Joe Manchin reenters the political orbit with a new independent experiment

Joe Manchin is returning to politics at the age of 78.

A year and a half after leaving office I’m tired of big partiesThe former West Virginia senator is launching a new effort called the Independent Leadership Council to recruit and support independent candidates across the country.

“We’re not trying to start another party,” Manchin told CNN in an interview with his daughter, who also leads the council. “We’re trying to find a person who can commit and be fully committed to having an independent and independent voice. They can vote with Democrats and Republicans when they’re right and speak out against them when they’re wrong.”

Manchin began his efforts Thursday by rallying candidates in West Virginia. Participants included former Republican California Rep. Kevin Kiley, who is running for re-election as an independent; Seth Bodnar, an independent candidate for Senate in Montana; and Michael Bridgford, an independent candidate for the House of Representatives in Iowa. The group also monitors races in Alaska and Washington.

Initiative comes at a time when deepening disappointment with both major partiesand a record 45% of American adults describe themselves as: political independentsaccording to a Gallup poll It was published earlier this year.

Advocates for independent candidates believe they have more momentum than recent memory. In many states, independent Congressional candidates receive significant funding and attract the attention of their major-party rivals. And with both chambers so closely divided, the Manchins believe an independent legislator could wield tremendous influence in the next Congress.

“It doesn’t take a lot of effort to say, ‘Come on, guys, take action,'” Manchin said. “They can bring them to their knees and make people say, ‘This is crazy.'”

The Manchins said the summit will open a dialogue with the candidates, but if they decide to support them, they can personally campaign on their behalf, raise money for them and help them organize in their districts. The father-daughter duo thinks that if they can help elect even one candidate in November, they can influence the next presidential election.

“Our hope is that we’ll have some kind of pilot experiment to try to prove that it can be done,” said Heather Manchin, a former pharmaceutical executive, “and then I think Katie will close the door on it if it can be done.”

Others in the new group include Adam Brandon and Seth Cohen, senior advisors at the Independent Center, a nonprofit that advocates for independent voters. Brandon is the former president of the conservative group FreedomWorks, while Cohen is a former chief influencer at Forbes Media and a voting rights advocate.

Manchin’s disappointment

This effort could be Joe Manchin’s biggest political project since retiring from the Senate in January 2025. Fed up with the excesses in both major parties, Manchin spent his final months in office. independently After decades of serving as a Democrat.

Since leaving the Senate, Manchin has published a book, promoted his daughter’s centrist political nonprofit, Americans Together, and continued to demonstrate in Washington. Last month, he participated in a panel discussion about the national debt at the American Enterprise Institute, a conservative think tank; It was moderated by one of his former colleagues, Ohio Republican Rob Portman.

“Manchin is sometimes a Democrat, sometimes an independent, sometimes a Republican,” Portman said at one point. “I just don’t know exactly where he is today.”

“Neither do I,” Manchin joked.

Manchin, a frequent critic of the progressive left, is concerned about the rise of democratic socialists winning Democratic primaries across the country, arguing that it is the product of a party “without a national figurehead.” But he said Republicans were still too committed to extremists and argued that open primaries would address the broader issue.

Bringing up the last New York primary in which the candidates supported, Manchin said, “When they closed down the primaries, they managed to take over the system.” Mayor Zohran MamdaniHe succeeded as a democratic socialist. “They were able to perform better in a closed system.”

Analyzing the current Senate, Manchin lamented what he described as a lack of deal-makers in his mold. He said he wasn’t sure which senators there told their colleagues: “Come on, guys, let’s go talk. Sit it down. Let’s figure this out.”

“This bothers me,” Manchin said.

One of the more independent-minded Senate Democrats these days is Sen. John Fetterman, who has vented his frustrations with his party. increased the probability He could have left. Asked whether Fetterman should be an independent, Manchin said the Pennsylvania senator “should do what John is comfortable with.” But he suggested that Fetterman, who was once a critic of Manchin, was from a different political mould.

“He supports all the tough Democrat issues that I don’t support,” Manchin said.

While Manchin has weighed in on a 2024 presidential run with the centrist group No Labels and said he misses many of his “friends” in the Senate, he no longer appears interested in running for office.

“I don’t see myself coming back to the fight, I really don’t,” he said. “I think I’ve tried this for 42, 43, 44 years, and I’ve been pretty successful at working with people on both sides and bringing people together. Now I’m trying to help people across the country who want the same outcome.”

An independent moment

Instead, Manchin is deepening his push for independent politicians at a time when there is a new champion in Congress and viable candidates on the midterm map.

In California, Kiley seeking re-election as an independent for an open seat in a Democratic-leaning district following a mid-decade redistricting wave. Kiley, who continues to caucus with Republicans, will face Democrat Richard Pan in the general election in November.

In an interview, Kiley said she wants to be a part of building more infrastructure for independents like herself and is “very happy” to work with Manchin.

“He is someone who has demonstrated throughout his time in office that he is willing to challenge both parties when necessary to serve his constituents,” Kiley said. “[There are] There are a lot of policy issues that we come up with in different ways, but that’s okay. We need more independent-minded people like this.”

Despite optimism about independent candidates in the midterm elections, they continue to face barriers specific to their race, as well as significant structural challenges such as ballot access and fundraising without an established network. In Montana, Bodnar faced Democratic candidate Alani Bankhead, who resisted pressure to drop out and give the former University of Montana president a more direct matchup against GOP candidate Kurt Alme.

This happened in Nebraska, where Democratic Senate candidate Cindy Burbank ended her campaign to give Dan Osborn, who is running as an independent again after a strong showing in 2024, a clearer field against GOP Sen. Pete Ricketts. And in Alaska’s only congressional district, independent Bill Hill’s chances recently improved after his most serious Democratic rival, pastor Matt Schultz, dropped out and endorsed Hill.

Hill, a commercial fisherman and former superintendent of the local school district, is part of a crowded field running in the Aug. 18 all-party primary for the seat now held by Republican Rep. Nick Begich.

In a recent interview in Anchorage, shortly after returning from a week salmon fishing on his boat in Bristol Bay, he outlined a diverse political history. He said he voted for Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski and the late former Sen. Ted Stevens. Hill has said that he supports abortion rights (a largely Democratic stance) but is also “pro-Second Amendment because firearms are an essential tool for my subsistence lifestyle.”

“Like most Alaskans, I don’t fit into a neat little political box,” he said, noting that nearly two-thirds of Alaska voters are not registered with either major party. “I’ve been an independent all my life and I wouldn’t run for office any other way.”

This story has been updated with additional information.

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