Several Democratic politicians have recently made headlines for leaving the Democrat Party. Senator Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona has announced her departure.
People are asking if any additional moderate Democrats will abandon their party as a result of this trend. On Monday, Senator Joe Manchin (D-WVa.), the Senate’s foremost moderate Democrat, discussed the matter.
What did Manchin have to say?
Manchin was asked if he plans to proclaim political independence like Sinema. He said that he is considering it, but for the time being, he is remaining put.
“I’ll have a look at everything. I’ve always thought about it, but I have no plans to do anything at this time,” Manchin said. “I can not tell you what the future will bring, whether I do something later or not.”
“I am not a Washington Dem. I don’t know anything else to say,” he added.
“And we’ll see what happens if a Washington independent is— We’ll have to look at it. People are enrolling for independent parties in greater numbers than for any other party affiliation; they are simply sick and weary of it,” the senator added.
Nonetheless, Manchin said he “enormously” appreciates Sinema’s decision, recognizing that most Americans are fed up with partisan tribalism as well as a lack of togetherness in Washington.
“I can tell you that people in America are quite outraged. West Virginia is irritated,” he remarked. “They don’t enjoy all the squabbling. They desire oneness. They want us to collaborate, and I strive to do so every day.”
While Manchin is not abandoning the Democratic Party at the moment, to become an independent — or even a Republican — might help his electoral prospects because he is the only Democrat elected to a statewide office in West Virginia, which is profoundly red.
Manchin, on the other hand, has not stated if he will run for a fourth term in the Senate.
Is there anything else?
Manchin floated the idea of leaving the Democratic Party and becoming an independent last year. Manchin was a one-man roadblock to President Biden’s agenda at the time.
In fact, Manchin said that he offered to leave the Dem. Party if his Democratic colleagues felt he had become too much of a risk for them.
“I said, as a moderate centrist Democrat, if it causes you problems, let me know, and I would move to be independent,” he stated last October.
“No one accepted,” Manchin said of the offer.
