West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin announced Friday that he is leaving the Democratic Party and has registered as an independent.
Manchin, who is retiring at the end of his term in January, has spent his entire career in politics as a Democrat — first as a member of West Virginia’s legislature, then as its secretary of state and its governor before coming to Washington as one of its representatives in the U.S. Senate — but frequently broke with his party on several key issues, including supporting Donald Trump’s border wall and two of his three Supreme Court picks.
During Joe Biden’s term, with a narrowly divided Senate under Democratic control, Manchin emerged as a crucial swing vote, giving him major influence over the president’s agenda — including the $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill and the Inflation Reduction Act, Democrats’ tax and climate reform bill.
Manchin shared a photo of himself on social media switching his party affiliation on Friday.
“Throughout my days in elected office, I have always been proud of my commitment to common sense, bipartisanship and my desire to bring people together. It’s who I am,” he said in a statement Friday. “It’s who I will always be. I have never seen America through a partisan lens.”
But since being elected to the Senate in 2010, Manchin said, he has seen both major political parties leave Americans “behind for partisan extremism while jeopardizing our democracy.”
“Today, our national politics are broken and neither party is willing to compromise to find common ground,” he added. “To stay true to myself and remain committed to put country before party, I have decided to register as an independent with no party affiliation and continue to fight for America’s sensible majority.”
Manchin briefly flirted with an independent presidential bid, but said earlier this year that he did not want to be a "spoiler."
It's not clear if this will impact control of the U.S. Senate, where Democrats hold a one-seat majority and where Manchin chairs the powerful Senate Energy Committee. Arizona Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, who is also not running for reelection in November, left the Democratic Party in 2022 to become an independent, but still caucuses with Democrats.
The move could stoke speculation that he might mount an independent bid for U.S. Senate, or perhaps run again for governor, even though he said earlier this week he would not enter the race and was backing Democratic nominee Steve Williams, the mayor of Huntington, West Virginia.
Manchin endorsed Democrat Glenn Elliott, the mayor of Wheeling, West Virginia, to replace him in November's election. Republican Gov. Jim Justice, who ran for governor as a Democrat and switched parties shortly after taking office, is heavily favored to flip Manchin's old seat.