U.S. Senator Joe Manchin, a maverick Democrat who has often bucked party leadership, told a radio station in his home state of West Virginia on Thursday that he is "thinking seriously" about leaving the party.
"I'm not a Washington Democrat," Manchin said in the interview on Talkline with Hoppy Kercheval, a West Virginia Metro News show. "I've been thinking seriously about that (becoming an independent) for quite some time."
Manchin and Democratic-turned-independent colleague Senator Kyrsten Sinema have been thorns in top Senate Democrat Chuck Schumer's side since the party won its majority in 2020. Democrats hold a 51-49 majority, including three independents who caucus with them.
Last month Manchin further stirred Democratic concerns with an appearance in the early-voting state of New Hampshire with the "No Labels" group, where he mulled starting a third-party presidential campaign in 2024, challenging Democratic President Joe Biden. Having a third-party candidate would "threaten" the two major political parties, Manchin said.
Manchin has used his influence to block legislation that he opposes - including expanding voting rights protections and child tax credits - and to ensure passage of bills he supports, such as a major tax and climate law that passed last summer.
He faces a tough re-election bid next year in Republican-leaning West Virginia, which former President Donald Trump won by almost 39 percentage points in 2020. Manchin has not yet said if he will seek re-election, but he would face an even steeper road if he spurned his party and the fundraising support it can provide.
West Virginia Governor Jim Justice, a former Democrat-turned Republican, began his campaign in April for the Republican nomination to seek Manchin's seat.
Manchin, a popular former governor who was first elected to the U.S. Senate in 2010, has kept his seat in part by maintaining a reputation as a rare conservative Democrat in Washington.
Democrats had a supermajority for only ten months, and in that time they managed to pass a major piece of legislation on a highly controversial topic.
If you expected more than one in that time frame, then you really don't understand how American politics works.
It was less than 2 months. Franken wasn’t sworn in until July and Kennedy died in August.
EDIT: it’s actually somewhere in the middle. Kennedy’s seat was held by Kirk, a Democratic appointee, from September through February 2010. However, I am fairly certain that Kennedy was basically unable to serve from March until his death in August.
Democrats basically had late September through early February to get anything done without a filibuster.
You're right about Franken. But Kennedy's death didn't immediately end the supermajority, since his temporary replacement was also a Democrat.
That would Democrats' campaign slogan if they were honest: We're not going to do shit. It's a shame that people can't eat excuses.
Democrats do plenty, especially at the local level.
The problem is that some voters have barely the attention span necessary to watch an entire TikTok video. They start complaining unless they see something new in their feed every day so they can click "like".
But that's not how democracy works, in fact that's never been how it worked. To take just one example, abortion opponents developed a long term strategy that only came to fruition after several decades.
That's who you're up against: people who know how to play the long game. So if you are frustrated by a lack of short term gains, then you aren't cut out for American politics.