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Sen. Joe Manchin has often frustrated Senate Democrats on key issues this Congress and has a long-standing reputation as a moderate, but his overall voting record is closer to the party line than many other centrists in the Senate.
Manchin, DW.Va., has voted with Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., 88 percent of the time this Congress, and Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., 91 percent of the time, according to a ProPublica database. Significantly, he also agreed with Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-NY, on 91 percent of the vote, according to ProPublica.
That number is lower than most other Democrats, including fellow moderate Sen. Kirsten Sinema, D-Ariz., who has voted with Schumer on 96 percent of roll-call votes since 2021. A majority of other Senate Democrats vote with Schumer 98 percent of the time, according to ProPublica.
Manchin, however, toes the party line on votes much more often than some moderate Republicans.
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Sen. Joe Manchin, DW.Va., speaks to a reporter during a press conference on the Democratic reconciliation bill. (Tyler Olson/Fox News)
Senator Susan Collins. R-Maine, cast only 62 percent of his votes with Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., this Congress, according to ProPublica. Collins actually voted more with Schumer 73 percent of the time, according to the database.
Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, voted with McConnell 68 percent of the time. Even Sen. Lindsey Graham, RSC, who in recent years has embraced former President Donald Trump and somewhat distanced himself from his moderate past, cast the same vote as McConnell only 73 percent of the time.
“The bottom line is that he presents himself as a moderate, but at the end of the day he always ends up where Chuck Schumer needs him,” a Senate GOP leadership aide said of Manchin.
Manchin also supported and voted for Hillary Clinton in the 2016 presidential election.
Another Senate GOP aide noted one particular Manchin vote from this Congress that particularly irked them: The US bailout, which the aide said was “the $1.9 trillion bill that got us into this in the first place “. This bill was passed along party lines and would not become law if Manchin voted against it. The GOP aide also noted that Manchin voted against Republican tax cuts in 2017.
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The renewed and strong attacks on Manchin by Republicans come as he leads the push for a new social spending and tax bill that Democrats hope to push along party lines using a process called budget reconciliation. Schumer and Manchin announced the deal, titled the “Lower Inflation Act,” last week after more than a year of intra-party negotiations.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, DN.Y., and Sen. Joe Manchin, DW.Va., agree on Senate votes 91 percent of the time — far more often than some moderate Republicans agree with Minority Leader Mitch. McConnell. ((Photo by Lev Radin/Pacific Press/LightRocket via Getty Images))
The bill includes climate, prescription drugs, the Affordable Care Act, energy and tax provisions. It will spend $433 billion and increase $739 billion in tax revenue, according to the Democrats. Meanwhile, Republicans are attacking the bill for allegedly shifting the tax burden to the middle class, according to the Joint Committee on Taxation, and what they say are frivolous climate provisions.
Manchin’s office did not respond to a request for comment for this story. But the senator himself has argued that Republicans are off base and that in less polarized times they would actually support his bill.
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“My fellow Republicans are friends of mine and I’ve worked incredibly hard with them. And I will continue to work with them in any way, shape or form, Manchin said earlier this week in response to a question from Fox News Digital. “But these are things we’ve all talked about in bipartisan caucuses. How can we begin to pay off our debt and… take our finances seriously, our financial house in order? Those are things every time we get together as a group, bipartisan support, that’s what we talk about. How can we get more output?”
Republicans also say Manchin effectively failed after saying last month that he didn’t think it would be wise to pass a bill with heavy tax-and-spend provisions in the current economy.
“Joe Manchin went back on everything he had said publicly about what he wouldn’t do,” McConnell said Wednesday on Fox News Radio’s “The Guy Benson Show.”
Sen. Joe Manchin, DW.Va., is a big part of the reason Democrats haven’t been able to get rid of this Senate convention. (US Senate/Screenshot)
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“It was a complete failure. Everything he said he was against, he’s now for,” Sen. John Cornyn of Texas said last week. “I’m sorry when people want to look you in the eye and lie to you. But it’s a lesson learned and it won’t happen again.”
The senior senator from West Virginia, of course, is not always in step with his party. When Democrats pushed for an earlier version of their reconciliation bill, called “Building Better,” Manchin shut down negotiations because of his concerns about the proposed spending, which at some points reached $3 trillion.
He also has a history of excoriating Biden officials at hearings, particularly Federal Energy Regulatory Commission Chairman Richard Glick, whom he grilled over allegedly slow pipeline permits earlier this year. Manchin also voted to confirm Supreme Court Justices Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh under former President Donald Trump.
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Perhaps most importantly, Manchin and Sinema have stood up to Democratic efforts to completely eliminate the Senate filibuster this Congress. Democrats tried to use the “nuclear option” to make this an election bill and said they wanted to get rid of the filibuster to pack the Supreme Court, make Puerto Rico a state, codify abortion rights and more . All of those efforts stalled, largely because of Manchin.
But after pushing for that social spending bill, Republicans said they no longer consider Manchin a moderate and are done mocking him.
“We will focus on this seat in 2024,” Senate GOP Conference Chairman John Barrasso, R-Wyo., said in a statement, referring to Manchin’s 2024 re-election bid.
Tyler Olson covers politics for Fox News Digital. You can reach him at tyler.olson@fox.com and follow him on Twitter at @TylerOlson1791.
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