Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) appears ready to get into the race for president, pending the success or failure of his plan to pull President Joe Biden toward the center.
Manchin, a centrist Democrat, is no stranger to breaking with his own party and has long been flirting with a third-party presidential campaign with No Labels. The West Virginia senator believes the third-party organization will come to a decision by Super Tuesday, when the greatest number of states vote in their primaries and caucuses for a candidate to push through to the general election.
In a seemingly last-ditch effort to convince Biden to pivot his campaign and attract more moderate voters, Manchin is expected to meet with the president to discuss options. If the effort fails, Manchin has suggested it would convince him he has to run as an alternative to either former President Donald Trump or Biden.
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Speaking to attendees of a private gathering on Sunday in Connecticut, Manchin said he’ll meet with the president this week to push him toward the middle of the political spectrum, setting up his own presidential bid if his efforts fall flat.
“Most people are left of center and right of center,” Manchin said. “I’ve always met with both sides to get things done.”
As the once-packed 2024 presidential primary field dwindles — with Vivek Ramaswamy and former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson dropping out within the last 24 hours — Biden remains the top Democratic candidate, facing a few long-shot candidates.
Manchin has blasted Biden for failing to bring the country together by being pulled to “the extreme Left.” The West Virginia Democrat has fought with Biden several times since taking office — killing the original Build Back Better Act in 2021 and pledging to oppose every nominee for the Environmental Protection Agency last year, recently rejecting Biden’s nomination for Labor secretary.
No Labels has been working rigorously to appear on every state presidential ballot in 2024, a move Democrats fear could help former President Donald Trump’s bid for the White House.
No Labels has pointed to Biden trailing Trump and losing in several swing states as justification for a third-party ticket. In 2020, Biden narrowly won six key states – Michigan, Nevada, Pennsylvania, Georgia, Arizona, and Wisconsin.
Manchin, who won’t seek reelection to the Senate in 2024, would aim to win over independent voters who are growing increasingly restless with the front-runners of the two major parties. An Associated Press/NORC poll conducted from Nov. 30 to Dec. 4 found independents are somewhat or very dissatisfied with Trump and Biden, 58% to 56%, respectively.
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Stepping up his criticism against Biden and speaking to voters in New Hampshire on Friday, a trip he refused to label as campaigning, Manchin’s meeting with the president puts him another step closer to providing clarity on a presidential bid.
“I’m not going to be a spoiler, never have been and never will be. But people want options, or they want change. So we got to see what comes, and by then I think things will hopefully sort itself out,” Manchin said on CBS’s Face the Nation on Sunday.