Moderate Democratic Senator Joe Manchin not to run for US President

Washington, Feb 17 (IANS) Senator Joe Manchin of West Virginia, a moderate Democrat, has announced that he is not running for US President, putting an end to prolonged speculation regarding his potential candidacy outside the two major parties.

Since the 76-year-old Senator declared in November that he would not pursue re-election, speculation kept surging about whether he would pursue a presidential bid, Xinhua news agency reported.

Specifically, he had considered the possibility of being the candidate for No Labels, a centrist organization seeking to establish a third alternative against both President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump.

The possibility of Manchin's candidacy had caused concern among Democrats, who worried that he could have detracted votes from Biden and disrupted the 2024 presidential election outcome.

"I will not be seeking a third-party run. I will not be involved in a presidential run," Manchin said during a speech after debating for months whether to run for the White House as a third-party candidate.

"I will not be a deal breaker or a spoiler," Manchin said.

"I will be involved in making sure that we secure a president that has the knowledge and has the passion and has the ability to bring this country together," he noted.

Manchin, who has served as West Virginia's Senator since 2010, has called himself a "centrist, moderate, conservative Democrat" and is generally cited as the most conservative Democrat in the Senate.