better because they’re in a blue suit, but 40 years of that thinking is why things are never going to get better in this country.

        • https://www.cbpp.org/research/health/medicaid-expansion-has-saved-at-least-19000-lives-new-research-finds

          The Affordable Care Act’s (ACA) expansion of Medicaid to low-income adults is preventing thousands of premature deaths each year, a landmark study finds.[1] It saved the lives of at least 19,200 adults aged 55 to 64 over the four-year period from 2014 to 2017. Conversely, 15,600 older adults died prematurely because of state decisions not to expand Medicaid. (See Figure 1; see Table 1 for state-by-state estimates.) The lifesaving impacts of Medicaid expansion are large: an estimated 39 to 64 percent reduction in annual mortality rates for older adults gaining coverage.

          I imagine the several thousand people who are not dead might disagree with the assessment that the ACA (which wasn’t a particularly bipartisan endeavor, if you care to check the vote count) did nothing but increase insurance costs.

          I don’t care enough to respond to the rest of that drivel, and I know you have no interest in facts anyway, but for any readers passing by, there are actual facts that you should look up.

        • Yeah as a type 1 diabetic you can fuck off with that all we got is more expensive healthcare. I never have to be denied because of pre existing conditions thanks to Obama and the democrats. Also we had a super majority for all of 72 days.

          • Yeah as a type 1 diabetic you can fuck off with that all we got is more expensive healthcare.

            Perhaps, but unless you can absorb being price-gouged, that same system will literally just let you die. You only have access if you can pay for it.

            Also, it’s not a secret that many American diabetics are being charged the equivalent of a mortgage payment for their medicine every month, effectively paying rent to occupy their own bodies. Obama could have changed that. The Dems could have changed that.

            • Guess what. The same thing happened before Obama too. Except then it was happening without insurance because we could get denied for having pre existing health conditions that would prevent us from obtaining insurance in the first place. Seeing as you aren’t a diabetic and don’t have to live this reality, And I am, please kindly take this bull you are spewing and shove it. Because you do not know what it is like at all.

              • Seeing as you aren’t a diabetic and don’t have to live this reality, And I am, please kindly take this bull you are spewing

                I mean, I pay rent to own my condo every month. I can therefore imagine what it may be like to be charged a mortgage payment to occupy my own body every month, and I find it absolutely infuriating.

                It’s surprising to me that you, as a diabetic, apparently don’t. Democrats had the power to change that under Obama and didn’t.

                • You can keep saying that but no they couldn’t. They held a slim super majority for only 72 working days and that required independents caucusing with them. Lieberman was not on board with those changes and the democrats cut the deal they could with the votes they had. That deal saves fucking lives. Diabetics can get insurance without being tied to a job now. Its expensive now. It was literally impossible to get then. So fuck off with your anti democratic party bullshit and if you think it’s so easy to get these votes to enact this change to get a bunch of progressives elected. Because all you are doing is disuading voters from voting for the only party that has done a fucking thing for the poor and working class. That only helps conservatives who are trying to kill us. You won’t bring about revolution by shit talking the democrats on the Internet and convincing people to not vote. Stop actively harming people with your rhetoric and try actually organizing for a fucking change.

        •  FlowVoid   ( @FlowVoid@midwest.social ) 
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          Democrats had a supermajority for only ten months, and in that time they managed to pass a major piece of legislation on a highly controversial topic.

          If you expected more than one in that time frame, then you really don’t understand how American politics works.

          •  Dominic   ( @Dominic@beehaw.org ) 
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            It was less than 2 months. Franken wasn’t sworn in until July and Kennedy died in August.

            EDIT: it’s actually somewhere in the middle. Kennedy’s seat was held by Kirk, a Democratic appointee, from September through February 2010. However, I am fairly certain that Kennedy was basically unable to serve from March until his death in August.

            Democrats basically had late September through early February to get anything done without a filibuster.

            •  FlowVoid   ( @FlowVoid@midwest.social ) 
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              Democrats do plenty, especially at the local level.

              The problem is that some voters have barely the attention span necessary to watch an entire TikTok video. They start complaining unless they see something new in their feed every day so they can click “like”.

              But that’s not how democracy works, in fact that’s never been how it worked. To take just one example, abortion opponents developed a long term strategy that only came to fruition after several decades.

              That’s who you’re up against: people who know how to play the long game. So if you are frustrated by a lack of short term gains, then you aren’t cut out for American politics.

    • That’s what I’m saying. Isn’t this the state of Blair Mountain, John Brown’s Raid, and October Sky?

