Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) on Thursday floated failed presidential candidate Sen. Mitt Romney (R-UT) as a potential running mate if he were to jump into the presidential race on a third-party ticket.
If Manchin enters the race with Romney, they would siphon votes from President Joe Biden, 81, potentially dooming the president’s reelection campaign.
“Hypothetically, if I was picking my running mate, really who I would ask right now is Mitt Romney,” Manchin said in Cleveland during his “listening tour.”
Romney, a critic of former President Donald Trump, failed to defeat President Barack Obama in 2012. Romney served as the governor of Massachusetts before his defeat.
In 2019, Romney won a Senate seat in Utah and has used his position to support Sen. Mitch McConnell’s (R-KY) priorities, which often align with Biden’s.
Manchin said former Sen. Rob Portman, an establishment Republican from Ohio, would also be a top pick for his running mate.
“Rob’s a dear friend of mine,” said Manchin. “What a good man.”
Manchin is interested in launching a 2024 presidential bid on a “No Labels” ticket if Biden has a “health scare.”
The No Labels ticket, an establishment bipartisan group, set a mid-March deadline around Super Tuesday for Manchin to decide on a presidential run. That leaves about a month for him to make up his mind.
No Labels leaders told CNN they do not know if the retiring West Virginia senator will run.
Wendell Husebo is a political reporter with Breitbart News and a former GOP War Room Analyst. He is the author of Politics of Slave Morality. Follow Wendell on “X” @WendellHusebø or on Truth Social @WendellHusebo.