Former West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin criticized his former political party for embracing socialist ideology, as the Democratic Party leans into more far-left candidates following progressives’ primary wins in New York and across the country.
When discussing the recent primary wins by left-wing candidates, Manchin was asked about a Gallup poll showing that 66% of Democrats view socialism “more positively” than capitalism.
The former senator, who switched his affiliation from Democrat to Independent in 2024, called it “absolutely insane.”
“If they do, then by God there is no Democratic Party left,” Manchin said on Fox News’s One Nation Sunday. “That is absolutely insane … that’s another reason why I’m not registered as a Democrat. I can’t put up with that crazy s***. That’s nuts.”
The poll was released ahead of the now-New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s victory in September 2025.
Since Mamdani’s success, socialist and progressive candidates across the country have won Democratic primaries. Three Mamdani-endorsed candidates, who were also backed by the Democratic Socialists of America, all won their primary races.
Nithya Raman won one of two spots in the Los Angeles mayoral general election, and Janeese Lewis George became the presumptive mayor when she won the Democratic primary in the Washington, D.C., mayoral primary election.
After decades as a Democrat, Manchin left the party in May 2024 by changing his registration to Independent. At the time, Manchin accused both the Democratic and Republican parties of “partisan extremism.”
“Our national politics are broken, and neither party is willing to compromise to find common ground,” Manchin said in a statement at the time. “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.”
Prior to Mamdani being dubbed a “kingmaker” by those within the Democratic Party, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) was one of the leading figures of the progressive movement. Sanders endorsed the same far-left candidates that Mamdani supported in the New York City primaries.
Manchin said Sanders has always held these beliefs, emphasizing how he differs from Sanders’ outlook on government.
“One thing you have to appreciate about Bernie is he’s been true to himself and what he’s believed all his life,” Manchin said. “I have never agreed or believed in what Bernie has believed in.”
“We talked one time about education,” Manchin added. “He wanted free education [and] I said, ‘Bernie,’ basically, ‘people should earn. There’s nothing about earning when you believe the government should be your sole provider.’” Manchin added.
ELIZABETH WARREN: SENATE REPUBLICANS STILL ‘BOW DOWN’ TO TRUMP
Building on this point about how much the party changed, Manchin recalled a conversation with another progressive Democrat, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), who asked him why the party lost support from unions.
“You lost the union workers, you lost the working people of America, because they believe that the Democratic Party in Washington spends more time, efforts, and resources on able-body capable people that don’t work or won’t work than those that are still working trying to make a living,” he recalled telling Warren at the time. “That’s it in a nutshell.”