Retiring Sen. Joe Manchin (I-W.Va.) is considering re-registering as a Democrat to run for the party’s presidential nomination, a source told HuffPost on Sunday.
The former Democrat, who left the party in May, advocated for an “open process” in the coming weeks to select a replacement for Biden in an interview just hours before the president announced he would not be seeking reelection.
“I think that we have a lot of talent on the bench, a lot of good people,” Manchin told CNN’s “State of the Union” on Sunday.
“I’ve got two tremendous governors right next door to me, Andy Beshear in Kentucky and Josh Shapiro in Pennsylvania, who are operating with legislators either evenly split or completely opposite of their party affiliation,” he added. “They haven’t divided their state. They haven’t made you pick a side and demonize the other side. They brought people together. This is what an open process would do.”
Biden on Sunday endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris to run against GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump in his place, and many other Democratic lawmakers and officials quickly followed his lead, including several of her potential rivals, making her the odds-all favorite to win the party’s nod for 2024.
However, some Democrats have tapped the brakes on the Harris momentum, arguing that the party should hold an open process rather than a coronation so that the nominee can earnestly win the party’s support.
“No disrespect to Vice President Harris ― this doesn’t need to be decided within minutes or hours of President Biden’s decision, we need to hear from voters,” Rep. Lloyd Doggett (D-Texas), the first member of Congress who called on Biden to step aside, said during a separate Sunday interview on CNN.
Manchin was one of the most conservative Democrats prior to leaving the party earlier this year, frequently acting as a thorn in Biden’s side and opposing key Democratic priorities like filibuster reform. He also flirted with running for president before becoming an independent on the No Labels ticket.
The news that Manchin is weighing running for the Democratic presidential nomination was first reported by CNN’s Jake Tapper.