Joe Manchin

Joseph Anthony Manchin III ( 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 was elected governor of West Virginia in 2004 by a large margin and reelected by an even larger margin in 2008. Manchin was first elected to the U.S. Senate in a 2010 special election after the death of Democratic Senator Robert Byrd. Manchin won a full Senate term in 2012 and was re-elected in 2018.

Representing a state that shifted sharply to the right throughout his political career, Manchin was generally regarded as the Senate Democratic Caucus's most conservative member and as a centrist, bipartisan figure. After the 2020 U.S. Senate elections, the Senate was left evenly split 50–50 between Democrats and Republicans. With Democrats holding control through the vice president's tiebreaking vote, Manchin emerged as a pivotal swing vote in this closely split chamber. In 2023, he announced he would not be seeking re-election in 2024. He was succeeded by Jim Justice, a Republican. In 2024, Manchin left the Democratic Party to become an independent; he founded the Independent Leadership Council in 2026.

Joseph Anthony Manchin III was born on August 24, 1947, in Farmington, West Virginia, a small coal mining town. He is the second of five children of Mary Olga (née Gouzd) and John Manchin. The name "Manchin" was derived from the Italian name "Mancina". His father was of Italian descent, and his paternal grandparents emigrated to the United States from the town of San Giovanni in Fiore, in Calabria. Manchin's maternal grandparents were immigrants to the US from the Moravian-Silesian Region of the Czech Republic. Charles Gouzd was born in Poruba (Orlová), and Maria Lucia (née Michalík) was born in Heřmanice (Ostrava).

Manchin's father owned a carpet and furniture store, and his grandfather, Joseph Manchin (Giuseppe Mancina), owned a grocery store. His father and his grandfather each served as mayor of Farmington. Manchin's uncle, A. James Manchin, was a member of the West Virginia House of Delegates and later served as West Virginia Secretary of State and Treasurer.

Manchin graduated from Farmington High School in 1965. He entered West Virginia University on a football scholarship in 1965, but an injury during practice ended his football career. As a result of the injury, Manchin was unable to pass his draft physical in 1967 and was deemed unfit for military service. In 1968, as a result of his family's store burning down, Manchin took one semester off to help his family rebuild the store as Manchin's Carpet Center. Manchin graduated in 1970 with a degree in business administration and went to work for his family's business. Manchin has been a close friend of former Alabama Crimson Tide football coach Nick Saban since childhood.

In 1988, Manchin founded Enersystems, a waste coal brokerage company based in Fairmont, West Virginia. Manchin was president of Enersystems until 2000, when he entered politics and gave control of the company's daily operations to his son, Joe Manchin IV. At some point during his tenure as governor, Manchin moved his Enersystems holdings into a blind trust. In a financial disclosure from 2020, Manchin reported that his non-public shares of Enersystems were worth between $1 million and $5 million and that between 2011 and 2020 he was paid $5,211,154 in dividend income from them. In 2020, he received over $500,000 in dividends. Enersystems is 71% of Manchin's investment income and 30% of his net worth.

Since his election to the U.S. Senate in 2010, Manchin has listed AA Properties as a non-public asset on his annual financial disclosures. AA Property is reportedly 50% controlled by Manchin, and has, among other things, been an investor in Emerald Coast Realty, which owns a La Quinta hotel in Elkview, West Virginia.

Manchin was elected to the West Virginia House of Delegates in 1982 at age 35. In 1983, he introduced an unsuccessful resolution to let voters remove language in the state's constitution that enforced school segregation. Said wording would not be removed until 1994. In 1984, Manchin served as an alternate delegate for Clyde See at that year's Democratic National Convention, voting for eventual nominee Walter Mondale, even though he personally supported U.S. Senator from Colorado Gary Hart. In 1986 was elected to the West Virginia Senate, where he served until 1996. He ran for governor in 1996, losing the Democratic primary election to Charlotte Pritt. At that time, he supported the Republican candidate for governor, Cecil Underwood, who went on to win. Manchin was elected Secretary of State of West Virginia in 2000, defeating Libertarian candidate Poochie Myers, 89.4% to 10.6%.

In 2003, Manchin announced his intention to challenge incumbent Democratic governor Bob Wise in the 2004 Democratic primary. Wise decided not to seek reelection after a scandal, and Manchin won the Democratic primary and general election by large margins. His election marked the first time since 1964 that a West Virginia governor was succeeded by another governor from the same party.

