Will Joe Manchin run third party?
Now, that would sure be interesting.
I don’t think it will happen, but who knows? Here’s the reason it’s being talked about:
Senator Joe Manchin is headed to New Hampshire next week for an event with No Labels as the group looks to run a third-party candidate in next year’s presidential election and frantic Democrats are trying to stop it out of fears it could siphon off votes from Joe Biden to hand Donald Trump a victory.
Manchin, a former honorary co-chair of the group, will be the headliner of the gathering along with former Republican Governor of Utah Jon Huntsman at the townhall meeting, which will take place Monday, July 17th, at Saint Anselm’s College in Manchester, No Labels told DailyMail.com.
The reason Democrats would fear this more than Republicans is obvious. I just don’t see that Manchin will gain much traction, however.
Long ago, I also would have said he’s too old (he’s 75 at present), but this time he would be one of the younger ones compared to the two frontrunners.
Manchin? A very moldy slice of bread.
I have no idea if he’ll run, but he pretty mich has zero chance of winning re-election to the Senate, he’s been made a chump by the Democrat establishment and is still despised by the leftist base in the party. So, why not? It would be a final middle finger to all of them
No he won’t.
But if he does, let me be the first to say, “Joe Manchin did not kill himself.”
Figuratively speaking of course.
hes doing his foghorn leghorn act, in the act he will be good scorpion and sting us, like he did with green nude eel, starter pack
It seems to me that there are a lot of people who align with neither the serious left nor the serious right, and who believe that each of those “wings” has hijacked their respective mainstream parties.
I believe there is a hunger out there for a sensible-center approach. I myself maintain that as a member of the serious right, such movements inevitably devolve into leftism — this, after all, is Robert Conquest’s Second Law — but the people with that hunger either don’t realize that or don’t care. (99.9 percent of them never heard of Robert Conquest.)
They just want a centrist “No Labels” approach to public policy, generally cloaked in high-sounding aphorisms featuring words that are alluring to the hungry: sensible, common-sense, compassionate, bipartisan, . . . you-all know the drill.
Manchin 2024 would never / will never stand a chance, but after all, social / political movements begin with baby steps, and I imagine that’s what potential Manchin 2024 voters would be thinking.
I’m not convinced Manchin would hurt the left party more than he would hurt the right party. There are an awful lot of very weakly right-ish people who run for cover whenever some leftie uses the term “MAGA Republicans” — which I’ve noticed they will do at virtually every opportunity. Talking points / marching orders, you know.
But I’m digressing. I’m just not convinced that a Manchin candidacy hurt the left party more than his candidacy would hurt the right party. Let’s leave it right there.
I would LOVE to see a viable third-party run this election. I just don’t believe Manchin is the person to lead it.
Does anybody know who the leaders of “No Labels” are? Are they people who genuinely want to find a third way between the two main parties, like the Reform Party started as, or are they another astroturf effort by Democrats to divide the GOP?
At least he has Jon Huntsman to serve as his Kamala Harris, and make him seem semi-human.
Okay, “quasi-human”, in Huntsman’s case.
ben chavis (a thinner sharpton) and happy hogan of maryland are the co chairs, generally useless if not effectively dangerous
Manchin got another stab in the back from the Brandon regime (4th appeals court) with cancellation of another pipeline into West Virginia.
Now, Cornel West is taking about running. THAT would be a threat.
Mike K:
Wouldn’t a Cornel West candidacy benefit the GOP by taking the black vote from the Dems?
wolfwalker,
Joe Lieberman, founding chair: https://www.nolabels.org/meettheteam2022
I’m guardedly optimistic that this may be the year of 3rd, 4th, 5th…nth party runs on the ballot.
I think RFK, Jr. could run 3rd party.
If Trump doesn’t win the nomination he would almost certainly run 3rd party.
RFK, Jr. has said he thinks this will be the “podcast election” and I believe Vivek Ramaswamy has said something similar. ABC, CBS, NBC, FoxNews and CNN no longer control media exposure. Candidates the media is not talking about, like RFK, Jr. have a lot of support.
Of course there are always fringe parties and fringe candidates running, but hopefully we are finally at a time when non-fringe candidates can break away from the barriers in place by the two party system.
