West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin announced on Friday that he has left the Democratic Party and has since enrolled as an independent, becoming the fourth active independent member of the Senate. Manchin is expected to still caucus with Senate Democrats.
Manchin, who has represented West Virginia in the Senate as a member of the Democratic Party since 2010, announced via X on Friday his decision to leave the Democratic Party. “My commitment to do everything I can to bring our country together has led me to register as an independent with no party affiliation,” Manchin stated in his post, along with a picture of him holding a voter registration form.
Additionally, Manchin shared a brief video explaining his decision to leave. Readers can watch the video below:
Although Manchin is now an independent, he still intends to caucus with Senate Democrats, according to a statement he made to Fox News Digital earlier in the afternoon. The current composition of the United States Senate now stands at 49 Republicans, 47 Democrats, and four independents: Senators Bernie Sanders of Vermont, Angus King of Maine, Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona, and now Joe Manchin.
While the Republicans have a majority in terms of total members, it’s worth noting that all four independents caucus with the Democratic Party.
There seems to be a lot of contradictory information.
According to these sources, Sinema doesn’t caucus with the Democrats:
https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2023/03/23/sinema-trashes-dems-gop-00088461
https://www.npr.org/2022/12/09/1141827943/sinema-leaves-democratic-party-independent
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/politics-news/sen-kyrsten-sinema-leaves-democratic-party-registers-independent-rcna60911
But according to these, she does:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/12/10/kyrsten-sinema-democrats-joe-lieberman/
https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2019/03/climate-change-which-democrats-oppose-green-new-deal/585802/
I would conclude that perhaps she started off caucusing with them but then stopped, except that the WaPo article that says she does is literally one day after the NPR and NBC ones that says she doesn’t.
Sinema at least used to. I’m not sure if she still does. Will need to refresh memory
“it’s worth noting that all four independents caucus with the Democratic Party.”
Is this true? I was under the impression that while Sanders and King caucus with the Democrats, Sinema doesn’t, and Manchin likely won’t either going forward.