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Why has Sen. Joe Manchin left the Democratic party and registered as an independent?
Sen. Joe Manchin left the Democratic Party to register as an independent, citing a desire to decrease partisanship across the country.
West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin announced last year that he would not seek re-election. Today, he took another step to separate himself from the Democratic Party by registering as an independent. Sen. Manchin has been moving away from the party for years, creating many roadblocks for the party to implement the agenda that then-candidate Biden ran on in 2020.
In a post on X, Sen. Machin said that his choice to leave the party was based on a desire to “fix America” by bridging partisan divides. “Let’s work together to fix America. Don’t hate the other side. There’s only one side - the American side - and we have to work together to save our country. That’s why I changed my party registration to no party affiliation,” reads the post.
The threat of Senator Manchin entering the presidential race
Some political analysts believe Sen. Manchin could be trying to angle for a third-party presidential run. The deadline to run as an independent varies from state to state, but if he files his paperwork quickly, the West Virginia sensor could still run in the vast majority. Third-party candidates can have major sway in a close election, as the one in November is expected to be, and when asked if he was considering a run, he replied that he did not want to be a “spoiler.” However, the political landscape has shifted widely over the last few months, with support for Presidnet Biden dropping rapidly among key demographics. Nevertheless, even if Sen. Manchin drops into the race, his policy agenda might not attract the voters abandoning Biden. But that does not mean Sen. Manchin could not take more votes votes from Biden (and Trump, for that matter).
Additionally, the billionaire-funded political organization No Labels, which had toyed with the idea of running a third-party candidate, said in April that it would support a candidate for November. If Sen. Manchin had made a bid for the White House, it would have likely been coordinated with No Labels.