On Monday, retiring Senator Joe Manchin (W.Va.), a longtime conservative Democrat who announced last week that he is registering as an independent, reiterated that he has no intention of running for office this cycle.
However, he did not wholly rule out the possibility of a future public office pursuit.
Last week, the retiring senator denied rumors that he would participate in the West Virginia gubernatorial election and expressed his endorsement of Steve Williams, the Democratic nominee for the position.
“I am not running,” Manchin said during a recent interview.
However, Manchin continued, stating that “I’ve never closed doors.”
“You don’t know what the political arena is going to have. You don’t know what’s going to happen in this toxic political world. So I’ve never shut down any options whatsoever. But I have no intentions of running for any political office, elected office.” Manchin concluded.
Manchin, who had previously served as the governor of West Virginia for six years, was elected to the U.S. Senate as a Democrat in the deep-red state in 2010.
Manchin has since defied the party on numerous occasions before he formally departed last week.
Manchin had previously expressed his intention to register as an independent, which would presumably provide him with access to the ballot without the constraints of a party.
He suggested that this was not the reason for his change in registration.
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