Sen. Joe Manchin (D-West Virginia) on Thursday emerged as a running mate in the event unsuccessful presidential bid Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) jumps into the presidential race on a third-party ticket. I let it happen.
If Mr. Manchin enters the race with Mr. Romney, it could siphon votes from President Joe Biden, 81, and ruin his re-election campaign.
“If I were to pick my running mate, who I would actually ask right now is Mitt Romney,” Manchin said during a “listening tour” in Cleveland.
Romney was a critic of former President Donald Trump, but failed to defeat President Barack Obama in 2012. Before his defeat, Mr. Romney served as governor of Massachusetts.
Mr. Romney won Utah’s Senate seat in 2019 and has used his position to support the priorities of Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), whose priorities often align with Mr. Biden’s. We are doing so.
Manchin said former Sen. Rob Portman, an establishment Republican from Ohio, would also be a top choice for vice president.
“Rob is a dear friend of mine,” Manchin said. “What a nice person.”
Manchin has expressed interest in running for president in 2024 on an “unlabeled” ticket if Biden has “health concerns.”
The nonpartisan establishment group No Labels Ticket has set a deadline for Manchin to decide whether to run for president, around Super Tuesday in mid-March. That means he has about a month left to make a decision.
No Labels leaders told CNN they do not know whether the retiring West Virginia senator will run.
Wendell Husebo is a political reporter for Breitbart News and a former Republican war room analyst.he is the author of politics of slave morality.Follow Wendell “X” @WendellHusebø or society of truth @WendellHusebo.
