Mitt Romney (R) and Joe Manchin (D) are United States Senators from different parties, but to the majority of their own conferences they look more alike than dissimilar. Centrists is the term for Romney and Manchin, occupying a squeezed space in a highly polarized political environment that makes them an endangered species.
Romney — the 2012 GOP candidate for President — is so out of step with the current MAGA-dominated Republican Party that he decided to leave the Senate instead of fighting the good fight there, as he’d intended. Manchin just announced he’ll be leaving the Senate too, just like his Utah pal.
I will miss this American patriot in the Senate. But our friendship and our commitment to American values will not end. https://t.co/jmz51G2aeX
— Mitt Romney (@MittRomney) November 9, 2023
Romney responded to Manchin’s news by hailing his patriotism and by saying his and Manchin’s “commitment to American values will not end.” That assertion matches Manchin’s fresh pledge to trade his Senate responsibilities in for “traveling the country and speaking out to see if there is an interest in creating a movement to mobilize the middle and bring Americans together.”
Democrats and Republicans alike are getting the scent of a third party ticket in Manchin’s “movement” — perhaps under the No Labels tent. There was speculation in July when Manchin and former Utah Governor Jon Huntsman hosted a No Labels event together, spurring the idea that Manchin could top an independent ticket featuring Huntsman.
The name recognition of Romney only sweetens the third party pot — and plot. Especially as Joe Biden and Donald Trump, the current frontrunners, are unpopular. Romney and Manchin, both 76, are also slightly younger than Biden and Trump.
The new Romney biography, which features myriad candid takes where Romney reveals his dislike of GOP pols like J.D. Vance, Ted Cruz and — especially — Trump, contains a passage where a Manchin-Romney ticket is proposed but ultimately rejected.
Writing in The Atlantic, author McKay Coppins revealed that in 2020 Romney:
“privately approached Manchin about building a new political party. They’d talked about the prospect before, but it was always hypothetical. Now Romney wanted to make it real. His goal for the yet-unnamed party (working slogan: ‘Stop the stupid’) would be to promote the kind of centrist policies he’d worked on with Manchin in the Senate.”
McKay Coppins, Romney: A Reckoning
Pushing fiscal responsibility — an evergreen winner with voters as long as their piece of the pie isn’t cut — the two lame duck Senators have been “campaigning” already, as seen below in an appearance on CNBC.
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