Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) announced he will not be seeking reelection to his coveted Senate seat in 2024, ending months of speculation about the political future of the Senate’s leading swing vote.
Manchin, who was widely viewed as the most vulnerable incumbent heading into the 2024 Senate elections, announced he would not run for another term in a lengthy statement on Thursday. The West Virginia Democrat said he instead plans to travel the country in hopes of trying to unify the divided political wings.
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“After months of deliberation and long conversations with my family, I believe in my heart of hearts that I have accomplished what I set out to do for West Virginia,” Manchin’s statement read. “I have made one of the toughest decisions of my life and decided that I will not be running for reelection to the United States Senate, but what I will be doing is traveling the country and speaking out to see if there is an interest in creating a movement to mobilize the middle and bring Americans together.”
“To the West Virginians who have put their trust in me and fought side by side to make our state better — it has been an honor of my life to serve you. Thank you,” he said.
Manchin, a centrist Democrat representing a heavily Republican state, spent months playing coy about his 2024 plans as poll after poll showed him trailing Gov. Jim Justice (R-WV), his leading Senate opponent, by considerable margins. Justice is a Democrat-turned-Republican and a longtime friend-turned-political foe of Manchin. He is also the only Republican who polled competitively against Manchin, a former governor of the ruby-red state.
The Manchin-Justice matchup would be among the most expensive Senate contests of the 2024 cycle, though only if the incumbent senator opted to seek a third term. With Manchin out, the race will now largely be decided through the GOP primary between Justice and Rep. Alex Mooney (R-WV), both of whom have deep-pocketed backers.
Justice has the support of the National Republican Senatorial Committee and former President Donald Trump, while Mooney has the backing of the conservative Club for Growth, which has vowed to oppose the governor’s Senate bid.
John Findlay, Mooney’s campaign manager, reacted to the Manchin news by releasing a statement targeting Justice as the only “candidate left in West Virginia who supports the liberal Biden agenda.”
“Congressman Alex Mooney is the only true conservative for U.S. Senate who will fight back against the Biden agenda and that is why he will win the Republican primary in May of 2024,” Findlay said.
Democrats have no current path to victory in West Virginia without Manchin in the race, so the party will need to look to other swing states to hold on to its slim Senate majority. Representatives for the campaign arms for Senate Democrats and Republicans acknowledged as much in their reactions to Manchin’s announcement.
“Democrats have multiple pathways to protect and strengthen our Senate majority and are in a strong position to achieve this goal,” David Bergstein, a spokesman for the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, said on Thursday. “In addition to defending our battle-tested incumbents, we’ve already expanded the battleground map to Texas and Florida, where formidable Democratic candidates are outraising unpopular Republican incumbents and the DSCC is making investments to lay the groundwork for our campaigns’ victories.”
The NRSC, meanwhile, said, “We like our odds in West Virginia.”
While Democrats leave West Virginia for greener pastures in its fight to hold its Senate majority, it remains unclear if Manchin is completely abandoning political life. The outgoing senator has fiercely defended plans from the centrist group No Labels to create a third-party presidential ticket amid sustained speculation that he could be their nominee.
Former Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan, a centrist Republican, said early Thursday that No Labels would reach a decision about running someone in the 2024 contest around Super Tuesday, which takes place on March 5.
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For its part, No Labels praised Manchin as a “tireless voice for America’s commonsense majority” in reaction to his Thursday announcement.
“Regarding our No Labels Unity presidential ticket, we are gathering input from our members across the country to understand the kind of leaders they would like to see in the White House,” it continued. “As we have said from the beginning, we will make a decision by early 2024 about whether we will nominate a Unity presidential ticket and who will be on it.”
