Joe Manchin

Joseph Anthony Manchin III (/ˈmæntʃɪn/ MAN-chin; born August 24, 1947) is an American politician and businessman from West Virginia. Manchin served from 2001 to 2005 as the 27th secretary of state of West Virginia, from 2005 to 2010 as the 34th governor of West Virginia, and from 2010 to 2025 as a United States senator from West Virginia. Manchin was a Democrat throughout his political career until he became an independent in 2024.

Before entering politics, Manchin co-founded and served as president of Enersystems, his family-owned and operated coal brokerage company. After serving as West Virginia's secretary of state, he won the 2004 West Virginia gubernatorial election by a large margin and was reelected by an even larger margin in 2008. Manchin was first elected to the U.S. Senate in a 2010 special election to fill the Senate seat left vacant by the death of Democratic Senator Robert Byrd; he won a full Senate term in 2012 and was re-elected in 2018.

During his Senate tenure, Manchin was generally regarded as the Senate Democratic Caucus's most conservative member and as a centrist, bipartisan figure. He opposed Democratic President Barack Obama's energy policies, including his reductions and restrictions on coal mining. He supported Republican President Donald Trump's border wall and immigration policies and voted to confirm most of Trump's cabinet and judicial appointees, including Justices Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh. He also opposed Democratic President Joe Biden's Freedom to Vote Act and Build Back Better Act. Conversely, Manchin voted against repeated attempts to repeal Obama's Affordable Care Act, voted against the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 during the first Trump administration, voted to convict Trump in both of his impeachment trials, voted against the confirmation of Trump Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett, voted to confirm Biden Supreme Court nomineee Ketanji Brown Jackson, and sponsored the Inflation Reduction Act during the Biden administration. After the 2020 elections, 117th Congress was split 50–50 between Democrats and Republicans but controlled by Democrats because Vice President Kamala Harris was the tiebreaker, then Manchin became a key swing vote in the Senate. During the 118th Congress, he was again considered a key swing vote in the Senate, alongside Kyrsten Sinema. On November 9, 2023, Manchin announced that he would not run for reelection. In 2024, he left the Democratic Party to become an independent, and later clarified that he would not run for any office, ending speculation that he might be a candidate in the 2024 United States presidential election.