Sen. Joe Manchin left the Democratic Party on Friday and registered as an independent, bashing “partisan extremism” and bemoaning that “national politics are broken.”
“From my first day in public service in 1982, I have always focused on doing what’s best for my state and my country, without regard to party or politics,” the senator from West Virginia said in a statement.
“However, since becoming a United States Senator in 2010, I have seen both the Democrat and Republican parties leave West Virginia and our country behind for partisan extremism while jeopardizing our democracy,” he added.
“Today, our national politics are broken and neither party is willing to compromise to find common ground. To stay true to myself and remain committed to put country before party, I have decided to register as an independent with no party affiliation and continue to fight for America’s sensible majority.”
Manchin, 76, announced in November that he would not seek re-election to a third full term in 2024 and briefly entertained but ultimately declined a third-party run for the presidency.
“I will not be seeking a third-party run,” he told West Virginia University students in a February speech, adding that he did not want to be a “spoiler” candidate.
The centrist senator has previously said he was considering abandoning the Democratic Party amid public spats with the Biden administration over energy policy and out-of-control federal spending.
Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (I-Ariz.) departed the Democratic Party in December 2022, as she and Manchin impeded some of President Biden’s domestic agenda and sought to uphold the norms of the upper chamber, including its 60-vote filibuster threshold to pass most legislation.
Sinema no longer caucuses with Democrats and opted to not run for re-election in March.
Reps for Manchin’s office did not respond to questions about whether the senator would still caucus with Democrats or affiliate with the party as an elected official.
The announcement followed the first-ever conviction of a US president, with a Manhattan jury finding former President Donald Trump guilty on 34 counts of business fraud on Thursday for hiding evidence of “hush money” payments made to porn star Stormy Daniels before the 2016 election to cover up a decade-old alleged extramarital affair.
Manchin — the only Democrat currently serving in a statewide office in deep-red West Virginia — did not issue a statement on the verdict.
West Virginia GOP Gov. Jim Justice is expected to win the race to replace Manchin in November, with the RealClearPolitics polling aggregator showing the Republican up double-digits in surveys over the incumbent last year.
The National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) expects to retake the Senate in 2024, with vulnerable Democrats like Ohio’s Sherrod Brown, Montana’s Jon Tester and Nevada’s Jacky Rosen facing tough re-election fights, according to the nonpartisan Cook Political Report.
Democrats currently hold a 51-49 majority in the upper chamber, when accounting for independent Sens. Angus King of Maine and Bernie Sanders of Vermont, who still caucus with the party.
