On Monday, Democrat Senator Joe Manchin (WV) said he has no plans on leaving the Democratic Party, but that he could “do something later.”
Manchin’s comments came in response to a journalist asking if he might become an independent like Senator Kyrsten Sinema (AZ), a moderate who announced she was leaving the Democratic Party last week.
“I’ll look at all of these things. I’ve always looked all these things but I have no intention of doing anything right now,” Manchin said, according to The Hill.
“Whether I do something later, I can’t tell you what the future’s going to bring. I can only tell you where I am and my mindset” now, he added.
On Friday, Senator Kyrsten Sinema (AZ) announced she was leaving the Democratic party and registering as an independent due to the “disconnect between what everyday Americans want and deserve from our politics, and what political parties are offering.”
Sinema made the announcement in an opinion piece for the Arizona Republic.
“While Arizonans don’t all agree on the issues, we are united in our values of hard work, common sense and independence,” she wrote. “We make our own decisions, using our own judgment and lived experiences to form our beliefs. We don’t line up to do what we’re told, automatically subscribe to whatever positions the national political parties dictate or view every issue through labels that divide us.”
“Everyday Americans are increasingly left behind by national parties’ rigid partisanship, which has hardened in recent years,” Sinema added. “Pressures in both parties pull leaders to the edges, allowing the loudest, most extreme voices to determine their respective parties’ priorities and expecting the rest of us to fall in line… Americans are more united than the national parties would have us believe. We’ve shown that a diverse democracy can still function effectively.”
“Arizonans – including many registered as Democrats or Republicans – are eager for leaders who focus on common-sense solutions rather than party doctrine,” she continued. “But if the loudest, most extreme voices continue to drive each party toward the fringes – and if party leaders stay more focused on energizing their bases than delivering for all Americans – these kinds of lasting legislative successes will become rarer.”
“That’s why I have joined the growing numbers of Arizonans who reject party politics by declaring my independence from the broken partisan system in Washington,” she concluded. “I registered as an Arizona independent.”
