West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin announces he won’t run for president in 2024
NEW YORK — Senator Joe Manchin of West Virginia announced Friday that he will not run for president, saying he did not want to be a “spoiler.”
“I will not seek a third-party run,” he said in a speech at West Virginia University. “I will not be involved in a presidential run. I will ensure that we have a president who has the knowledge, the passion and the ability to bring this country together.”
The speech was announced as part of a national listening tour that Manchin announced when he decided not to seek another term in the Senate. He told the Morgantown crowd that he had no interest in being “a deal breaker, if you will, a spoiler, whatever you want to call it.”
“I just don’t think this is the right time.”
The centrist Democrat, who has often opposed his party’s leadership, had considered running for president and said he thought it would be clear by March if there was a path for a third-party candidate this year . He said in the speech that he thought a third-party bid could be feasible at some point, “but right now it’s really challenging.”
His decision comes as the leadership of No Labels, a national political movement that could offer an independent presidential ticket in 2024, has been working privately to identify serious candidates to represent the group in the general election. Manchin was considered one of the top prospects.
Manchin will not run for re-election in 2024. His Senate seat in a heavily Republican state is expected to be an excellent opportunity for the Republican Party.
Manchin, the only Democrat to hold statewide office in West Virginia, is at odds with members of his own party over his support for coal and other fossil fuels. With Democrats holding a slim majority in the U.S. Senate, Manchin was a critical voice who exerted significant influence in shaping legislation and diluted much of President Joe Biden’s social spending plans.
In addition to No Labels’ efforts, a group urging Manchin to work with retiring Utah Sen. Mitt Romney to secure a third-party presidential bid filed paperwork last year to appoint a draft committee to form with the Federal Election Commission. Romney and Manchin have not joined the effort.
After Manchin announced last year that he would not run for re-election, he said he planned to travel the country “to see if there is interest in creating a movement to mobilize the middle and bring Americans together to bring.”
In January he visited New Hampshire, a state that voted early in the presidential elections. The senator will speak on Saturday in Arizona, a political battleground state.
Following Manchin’s announcement, No Labels released a statement saying the organization welcomed the senator’s efforts to strengthen “the common sense majority in America.”
“No Labels is currently speaking to several exceptional leaders about running for a presidential unity ticket. We continue to make great progress in our ballot access efforts and will announce in the coming weeks whether we will offer our line to a Unity ticket,” said No Labels co-chairs former Senator Joe Lieberman of Connecticut, former head of the NAACP Benjamin Chavis, Jr., and former North Carolina Governor Pat McCrory.
Minnesota Democratic Rep. Dean Phillips said last month he would consider running on a No Labels ticket, though he is still challenging Biden in the Democratic primary.
Another top No Labels prospect, former Maryland Governor Larry Hogan, also ruled out a 2024 presidential bid last week and instead announced a Senate bid.
Lieberman, a Democrat-turned-independent, said in January that Republican presidential candidate and former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley would be a good fit for the group’s plans.
Haley, who is following former President Donald Trump in the Republican presidential race, has said she is not interested.
American adults are worried about Trump and Biden as the two likely major party candidates, according to a December AP-NORC poll.
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Associated Press writers Will Weissert and Linley Sanders in Washington and Jonathan Drew in Raleigh, North Carolina, contributed to this report.