After years of speculation, Sen. Joe Manchin has officially left the Democratic Party, and the West Virginia senator is now a registered independent.
Manchin has long presented himself as a moderate, facilitating his political survival in one of the most Republican states in the union. It wasn’t immediately clear if the move was a setup for the now-former Democrat to backtrack on his pledge to not run for re-election in the Senate or to stage a late gubernatorial bid.
Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) officially left the Democratic Party on Friday and registered as an independent.
Why it matters: Manchin, who flirted with an independent presidential bid earlier this year, has said he’s not running for Senate re-election. But leaving the party could give him the flexibility to change tack and run for Senate or West Virginia governor as an independent.
With all due respect to West…
