Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) left many wondering whether or not he would enter the presidential race as a third-party candidate after he announced he would not run for reelection to his Senate seat. Last Tuesday Manchin made comments that reignited his supporters’ curiosity.
Since announcing he would not seek reelection in November, Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) has left people wondering if he will run for the presidency as a third-party candidate. https://t.co/bCHuBfgIvB
— The 700 Club (@700club) January 26, 2024
“Super Tuesday pretty much confirms whatever is going to happen, what we believe will happen, and we’ll see where we go from there,” Manchin said. “But people are looking for options, and we’re going to be looking at that, too. Whether it’s me or whoever it may be, I think there’s going to be options available if it goes down the way it’s going down.”
Manchin considers himself a moderate. When he first announced his decision to not run for reelection, he said, “What I will be doing is traveling the country and speaking out to see if there’s an interest in creating a movement to mobilize the middle and bring Americans together.”
During his time traveling the country, he has been clear about what he sees as a need for a third party in America. He even took credit for shaping President Biden’s agenda as one of the deciding votes in an almost equally divided Senate.
“The way it was presented and the way it ended up are two different things,” Manchin said, describing the way Biden has asserted the success of his presidency. He believes that the country would be worse off now had he not used the 50-50 Senate to force Biden into doing things his way.
Earlier in January, a Fox Business article stated that Manchin was planning on meeting with Biden to “move him to the center.” That, however, is a move that Biden has not begun to make.
Similarly, he attacked the prospect of former President Donald Trump winning a second term in the White House calling it “very much concerning to every human being and every person who basically loves the country that we have, and the life that we have, and trying to have a future for our children and future generations.”
According to CNN, if Manchin decides to run, he could use the ballot spots that were recently secured by the centrist group “No Labels.” No Label is a bipartisan group that has positioned itself as the answer to a “political moment in which voters keep telling pollsters they don’t want a Biden-Trump rematch.”
