Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) refused to rule out a bid for the White House in 2024 on Wednesday, in which he would launch a challenge against President Joe Biden in the Democratic primaries.
The senator told Fox Business host Larry Kudlow that he had not closed the door on a presidential run in 2024, after Kudlow asked if the senator would run for the Democratic nomination as a “moderate, old-line, pro-growth, well-balanced Democrat.”
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“I’m very much concerned about the direction of our country. I will make a decision later on where I can help the country the best I possibly can — and my state. I’m looking for moderate middle,” Manchin replied.
“I tell people, ‘I don’t know where I belong. I don’t know whether they say D[emocrat], R[epublican], I[ndependent], whatever.’ I can tell you this. I belong to one team, the American team. I’m fiscally responsible, and socially compassionate, and I think most of Americans feel the same way.”
Manchin said there was still a lot of time before the election, and he had been focused on more immediate issues such as the debt limit bill, which was recently signed by Biden. However, other presidential hopefuls have already declared their candidacy for the White House, including former Vice President Mike Pence, who formally entered the race for the Republican nomination on Wednesday.
When asked by Kudlow, who used to be a Democrat, whether the door was still open to a presidential run, Manchin replied that he has kept every door open.
“I haven’t closed anything, Larry,” Manchin said. “I’ve kept everything open. I haven’t closed a thing.”
The response comes shortly after a former adviser to former President Barack Obama claimed that the senator was a “dead man walking” in his home state of West Virginia. Manchin is up for reelection next year, but he currently trails his chief rival Gov. Jim Justice (R-WV) by double-digits. Manchin has not declared whether he will be defending his seat.
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“I don’t want to be unkind to Sen. Manchin, but he’s kind of dead man walking in West Virginia. There’s nowhere for him to go,” David Axelrod said Monday on CNN This Morning. “He’s got a popular Republican governor in the state that Donald Trump carried by almost 40 points. He didn’t win by very much last time. So, he knows that he can’t win reelection in that state.”
Axelrod said running for president would give Manchin a “graceful exit” from the Senate, rather than losing the seat to Justice, who has reached his term limit as governor.