In July 2005, Massey Energy CEO Don Blankenship sued Manchin, alleging that Manchin had violated Blankenship's First Amendment rights by threatening increased government scrutiny of his coal operations in retaliation for Blankenship's political activities. Blankenship had donated substantial funds into campaigns to defeat a proposed pension bond amendment and oppose the reelection of state Supreme Court Justice Warren McGraw, and he fought against a proposed increase in the severance tax on extraction of mineral resources. Soon after the bond amendment's defeat, the state Division of Environmental Protection (DEP) revoked a permit approval for controversial new silos near Marsh Fork Elementary School in Raleigh County. While area residents had complained for some time that the coal operation there endangered their children, Blankenship claimed that the DEP acted in response to his opposition to the bond amendment.

During the Sago Mine disaster in early January 2006 in Upshur County, West Virginia, Manchin confirmed incorrect reports that 12 miners had survived; in actuality only one survived. Manchin later acknowledged that a miscommunication had occurred with rescue teams in the mine. On February 1, 2006, he ordered a stop to all coal production in West Virginia pending safety checks after two more miners were killed in separate accidents. Sixteen West Virginia coal miners died in mining accidents in early 2006.

Manchin easily won reelection to a second term as governor in 2008 against Republican Russ Weeks, capturing 69.81% of the vote and winning every county.

Due to Senator Robert Byrd's declining health, there was speculation about what Manchin would do if Byrd died. Manchin refused to comment on the subject until Byrd's death, except to say that he would not appoint himself to the Senate. Byrd died on June 28, 2010, and Manchin appointed Carte Goodwin, his 36-year-old legal adviser, to the Senate on July 16.

On July 20, 2010, Manchin announced he would seek the Senate seat in a special election for the remaining two years of Byrd's term. In the August 28 Democratic special primary, he defeated former Democratic congressman and former West Virginia Secretary of State Ken Hechler. In the special general election, he defeated Republican businessman John Raese, 53.5%-43.4%.

Manchin ran for reelection to a full-term in 2012. According to the Democratic firm Public Policy Polling, early polling found Manchin heavily favored, leading Representative Shelley Moore Capito 50–39, 2010 opponent John Raese 60–31, and Congressman David McKinley 57–28. Manchin did not endorse President Barack Obama for reelection in 2012, saying that he had "some real differences" with the presumptive nominees of both major parties. Manchin found fault with Obama's economic and energy policies and questioned Romney's understanding of the "challenges facing ordinary people".

Manchin defeated Raese and Mountain Party candidate Bob Henry Baber, winning 61% of the vote.

In 2018, Manchin ran for reelection. He was challenged in the Democratic primary by Paula Jean Swearengin. Swearengin is an activist and coal miner's daughter who was supported by former members of Bernie Sanders's 2016 presidential campaign. She criticized Manchin for voting with Republicans and supporting Trump's policies. Manchin won the primary with 70% of the vote.

In 2023, Manchin "stoked rumors about his presidential ambitions by holding a call with No Labels supporters and meeting with influential community leaders from Iowa, a state that holds outsized sway in guiding the trajectory of the presidential primaries". In May 2023, and again in June 2023, he refused to rule out running for president of the United States as a third-party candidate in 2024. Reports indicated that the centrist group No Labels was seeking to support a third-party presidential campaign and that the organization viewed Manchin as a potential candidate.

As of 2023, Manchin served as a No Labels National Co-chair, and on July 17, 2023, he and former U.S. Ambassador to Russia Jon Huntsman Jr. headlined a No Labels Common Sense Agenda Town Hall in Manchester, New Hampshire.

On February 15, 2024, during a City Club of Cleveland forum, he said he would pick U.S. senator Mitt Romney or former U.S. senator Rob Portman as his running mate if he ran for president.

On February 16, 2024, Manchin announced that he would not run for president.

After President Biden withdrew from the 2024 race on July 21, 2024, Manchin expressed interest in running for president at the 2024 Democratic National Convention. He opted not to run, but stated that he would have preferred that the convention be an open contest. After Kamala Harris picked Tim Walz as her running mate, Manchin said, "I can think of no one better than Governor Walz to help bring our country closer together", although he refrained from formally endorsing the Harris-Walz ticket, citing Harris's call to end the filibuster in the United States Senate.

Manchin is regarded 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 For the People 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 nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson, and sponsored the Inflation Reduction Act during the Biden administration.