Despite a recent statement from Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) claiming that he currently has no plans to ditch the Democratic Party, he has also stated that he is not ruling out the possibility either.
This past Monday, one journalist pushed the senator to speak about the possibility that he might swap to being independent much the same way that Sen. Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona has done, a move that could result in trouble for Democrats in their efforts to maintain control of the upper chamber throughout the coming term.
“I’ll look at all of these things. I’ve always looked all these things but I have no intention of doing anything right now,” Manchin expressed to reporters, as explained by The Hill.
“Whether I do something later, I can’t tell you what the future’s going to bring. I can only tell you where I am and my mindset” now, he stated.
This past Friday, Sinema unveiled that she was choosing to alter her party affiliation. She issued the statement in the wake of Sen. Raphael Warnock (D-GA) managing to secure the win in his special election, resulting in the Democrats and the various independents that choose to caucus with them to hold onto a very slight 51 person majority within the Senate.
“I have joined the growing numbers of Arizonans who reject party politics by declaring my independence from the broken partisan system in Washington,” she expressed in The Arizona Republic via a guest column.
Both Sinema and Manchin are slated to be up for reelection in 2024. The pair often managed to secure headlines when breaking with the majority of independent and Democratic senators on a large number of major issues, but they generally choose to vote in the same manner as President Joe Biden, expressed a tally from the group FiveThirtyEight.
Manchin openly spoke about his support for Sinema, claiming that he wants to push forward in the future working together. “I tremendously respect her decision and wish her the best,” he also stated of Sinema.
This past year, in the wake of openly denying that he was leaving the Democratic Party, Manchin stated that he would end up being an independent, but still chooses to caucus with the Democrats if he finally ended up becoming an “embarrassment” to his Democratic colleagues.