Joe Manchin
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Joseph Anthony Manchin III ( MAN-chin; born August 24, 1947) is an American businessman and retired politician who served as a United States senator from West Virginia from 2010 to 2025. From 2015 until he registered as an independent in 2024, he was West Virginia's only congressional Democrat. Manchin served from 2001 to 2005 as the 27th secretary of state of West Virginia and from 2005 to 2010 as the 34th governor of West Virginia. Before entering politics, he co-founded and was president of Enersystems, his family-owned and operated coal brokerage company. Manchin won the 2004 West Virginia gubernatorial election by a large margin and was reelected by an even larger margin in 2008. He won the 2010 special election to fill the Senate seat vacated by incumbent Democrat Robert Byrd's death with 53.5% of the vote, and in 2012 was elected to a full term with 60.6% of the vote. Manchin won a second term in 2018 with 49.6% of the vote. In all his Senate elections, he drastically outperformed Democratic presidential nominees in the state. Manchin represented the most Republican-leaning constituency of any Democrat or independent in Congress during his tenure. Manchin has called himself a "centrist, moderate, conservative Democrat" and was generally regarded as the Senate Democratic caucus's most conservative member. He opposed President Barack Obama's energy policies, including reductions and restrictions on coal mining; voted against cloture for the Don't Ask, Don't Tell Repeal Act of 2010 (not voting on the bill itself); supported 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 and opposed Biden's Freedom to Vote Act and Build Back Better Act instead supporting the Inflation Reduction Act. On the other hand, Manchin voted against repeated attempts to repeal the Affordable Care Act, voted against the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017, voted to convict Trump in both of his impeachment trials, voted against Amy Coney Barrett's nomination to the Supreme Court, voted to confirm Ketanji Brown Jackson to the Supreme Court, and was a Senate sponsor of the Inflation Reduction Act. He is among the more non-interventionist members of the Democratic caucus, having repeatedly called for the withdrawal of American troops from Afghanistan and opposed most military interventions in Syria. After the 2020 elections, Manchin became a key swing vote in the Senate, which was split 50–50 between Democrats and Republicans but controlled by Democrats because Vice President Kamala Harris was the tiebreaker. Since passing legislation with only Democratic support required Manchin's vote, he wielded a large influence in the 117th Congress. During the 118th Congress, he was again considered a key swing vote in the Senate, alongside Kyrsten Sinema. On November 9, 2023, Manchin announced that he would not run for reelection. In 2024, he left the Democratic Party to become an independent, and later clarified that he would not run for any office, ending speculation that he might be a candidate in the 2024 United States presidential election. As of 2025, Manchin is the most recent Democrat to hold non-judicial statewide office in West Virginia, and the most recent Democrat to serve the state in Congress.