Joe Manchin Sits with Republicans During State of the Union

Al Drago/Bloomberg

Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) notably sat with Republicans during President Joe Biden’s State of the Union address on Tuesday night.

The West Virginia senator has been a thorn in the side of Biden and progressives for staking out moderate and even conservative positions that have hampered some of the president’s aims. Most notably, Manchin appears to have single-handedly killed Biden’s signature Build Back Better agenda

In December, he told Fox News, “If I can’t go home and explain it to the people of West Virginia, I can’t vote for it. I cannot vote to continue with this piece of legislation. I just can’t. I’ve tried everything possible, I can’t get there.”

In a 50-50 Senate, Manchin’s vote – along with every other Democratic senator’s – is absolutely vital. Senate Democrats had hoped to pass BBB via the budget reconciliation process, which would allow them to pass the bill by a simple majority vote instead of having to meet the 60-vote threshold to break a Republican filibuster. In the event of 50-50 tie vote in the Senate, Vice President Kamala Harris would cast the tiebreaker.

Manchin has repeatedly made clear he prefers to govern in a bipartisan manner, which isn’t surprising given that he represents a state that voted for Donald Trump in 2016 and 2020 by 42 percentage points and 39 percentage points, respectively.

The West Virginia Democrat was one of 69 senators to vote for a $1 trillion bipartisan infrastructure bill in August.

Manchin repeatedly stood and clapped for Biden’s applause lines as the Republicans around him remained seated.