Manchin ‘thinking seriously’ about leaving Democratic Party

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West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin (D) says he is “thinking seriously” about leaving the Democratic Party and declaring himself an independent before the 2024 election, when he will have to decide whether to run for a fourth Senate term or wage a third-party bid for president.
Manchin, who earlier this year described himself as an independent Democrat, told West Virginia radio host Hoppy Kercheval on Thursday that the Democratic brand has “become so bad.”

I’m thinking seriously. For me, I have to have peace of mind, basically. The brand has become so bad — the D brand and R brand. In West Virginia, the D brand because it’s [the] national brand. It’s not the Democrats in West Virginia, it’s the Democrats in Washington.
“You’ve heard me say a million times I’m not a Washington Democrat,” he said.

Pressed by Kercheval, the host of “Talkline” on West Virginia Metro News, whether he’s really serious about becoming an independent, Manchin said, “I would think very seriously about that.”

“I’ve been thinking about that for quite some time. I haven’t made any decisions whatsoever on any of my political direction. I want to make sure that my voice is truly an independent voice,” he said. “When I do speak, I want to be able to speak honestly about basically the extremes of the Democrat and Republican Party that’s harming our nation.”

Manchin says he will decide at the end of the year whether to run for a fourth Senate term or run for president as a third-party candidate backed by No Labels, a bipartisan centrist group that plans to raise $70 million to put an independent, third-party candidate on the presidential ballot next year.

The senior senator from West Virginia faces a tough reelection race in a state that former President Trump carried with 68 percent of the vote in 2016 and 29 percent in 2020.
An East Carolina Center for Survey Research poll published in May showed Manchin trailing West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice (R) by 22 percentage points in a hypothetical Senate race.

but he will hand a working majority to the GOP as he will vote with them.