(Headline USA) Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., announced this week that he will not launch an independent presidential bid, potentially ending months of speculation about his political future.
“I will not be seeking a third-party run. I will not be involved in a presidential run,” Manchin said during a speech at West Virginia University.
He said he’s decided to invest his time in a new campaign group started by his daughter, called “Americans Together.”
The goal of the organization, he said, is to elevate the “moderate majority” and reject “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.
The West Virginia Democrat was one of the names floated by No Labels, a nonpartisan organization that is looking to launch its own ticket if President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump are the two parties’ respective nominees.
Manchin himself has flirted with the idea, suggesting at a different event just a day before his announcement that he would tap Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, as his vice president.
“Hypothetically, if I was picking my running mate, really who I would ask right now is Mitt Romney,” Manchin said.
Romney responded to Manchin’s comment in a statement, joking, “Well, that’s really presumptuous. I would be the president. He would be my running mate.”
The failed 2012 Republican candidate also confirmed he has no intention of running for the White House this year.
“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.”
Romney then added that he will “not” be voting for Trump if he is the 2024 GOP nominee, citing a Manhattan jury’s finding last year that Trump abused author E. Jean Carroll in the 1990s.
“I will not be voting for President Trump. I must admit that I find sexual assault to be a line I will not cross in the people I select to be my president,” Romney said.
He has reportedly written in his wife Ann’s name for the past two presidential election cycles.
