Sen. Joe Manchin Eyes a Possible Third Party Presidential Run

“Let’s get sh*t done!”  That’s the motto of Americans Together, a political organization recently formed by Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia, who kicked off a national “listening tour” in New Hampshire earlier this month as he eyes a potential third-party presidential campaign.

Manchin, who is not running for reelection to his Senate seat in November, launched his tour this month at “Politics & Eggs,” an event put on by the New England Council, a regional business organization, and the New Hampshire Institute of Politics. The event has played host to nearly every major party presidential candidate since the mid-nineties.

Manchin and his organization propose to raise up the voices of “Democrats, Independents and Republicans who value common sense,” “move our country forward,” “bring back compromise” and “make your voice heard.” 

It’s an appealing pitch in today’s hyper-partisan political climate. In contrast to increasingly toxic political campaigns, Manchin’s address was served sunny side up and laden with folksy charm. The Blue Dog Democrat imparted life lessons from a childhood growing up between the “crick and the tracks” and working for “papa” at a small town grocery store.

But Manchin is also the largest recipient of oil and gas money in all of Congress. In the 2022 election cycle alone, he received nearly $780,000 in campaign contributions from the oil and gas industry, according to the nonprofit Open Secrets.

He has also made millions of dollars over the decades from a coal brokerage company he founded in the late ‘80s. In a 2010 campaign ad, he famously shot a hole in a climate bill. 

A potential Manchin run therefore begs several questions; whose voice would the senator amplify, and what impact would his candidacy have on the election, and U.S. climate policy?

Americans Together seeks to raise an eye popping $100 million, though it’s unclear how much the organization has raised or where the funds came from. The group, headed by Manchin’s daughter, Heather Bresch, is a 501(c)(4), a “social welfare” organization that, unlike many non-profits, doesn’t have to disclose its funding, according to media reports.

Politics & Eggs does disclose its sponsors and the list is revealing. Funders include a who’s who of U.S. financial, insurance and telecommunications companies, as well as a gun manufacturer and two of the largest fossil fuel pipeline and energy companies in North America, TC Energy and Dominion Energy.

“What’s the common interest of all those sponsors?” asked Kert Davies, the Center for Climate Integrity’s director of special investigations. “It’s controlling the government from regulating them, period.”

Emily Heisig, New England Council spokeswoman, said that the purpose of the event “is to provide business leaders throughout the New England region with the opportunity to hear from presidential candidates, as well as those considering candidacy, as they visit New Hampshire ahead of the state’s presidential primary.

“A wide array of businesses in the region choose to sponsor the non-partisan series because they believe it is important for business leaders to hear from these individuals about their views in order to make informed decisions about who to support,” she said. 

Heisig added that “the companies who are listed as Politics & Eggs sponsors on our website are sponsors of the entire series, not any one individual event.” 

The Council’s audience of mostly businessmen and women seemed receptive to what Manchin had to say and were curious whether or not he would launch a late campaign bid. However, one attendee, not from the corporate sector, asked a pointed question about climate change.

“One thing you did say is you would, at one point, wage an unrelenting fight against the Biden administration’s efforts to implement the IRA as a radical climate agenda,” said Roger Stephenson, who recently retired from a career with the Union of Concerned Scientists and the League of Conservation Voters.  “Can you explain how New Hampshire communities that are vulnerable to increasingly damaging flooding, such as Hampton this week, Dover, Portsmouth, as well as low-income and underserved communities all along our most vulnerable coasts can reduce and respond to climate impacts without the IRA?”

The question seemed to be a nod to comments Manchin had made just the day before in his capacity as chair of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee. On Jan. 11, Manchin convened a hearing on electric vehicle incentives under the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) at which he railed against the funding.

The IRA is the largest investment in carbon emissions reductions in U.S. history and was co-authored by Sen. Manchin. The bill, which President Biden signed into law in 2022, was the end-product of intense negotiation between Manchin on one side and the Biden Administration and other Senate Democrats on the other. The final language included significant incentives for the continued use of fossil fuels, at Manchin’s insistence.  

However, despite the concessions to fossil fuels and the bill’s passage, Manchin has continued to blast the IRA, arguing that the administration’s implementation of the rule has gone too far in doling out clean energy incentives.

Manchin called the IRA’s rollout part of the Biden Administration’s “radical climate agenda” and threatened to sue the administration for its overreach at the Senate hearing.

Angus King, an Independent Senator from Maine, pushed back on what he saw as an attempt by Manchin and Senate Republicans to undermine the IRA, saying “we are fiddling while the planet burns.”

A day later in New Hampshire, Manchin responded to Stephenson’s question by saying that “we’re all responsible for the climate, and I take it very seriously.” 

Manchin went on to say that he supports investments in clean energy but argued that continued fossil fuel development was needed to maintain U.S. energy security.  

“You cannot eliminate your way to a cleaner climate,” Manchin said.

Climate advocates disagreed.

At a meet and greet event at a diner in nearby Derry, New Hampshire, later that day, activists with the group Climate Defiance surrounded the senator, chanting “off fossil fuels, Manchin, off fossil fuels.”

The group disrupted the event for several minutes before police officers ushered the protesters outside.

“He’s a climate criminal,” Michael Greenberg, the founder of Climate Defiance, said after the group had been escorted outside. “We’re not OK with him continuing to torch our Earth.”

The strong response to Manchin’s speaking events in New Hampshire underscore the potential impact a third-party candidate could have on the election.

In 2000, Republican George W. Bush narrowly won New Hampshire over Democrat Al Gore. Thousands of votes that might have gone to Gore went instead to Ralph Nader of the Green Party, potentially changing the outcome of the election both in New Hampshire and the nation. 

Votes for third party Libertarian candidate Jo Jorgensen in battleground states may have cost Donald Trump the election in 2020, according to numerous analysts. 

Were Manchin to run and tip the election to Trump, the implications for climate policy could be catastrophic: Trump would most likely again pull the nation out of Paris climate accord, adopt a “drill baby drill” regulatory approach to the oil and gas industry and repeal the Inflation Reduction Act, as conservative House Republicans are now saying they want to do.

“Both parties fear a third-party candidate,” Davies, of the Center for Climate Integrity, said, adding that it wasn’t clear to him whether Manchin would draw more votes from Democrats or Republicans.

Manchin said if he did decide to run, he would only do so if he felt he had a chance at winning the election, as opposed to splitting the votes of one party and tipping the election in favor of the other.

“Let me just say I have never been a spoiler, nor will I ever be a spoiler on any election,” Manchin said in an interview on “Fox News Sunday” with Shannon Bream on Jan. 14. “If I’m involved, I’m involved to win. But to be a spoiler for the sake of throwing the election one way or the other, I would never do.”

On Fox & Friends on Jan. 17, host Brian Kilmeade asked Manchin if he was seeking to meet with President Biden to see if he can “move him to the center” before making a decision on whether or not to run as a third party candidate.  

Manchin did not directly answer the question, saying only, “If I get a chance, and they want to meet, I’m happy to meet with him.”