Joe Manchin For Senate… Or For President?

Will he or won’t he? Will Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia run for re-election in the US Senate or for President of the United States?

Politics :
Yes, this is a valid political question. Joe Manchin was once one of the most powerful Democrats in the US Senate (due to his party’s slim majority and his penchant for threatening to vote with the GOP unless he got his way). However, when Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock of Georgia won a special election last year, Manchin was relegated back to being ordinary and wasn’t at all enthralled with losing his esteemed position of power.

Now, Joe Manchin is weighing his options and deciding if he’ll run for re-election in West Virginia, if he’ll launch a 3rd-party bid for president, or if he’ll retire altogether.

Either way, Republicans are giddy with excitement at all the possibilities, and here’s why.

Although Joe Manchin is a political institution in West Virginia, he is a dying breed as a Democrat in a deep-red state that has since gone full-blown MAGA. Realizing this, the GOP has targeted Manchin as vulnerable and even recruited popular Gov. Jim Justice to challenge the senator for his seat. Republicans believe Justice would be more favored than Manchin in 2024 and that the very threat of his candidacy could cause Manchin to retire in order to avoid an embarrassing loss. With that in mind, Republicans see the West Virginia seat as a means to regain control of the US Senate and are jumping for joy.

However, the GOP is also enthusiastic at the very real possibility that Joe Manchin is seriously considering launching a 3rd-party bid for president — effectively playing spoiler to President Joe Biden and opening the door for Donald Trump to return to The White House potentially.

Over the past weeks, Manchin has revved up his criticisms of President Biden while openly promoting his own involvement with the centrist political group “No Labels,” an organization that is actively attempting to gain access to the ballot in all 50 states in order to promote a 3rd-party candidate for president.

“I’ve been part of No Labels since December of 2010. It’s the only game in town that wants to bring people together and get Democrats and Republicans working together,” Manchin said.

Voters are sick of “this constant, daily routine of everyone’s against everybody and everybody’s fighting and arguing. Let’s be for the country and get something done,” he added.

Democrats are understandably frightened at the possibility of Joe Manchin being defeated in 2024, running as a 3rd-party presidential candidate, or ending his political career with retirement.

However, not all Democrats are calling those options doom and gloom.

Regarding Manchin losing in 2024 to a GOP challenger:

“I don’t know if Jim Justice is as formidable as people make him out to be. Point one is he’s never had a tough race,” said Jonathan Kott, a Democratic strategist and former Manchin aide, who pointed out that Justice won his election as governor in 2016 as a Democrat but then switched to the GOP while in office.

Regarding Manchin running as a 3rd-party presidential candidate:

“It’s a very difficult undertaking,” a centrist Democratic strategist said. “Mike Bloomberg (former New York City mayor and financial media billionaire) had a billion dollars, and he didn’t think it was possible,” the strategist added.

So again, will he or won’t he?

Interestingly, Joe Manchin and his political future have once again become relevant and important. Stay tuned…

OK WASSUP! discusses Politics:
Will Joe Manchin run for senator or president?