      Where’s the neo Woody Guthrie coal miner’s daughter type looking to run a grass roots campaign on justice for the opiate-pushing and transitioning fossil fuel work to sustainable energy? Someone who wants to bring stable, modern jobs to WV and revitalize it while protecting the natural splendor that tourists seek.

      He’s up for reelection in '24. Someone more sensible should primary this lump of coal. Gotta find that person and build that campaign though. And learn from Beto’s mistakes.

      • Lmao Blair mountain was 102 years ago my guy. John Brown was 160 years ago. And October Sky is about one dude who became a rocket engineer. So not sure why that was included. You seriously think the political landscape of west Virginia hasn’t changed in the last 100-160 years? You aren’t going to find anyone better than manchin who stands a chance in west Virginia

        • Fetterman is ‘one dude’. So is Ossoff. So is Warnock. You really think the political landscape of states can’t change?

          I’ve sat in the shade of trees older than 160yrs. I’ve got relatives pushing 100 (as is too much of Congress). That amount of time really isn’t that long. Technology may have changed a lot but people are still basically the same.

          I think that ‘Manchin is the best we can hope for’ is selling the people of WV short. As evidenced by their history: NASA rocket scientist (from a coal mining family), union fighters, abolitionists. And we certainly won’t flip states like WV with defeatist mindsets.

          Also, I’m not your guy, buddy.

          • One rocket scientist doesn’t mean the entire state is good. I really don’t understand your obsession with thinking west Virginia isn’t a backwater state full of racists.

            I mean shit your let’s give them new job training is literally what clinton recommended And that shit was shut down hard by the people of west Virginia. Look at how they vote in every election. It’s delusion to think we can flip them blue.

              • You are right. We do need 51%. In 2020 there was a 65% turnout and Biden got just under 30%. Even if every one of the 35% of west Virginians who didn’t vote were secret libs he still wouldn’t have won. But hey. Good luck winning a statewide election with just under 30% of the voters on your side. Also are you on the ground in wva working with a progressive candidate? Because if not then you have given up and all your doing is complaining that the Dems aren’t doing enough.

      • Forget Blair Mountain.

        WV is a state of company stores now, because 98% of the people there vote on team color and nothing else.

        LOL at the Beto reference though. Didn’t he vote something like 95% with Republicans when he had a seat?

    • Oh no, the Dems have now lost the Senate and will be unable to appoint any judges, the importance of which I think has become abundantly clear over the past several years, but at least, for a brief moment, we got a little ideological satisfaction.

        • I don’t want to just angrily respond to a quip, but have you not been paying any attention at all for the last 2 years? Every big win for Biden, along with countless federal judge positions, have gotten approved through Manchin’s involvement. Sinema’s, too, unfortunately. Sinema is a liar, deserves no respect, and Arizona would be happy to elect a progressive democrat in her place. But Manchin, as annoying as he is, is probably the best we can expect from West Virginia. Him switching to Independent doesn’t mean a GenZ progressive is going to win his seat from him next election, it just means we lose an ally that is helping hold on to a very tenuous “majority” in the Senate. I don’t like him, but you cannot discount the fact that he has helped the Democrats a hell of a lot in the last couple years by mostly voting alongside them.

        • Justice Jackson is on the Supreme Court, and would not be if Manchin (or Sinema, for that matter) hadn’t approved.

          So yes, they have helped the Dems. Not to mention, every significant piece of legislation that passed in the last Congress could have been killed by either of them.

  • I’m not a political analyst in any capacity and this is pure conjecture, but my gut is telling me that he’s getting info that enough West Virginia republicans are willing to vote independent to carry him over the line in the next election. So, walking that out, if republicans are willing to break straight ticket voting to keep a “half-flipped democrat” in office, I think that speaks more to the fracturing of their voting bloc than the acumen of an individual politician who seems to be seeking office for personal gain over party goals. I’m very interested to see how much money is spent on this race this/next year.

  • 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.

    He thinks WAY too highly of himself. He might complicate the Republican vote, but he wouldn’t threaten Biden.

    • He’s much more likely to pull from republican voters than democratic. So he should go ahead and try. All of these conservatives who don’t like Trump wanting to run as third party candidates, thinking they’ll get support from the Democratic voters… Kind of makes me laugh.

      • I think you underestimate the number of conservative Dems or “centrists” who would take the opportunity to not vote for Democrats.

        “Moderate” Republicans are the exact opposite of that. They will hold their nose and toe the line. Do you know how many times I heard “I don’t like him but…” back in 2016? Literally any excuse to vote R and they will justify it.