Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia will not seek reelection to the Senate in 2024, he announced in a video on Thursday.
Manchin, who formerly served as the Governor of West Virginia until his special election to the Senate in 2010, has long been regarded as the most conservative Senate Democrat in the chamber. Amid a strong electoral challenge from his successor, Republican Gov. Jim Justice of West Virginia, for his seat in 2024, Manchin released a video on Thursday announcing that he would not seek to run for re-election to a third term in the Senate. (RELATED: Joe Manchin Says He Is ‘Thinking Seriously’ About Leaving The Democratic Party)
“Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country,” Manchin said in his video, quoting a famous sentence from President John F. Kennedy’s inaugural speech. “I made a vow to serve all the people, friend or foe, and not just myself…I believe in my heart of hearts, that I have accomplished what I set out to do in West Virginia,” he added before announcing that “I’ve made one of the toughest decisions of my life, that I will not be running for re-election to the United States Senate.”
To the West Virginians who have put their trust in me and fought side by side to make our state better – it has been an honor of my life to serve you. Thank you. My statement on my political future: pic.twitter.com/dz8JuXAyTL
— Senator Joe Manchin (@Sen_JoeManchin) November 9, 2023
Manchin indicated that, after his retirement from the Senate, he would be “traveling the country, and speaking out to see if there is an interest in creating a movement to mobilize the middle, and bring Americans together.”
That plan leaves open the possibility that Manchin may launch a campaign for president of the United States in the 2024 presidential election against President Joe Biden, which he has long been encouraged to do by donors and political operatives. A poll in July showed that, were a “moderate” and independent candidate to run against Biden and former President Donald Trump, the leading candidate for the Republican presidential nomination, they would gain 21% of the national popular vote.
Manchin has never ruled out a presidential campaign in 2024 after being asked repeatedly whether he’d run. On July 17, he participated in a town hall hosted by ‘No Labels,’ a third-party centrist group that has obtained ballot access in dozens of states in order to field a candidate to challenge Biden and Trump in 2024, which prompted commentators to speculate that he may seek to run on a ‘No Labels’ banner.
Polling indicates that, were Manchin to seek re-election, he would lose to Justice by a margin of 13 points, according to RealClearPolitics. West Virginia has a Cook Partisan Voting Index score of R+22, indicating that it is heavily Republican, with Manchin being the only statewide elected Democrat.
During his tenure, Manchin’s conservative political views often frustrated Democrats’ attempts to pass left-wing legislation and changes to Senate rules, particularly during the 117th Congress, when Manchin’s opposition prevented the passage of the Build Back Better Act, a large domestic spending package championed by President Joe Biden, as well as a bill to create a federal right to an abortion, codifying the since-overruled Supreme Court holding in Roe v. Wade.
Manchin has also long opposed any modifications to the Senate’s rules regarding “cloture” to limit debate, known commonly as a filibuster, where most measures require 60 votes to proceed through the chamber. “Getting rid of the filibuster doesn’t make the place work better,” Manchin told reporters in 2022.
Manchin’s Democratic colleagues had differing reactions to his departure. “I wish he would [run again] and I’ll miss him. We’re friends. We’ve been friends since we were governors,” said Democratic Sen. Tim Kaine of Virginia to the DCNF at the Senate on Thursday. “It’s not, it’s not a surprise. I mean, I’ve expected it,” said Democratic Sen. John Fetterman of Pennsylvania to the DCNF, who also complimented him on a resolution Manchin had introduced to preserve the Senate dress code with the acronym “SHORTS,” a jibe at Fetterman’s penchant for wearing shorts at the Capitol.
“That was very clever,” he said.
Justice did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
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