We Regret to Inform You That Joe Manchin Is Flirting With a Presidential Run
We Regret to Inform You That Joe Manchin Is Flirting With a Presidential Run
To make matters worse, the West Virginia senator would run as a third party candidate, which could hand the election to Trump.
Serious question: Would he really have that much of an impact?
There was zero chance that West Virginia was ever going to vote for Biden anyway. None. So it's not like him being able to win his home state is going to cost Biden any votes. If anything, he'd cost Trump some votes. The way I look at it is either he's going to win a state that Biden never had a chance of winning in the first place, he's going to lose to both Biden and Trump and accomplish nothing, or he'll win the state so Trump doesn't get the votes and then win precisely 0 other states, again hurting Trump by costing him W. Va's 4 Electoral College votes. Strictly looking at West Virginia, Manchin being in the race either has no effect on Biden or could actually help Biden by sabotaging West Virginia enough to tilt it to him.
He's only going to matter in swing states, and even then I think his impact would be limited. Biden would lose the right-leaning swing voters who might hold their noses and vote for Manchin because Trump is just that bad, but I think that population is extremely small. Left-leaning swing voters who are unsatisfied with Biden aren't going to vote for Manchin because they know that a vote for Manchin is essentially a vote for Trump, and I doubt there are too many people out there saying "I'd vote for any Democrat but Biden" or otherwise vote for Manchin knowing full well it's a de-facto vote for Trump. They may not like Biden, but anyone involved in politics enough to consider a third party candidade isn't going to vote for a third party candidate knowing full well that it could lead to Trump back in the White House.
I also don't think that he's simply all that popular outside of his home state. He comes off as your stereotypical old man yelling at a cloud, and has about as much of a personality as sandpaper. I can't see him being endearing enough to enough swing voters to get them to vote for him knowing full well his chances of making it are 0% and could lead to Trump's re-election. The biggest problem Dems have with Biden is his age, and a 75 year old Manchin isn't going to be considered the solution to that problem.
I think his impact is going to be extremely limited and look a lot scarier than it actually is.
According to the article, the majority of people who voted third party in 2016 voted for Biden in 2020. If they're lured away by a Manchin/Huntsman ticket, that could affect Biden's chances.
Probably because they knew throwing their vote to a third party candidate in 2020 would be a de-facto vote for Trump. They'll probably think the same way again. I'd be concerned if the leading GOP candidates were anyone other than Trump or DeSantis. But I think a lot of the swing voters will continue to vote for Biden, even if they have to hold their nose to do it, because they don't want Trump back in office.
Manchin will never get the DNC nomination if he runs as D, he’ll never get enough votes if he runs as a third party, and he’ll never get the Trump votes if he runs as R. There’s no way Manchin can become president in this current political landscape. He would need politics to return to the 80s to have a chance at any kind of success; when the parties weren’t so inflamed and divided.
He doesn't want to be president, he wants to be a spoiler.
That seems like exactly what that guy would do. The only problem with that is you have to actually be an attractive candidate to be a spoiler. If he runs, he's not really taking any votes from Biden because nobody who votes Biden is going to consider a party-line traitor like Manchin. If anything he'll be spoiling the republican candidates who are looking for a less batshit alternative. But then again, that's not how primaries work.
As a 3rd party? LOL, please do! Let him find out being a 1%'er also applies to political polling.
Being skeptical of Democrats is not a political agenda, but that's what these centrists run on. It's pathetic and achieves nothing
As a West Virginian, I'm sorry. Not only is Manchin going to run for president, it's looking like our homunculus of a governor will take his spot in the Senate. I both love my state and hate my state. It's harder and harder to continue to live here as a Democrat.
Not want
It’s like the frog meme, but with Joe Manchin. It works.