The Democrats Have Lost Another One

Ryan Heshmati

May 31, 2024

West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin has gained notoriety for his unwillingness to fall in line with the rest of his party; now, he has left it. Friday, Manchin announced his shift in registration to being an independent. It is not clear what impact the move, after a period of serious tension between Manchin and the Democratic party, will have on both the Senate and on the upcoming 2024 presidential election.

Manchin, in a post on X defending his decision, asserted that he made the change in order to continue “My commitment to do everything I can to bring our country together…” The 76-year-old senator was not a traditional Democrat even while with the party. Coming from a state where Trump took nearly 70% of the vote in both 2016 and 2020, Manchin, a popular former governor, has voted with Republicans in the past on contentious proposals. For instance, he was the only Democrat to vote in favor of Brett Kavanaugh’s nomination to the Supreme Court in 2018. As a result of the Democrats’ weak hold on the Senate, Manchin became an influential swing vote, frustrating many Democrats with his unwillingness to get behind some of President Biden’s policy proposals like the “Build Back Better Act.”

Manchin announced in November of 2023 that he did not intend to run for reelection in the Senate. Whether his decision to leave the Democratic party had anything to do with a shift in future plans is unclear, but he had previously considered a presidential run before shrugging off the idea earlier in 2024. In April of 2024,  No Labels, the group Manchin could have been considering a run through, decided it would not field a candidate for 2024, either. In the unlikely case that he decides to reverse course, Manchin would face an uphill battle in a field of major candidates already crowded by Robert F. Kennedy Jr, who is regarded by many as a potential “spoiler” for 2024.

With the guilty on all counts verdict in the New York Trump case (with many more cases pending), along with the Kennedy-Shanahan ticket, the election is already shaping up to be very chaotic. Now that Joe Manchin has left the Democratic party, Democrats have yet another concern to worry about. Even though it is likely Manchin will stay out of the presidential race, the pessimism his departure from the Democrats exudes certainly does not bode well for the Democrats and their public image.