M J R – It’s wouldn’t just be people who are in the mushy middle. There are plenty of people on the serious right who consider Trump to be wholly unfit for office after he tried to reverse the result of the 2020 election without proof that he was the rightful winner. If Trump is the Republican nominee, Manchin could easily be the lesser of three evils for such a person on the serious right.
It seems to me that “Flotsam” Manchin washes in and out with the tide.
However, if he can cause disarray in the Democrat political machine, I enthusiastically support his effort.
Bauxite (10:10 pm), in a word, yes. No disagreement; those people are there.
Yours is another reason that a Manchin candidacy may hurt the rightish candidate more than it would the leftish candidate.
“…are [No Labels] another astroturf effort by Democrats to divide the GOP?”
That’s what it seems like to me, with an element of Uniparty/RINOs.
Back in the day, a talk radio caller said the name sounded like No Huevos (Spanish slang for testicles.)
M J R – I’m not sure that the a Manchin candidicay actually hurts Trump that much even with conservatives who consider him unfit for office. He’s not going to win those votes anyway. They’ll either leave the top of the ticket blank or vote for the nominee of the Constitution Party or another minor third party. (Please no Evan McMullin this time.) The potential problem for the right is a Trump nomination, not a Manchin candidacy.
Democrats seem to think that they have something to fear from Manchin and the No Labels folks, so they’re probably right. Just the same, I have a hard time seeing it. I suspect that the portions of the 2020 Biden coalition most likely to defect to Manchin were never in love with Biden and cast their 2020 votes against Trump. Well, it looks like they’re going to be able to cast their votes against Trump again. Biden doesn’t age well, but have folks who voted against Trump in 2020 really soured on Biden enough that they will throw their votes to a third party? Maybe that’s it, but I suspect that Democrats are just as susceptible to seeing a large portion of the 2020 anti-Trump vote just stay home.
Rufus T. Firefly – Ballot access would be a massive issue for Trump if he tries to run as an independent or third party candidate. Unless he could convince a minor party with ballot access to nominate him, I doubt that he could get himself on the ballot in enough states to have a serious chance to win. It would be a dogfight for him to get on the ballot in enough states to even have a serious chance of playing spoiler. (But if he did – Millard Fillmore, Martin VanBuren, Teddy Roosevelt, and Donald Trump – that would be the answer to a trivia question someday – former presidents who screwed over their party by accepting a minor party nomination.)
The ineptitude of Trump and his supporters will become a major issue if he tries to gain ballot access on his own. He and his subordinates just don’t do details that well. Look at all the times that Trump policies were stymied by the courts because they failed to follow basic tenants of administrative law. Look at his completely inept handling of the 2020 election, both before and after the voting. The GOP legal apparatus would be opposing him, so he would have that in his favor, but I still think he would struggle.
Now the really interesting scenario would be a four candidate race with Manchin or another No Labels candidate, Trump, and another GOP nominee.
It also occurs to me that the Democrats would throw their legal resources behind Trump’s ballot access attempts. Would this be enough for Trumpers to finally wake up and realize that they’re being played? I doubt it.
A last thought – is Trump really willing to lose as a third party candidate just to prevent the GOP nominee from winning? If he did, that might be the greatest self-own in American history. Trump is likely going to jail for the rest of his life if a Democrat wins the 2024 election.
fitness for office, have you seen the den of scum and villainy on offer, we know manchin will screw over his own voters, for a song or whatever his ceo daughter
wants for christmas,
the 65 project is trying to deny him ballot access, thats media matters david brock, serial legal malpractice mark elias, why are you so easy a mark,
Kinda like that no-holds-barred commercial of yore…
“This is your brain.
“This is your brain on Trump.
“Any questions?”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GOnENVylxPI
– – – – – – – – – – –
And in other sizzling news, looks like Enervation Sec. Granholm’s gone done it again. (“Biden-itis”?)
“…Sec. Granholm faces another ethics complaint over stocks;
“PPT previously filed a complaint against Granholm in relation to a grant made to Proterra, a firm of which she was a prior board member.”—
https://justthenews.com/politics-policy/energy/energy-sec-granholm-faces-another-ethics-complaint-over-stocks
Hmmm. Well, as they say:
once is bad luck; twice is co-incidence; three time is…heh, stay tuned!
she was the smart pageant contestant because she went to berkeley, so did nicolle wallace, the former jeb spokesperson and nbc flak
miguel cervantes – the 65 Project is trying to deny ballot access to Manchin, or specifically to No Labels. I’m not aware that Trump is even trying to gain ballot access as an independent. So no, I think you are incorrect that the 65 Project is trying to deny ballot access to Trump.
