Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., announced Friday that he will not be running for president, shooting down months of speculation that he would join the race on a third party ticket.
“I will not be seeking a third party run, I will not be involved in a presidential run,” Manchin said.
Manchin made the announcement during a speech at West Virginia University as part of his “listening tour” that kicked off last month with his daughter’s campaign group “Americans Together” — a movement that touts itself as the “moderate majority” that rejects the “extremism in politics.”
“I’m working with my daughter, working with people that we have around Americans Together and putting all my efforts toward that,” Manchin said Friday.
Manchin previously said he would not make a decision on whether he would run until after Super Tuesday on March 5.
“People are looking for options,” Manchin said at the time. “And we’re going to be looking at that, too.”
Sen. Joe Manchin was ranked the most bipartisan senator by the Common Ground Committees scorecard (Getty Images)
On Thursday at the Cleveland City Club breakfast forum, Manchin said in a hypothetical run, he would tap Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, or former Ohio senator Rob Portman to be his vice presidential running mate, but later added he’s not “running for anything.”
“Hypothetically, if I was picking my running mate, really who I would ask right now is Mitt Romney,” Manchin, who has left the door open to a 3rd party presidential run, told voters at the City Club of Cleveland breakfast forum Thursday.
Romney, a former Massachusetts governor who ran for the White House in 2008 and 2012, jokingly called Manchin’s remarks “presumptuous.”
Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., and Sen. Mitt Romney, R- Utah, head to a vote as senators make their way to a briefing on the war in Ukraine on Capitol Hill on Wednesday, March 30, 2022 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post via Getty Images) (Jabin Botsford)
“I would be the president. He would be my running mate,” Romney said in a statement to Deseret News when asked about Manchin’s comment.
Romney also announced last year that he would not seek re-election to the Senate when his term expires in 2025.
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“No, I’m not going to run for president,” he added. “Certainly I’m not running for vice president. But (Manchin is) kind to say that. We’re good friends.”
No Labels, the third party effort that is on the ballot in several states and was rumored to be considering placing Manchin on a presidential ticket, said it is considering other potential candidates for a “unity ticket.”
“No Labels has spent 14 years working to create a movement for America’s commonsense majority and we welcome Senator Manchin’s efforts to strengthen it,” No Labels co-chairs Sen. Joe Lieberman, Dr. Benjamin F. Chavis, Jr., and Gov. Pat McCrory said in a joint statement.
“No Labels is currently speaking with several exceptional leaders about serving on the presidential Unity ticket. We are continuing to make great progress on our ballot access efforts and will announce in the coming weeks whether we will offer our line to a Unity ticket.”
Fox News’ Aubrie Spady and Paul Steinhauser contributed to this report.
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