Former U.S. Senator Joe Manchin (D-WV), who left the Democratic Party in 2024 to become an Independent, slammed his former party during a recent appearance on The Bill Maher Show, and said: “I was a Democrat all my life. They better figure out how they lost people like me.”
Manchin added, “When you quit worrying about the working person, their working conditions — you’re worried more about a person that’s able-bodied and capable of working that won’t work, versus me, who will work — there’s something wrong!”
[Note: After the 2020 elections, Manchin became a key swing vote in the Senate, which was split 50–50 between Democrats and Republicans but loosely controlled by Democrats because Vice President Kamala Harris was the tiebreaker.]
By refusing to extend the $300 a month Child Tax Credit, Joe Mansion caused the child poverty rate to go from 5.2% to 12.4%. He represented 1 of the poorest states & is now a Wall Street lobbyist. The Democrats lost the working class because of Wall Street “Democrats” like him. https://t.co/7SKYSyHiWy
— Warren Gunnels (@GunnelsWarren) September 21, 2025
Warren Gunnels, a top advisor for Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT), responded on social media: “By refusing to extend the $300 a month Child Tax Credit, Joe Mansion caused the child poverty rate to go from 5.2% to 12.4%. He represented 1 of the poorest states & is now a Wall Street lobbyist. The Democrats lost the working class because of Wall Street ‘Democrats’ like him.”
Other critics of Manchin also noted that in 2021 the former Governor of West Virginia was one of the eight Democrats who voted against a federal minimum wage of $15 (an effort led by Sanders), one of President Biden’s top policy goals.
[The other six Democrats against were: Sens. Kyrsten Sinema (AZ), Jeanne Shaheen (NH), Maggie Hassan (NH), Jon Tester (MT), Tom Carper (DE), Chris Coons (DE), and Independent Angus King (ME).]
Note: Manchin is promoting his newly released memoir titled Dead Center: In Defense of Common Sense, which includes a forward by former professional and college football coach Nick Saban, a native of West Virginia.
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