If Trump did try to gain ballot access as an independent, I have little doubt that the leftist front groups, similar to the 65 Project, would work to get Trump on the ballot so that he could play spoiler for the GOP nominee. That has been the Democrat’s MO for the past several years. Spend heavily in the GOP primary to get the MAGA/Trumper candidates nominated and then cruise to victory in the general election. Again, Democrats are fighting ballot access for No Labels because they think No Labels will hurt them in the general election. They would almost certainly support ballot access for Trump on a third party or independent ticket because they think that will help them in the general election, just like they support no-hoper Trump candidates in the GOP primaries.
Someone here is an easy mark, but it isn’t me.
The reason Democrats would fear this more than Republicans is obvious.
_______
I don’t see why this is obvious.
How does Manchin have a chance at reelection to the Senate? He probably can’t win as a Democrat, given how far WV has shifted to the right, and he missed his chance to jump to the GOP (when it would have given them control of the Senate, during the last Congress). It worked for Murkowski in AK.
Bauxite,
I agree with you. Trump’s team would almost certainly bungle the details of getting on the ballots in all 50 states, however, Trump’s ego is such that I am fairly certain he would go forward with a 3rd party run with nary a care of who it damages.
Up until a few months ago he was praising Ron DeSantis but now sees the fact that DeSantis entered the primary as unforgiveable treason to Trump and is lashing out at DeSantis illogically, unreasonably and unfactually.
DJT has two, primary motivators:
1. Get as many people saying his name as frequently as possible.
2. Destroy anyone who does not assist him in his efforts.
Manchin wrecked his chance at reelection when he backed the wrong bill in the Senate. Prior to that, conservative WV was happy to keep sending him back.
As for this No Labels thing, a part of me wonders if he’s trying to position himself as a potential VP for RFK jr should the latter win the Dem nomination.
Rufus T. Firefly – If Trump does lose the GOP nomination, we would have to hope that he is also motivated by staying out of prison. I can’t imagine that any Republican President would do anything other than dismiss federal charges against Trump. (No pardon will be necessary if there is no conviction.) I also can’t imagine that any Democrat President would do anything other than prosecute him to the fullest extent on all federal charges. They’ll win convictions. Trump will be 78 years old next year. After a decade in prison, there’s not much left for him, if any.
(Aside – I seriously doubt that the NY charges will stand up on appeal. Also, once Trump’s political career is decisively over, I could easily see Kemp granting him a pardon if he ends up convicted in Georgia too.)
I don’t give a farthing about manchin, he doesn’t give a farthing about his own constituents, but proscription, is something that hasn’t been done since Roman times, and the people who fortified the midterms are not beneath doing that,
Maybe it’s a revenge move to rattle Democrat leadership for screwing him over. Make ’em sweat, perhaps toss him some favors.
I’ve met Joe a couple of times and he’s a capable glad-handler. He may have been screwed, but his constituents got screwed harder. His political career is pretty much over, so why not give a final middle finger salute to the administration that put the knife in his back. There are just enough die-hard Dem voters who will never vote Republican that may pull the lever for him to dilute the Dem vote to make the fraud too obvious. Don’t worry about Joe, he’s been around long enough that his retirement will be comfortable.
Huntsman might do better if he ran himself. He’d peel off some of the affluent suburbanites who’ve been voting Democrat. He might top John Anderson’s 1980 6.6% of the vote. But that would benefit Trump, and that’s the last thing No Labels would want.
The thinking may be that a Manchin candidacy would pull some votes from blue collar voters — votes that would otherwise go to Trump — but Manchin’s now a rather shabby, shopworn figure without much appeal to working class voters or anyone else. Admiration for his standing up to Biden and Schumer is offset by contempt for his caving to Biden and Schumer.
Moreover, blue collar voters may not be the factor some observers assume they are. Working class voters who benefited from Trump’s policies didn’t rally to his standard in 2020. I’m not sure that they’ll rush to support either Trump or Manchin in 2024. Ideology, tribalism, and hate have been bigger factors than economics lately. Upper middle class voters are more motivated by those things than blue collar workers.