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Former Sen. Joe Manchin (I-W.Va.) is returning to politics by announcing a new organization aimed at recruiting and electing independent candidates to Congress.
Manchin, 78, launched the Independent Leadership Council (ILC), which is focused on building support and infrastructure for candidates running outside the Democratic and Republican parties in congressional races. He’ll lead the group alongside his daughter Heather Manchin, a former pharmaceutical executive.
“We’re not trying to start another party,” Joe Manchin said in an interview with CNN. “We’re trying to get a person who can be committed to — and totally committed to — being an independent with an independent voice. They can vote with Democrats and Republicans when they’re right and speak out against them when they’re wrong.”
Manchin, who left the Democratic Party before retiring from the Senate in 2025 after decades as a Democrat, told CNN he has no plans to run for office again, but he wants to help elect candidates willing to work across party lines.
“I don’t see me getting back into the fray, I really don’t,” he said. “Now I’m trying to help people around the country that want that same outcome.”
The former West Virginia senator convened prospective candidates and political strategists in the state this week for the group’s inaugural summit.
Attendees included Rep. Kevin Kiley (Calif.), the Republican-turned-Independent who faces a contentious reelection bid this year; independent Montana Senate candidate Seth Bodnar; and Iowa House candidate Michael Bridgford.
The event also highlighted the ILC’s target races in priority states such as Alaska, California, Iowa, Montana and Washington.
“The gathering served as both a strategy session and a call to action for Americans who believe the country’s most important problems cannot be solved through partisan warfare alone,” the ILC said in a statement.
If the council decides to back candidates, the Manchins said they could campaign alongside them by helping raise money and organize in their districts. Heather Manchin described the effort as a test case that could expand if successful.
“Our hope is that this is kind of our pilot experiment, trying to prove it can be done,” she told CNN.
The initiative comes as 45 percent of U.S. adults now identify as political independents, according to a Gallup poll.
Independents have made up the largest percentage of voters for more than a decade, as Americans grow more disenchanted with the current two-party system and even as Republicans and Democrats continue to dominate elected offices.
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