Manchin says he has ‘no idea’ if he’ll run for reelection in 2024

Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) said on Friday that he has “no idea” if he’ll run for reelection to the Senate in 2024, predicting he’ll make a decision after next year’s midterm election.

“I have no idea. I’ll make a decision after [the] 2022 election, November, my term will be up in 2024,” Manchin said during an interview with WV MetroNews’ Hoppy Kercheval.

“So I would make a decision then, I wouldn’t make it now,” Manchin added.

Manchin was reelected in 2018 to his second full Senate term when he defeated Republican state Attorney General Patrick Morrisey, just two years after West Virginia gave Trump one of his widest margins of victory over Hillary Clinton in the 2016 presidential election. 

Manchin is the only Democrat to hold a statewide office in West Virginia and the only Democrat in the state’s five-member congressional district.

Senate Democrats will be playing defense during the 2024 cycle, with 23 seats up for vote compared to 10 for Republicans. 

In 2022, Democrats are hoping to build their majority in advance of the 2024 cycle, though doing so is far from a sure thing. Each party now holds 50 seats in the Senate.

Manchin is one of the few red-state Democrats left in the Senate after several lost their seats in recent years, including three in 2018. Sen. Jon Tester (D-Mont.) is also up for reelection in 2024, and hasn’t yet announced if he’ll run again.

Manchin has seen his influence grow in Washington, D.C., as the senator at the center of an evenly split body.

That also puts him at the center of intense pressure campaigns, both by lobbyists and activists who view him as a roadblock to their priorities. Manchin, during Friday’s radio interview, dismissed that either impacted him.

“Heck no, it doesn’t. It’s not going to change me,” Manchin said.

Manchin’s indecision on whether or not to run again in 2024 comes after he indicated during the 2018 race that he thought it was his last. He told Politico at the time that “it’s my last campaign for Senate, I know that. I know that for sure.”

But Manchin has indicated more recently that he’s undecided. Asked if he’ll make another Senate bid in 2024, Manchin recently joked at an Economic Club event: “I’ll be 77 years old, what do you think?”

“I haven’t decided,” Manchin added when pressed.