Sen. Joe Manchin III, the conservative Democrat from West Virginia, announced Friday that he will not run for the White House in 2024, ending months of speculation that he might challenge President Biden as an independent candidate.
“I will not seek a third-party candidacy,” he said in a speech in Morgantown, West Virginia. “I will not participate in a presidential run.”
Since Mr. Manchin, 76, announced in November that he would not run for re-election, he has been the subject of months of public and private speculation about whether he would seek the presidency. In particular, he had flirted with becoming a candidate for No Labels, a centrist group that aims to recruit a third option against Mr. Biden and former President Donald J. Trump.
But on Friday he promised: “I will not be a treaty breaker or a spoilsport.”
Mr. Manchin’s decision takes the most prominent candidate that No Labels leaders wanted to attract off the table. They had told donors and allies in recent months that they planned to appoint a Republican to lead their candidacy, ostensibly taking Mr. Manchin out of the race, but so far they have found no takers.
Former Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan, a moderate Republican, resigned from the No Labels board in January. After endorsing former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley for president, he announced his own campaign for Senate in Maryland last week.
Since Mr. Manchin said he would not run again, Senator Chuck Schumer of New York, the majority leader, has asked him to formally leave the Democratic Party and run as an independent, according to two people familiar with their conversations.
West Virginia’s deadline to file to run in a Senate primary was January, but independent candidates have until August 1 to announce their candidacy.
Without Mr. Manchin, Democrats have eliminated the possibility of holding the seat in deep-red West Virginia. It is an uphill battle for them to retain control of the Senate, with several incumbents defending seats in states Mr Trump won.
Mr. Manchin is known in the Senate for cutting bipartisan deals and thwarting some of his party’s most ambitious policy goals.
During his speech on Friday at West Virginia University, Mr. Manchin decried the state of Congress, which he described as the most dysfunctional body he had ever seen.
“This will be the least productive and most destructive Congress we have ever had in the history of the United States,” he said.
Carl Hulse contributed reporting.
Source link
2024-02-16 17:21:41
www.nytimes.com