Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia said Friday he has left the Democratic Party to become an independent with no party affiliation.

“Today, our national politics are broken and neither party is willing to compromise to find common ground,” Manchin said in a statement. “To stay true to myself and remain committed to put country before party, I have decided to register as an independent with no party affiliation and continue to fight for America’s sensible majority.”

West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin, a conservative Democrat, officially filed as an independent Friday.

“My commitment to do everything I can to bring out country together has led me to register as an independent with no party affiliation,” Manchin posted on the social platform X.

Manchin announced in November that he wouldn’t be running for reelection this year, after serving in the Senate since 2010. Before coming to Congress, he served as the governor of West Virginia from 2005-10.

Health policy and politics are inextricably linked. Policy is about what the government can do to shift the financing, delivery, and quality of health care, so who controls the government has the power to shape those policies. 

Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) officially left the Democratic Party on Friday and registered as an independent.

Why it matters: Manchin, who flirted with an independent presidential bid earlier this year, has said he's not running for Senate re-election. But leaving the party could give him the flexibility to change tack and run for Senate or West Virginia governor as an independent.

Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.) views incumbency as a significant advantage for Democrats in the battle for the Senate, an acknowledgement that the quality of the veteran incumbents running for reelection is a problem for his party.

Former President Trump is leading President Biden in several battleground states, yet Senate GOP candidates are trailing Senate incumbents in some of the same states, including Sens. Jacky Rosen (D-Nev.), Bob Casey (D-Pa.) and Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.).

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) last week proposed a new regulation that would require the use of artificial intelligence (AI) in political advertisements to be disclosed, which has one commissioner slamming the move as regulatory overreach ahead of the election.

Democratic candidates for the Senate in Arizona, Nevada, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin lead their Republican rivals and are running well ahead of President Biden in key states where he continues to struggle, according to polls by The New York Times, The Philadelphia Inquirer and Siena College.

The battleground surveys of registered voters indicate that the president’s difficulties against former President Donald J. Trump may not be enough to sink other Democrats, especially Senate incumbents who are facing less-well-known Republicans.

Democratic Senate candidates are performing better than President Biden in four key battleground states and leading their GOP rivals, showing hope for the party as Biden remains neck and neck with former President Trump in the race for the White House.

The New York Times poll found the Democratic candidate leading in Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Nevada and Arizona, four states expected to have tight presidential election margins. The Times found Trump leading Biden in three of the four states, with Biden clinging to a small lead in Wisconsin.

Senate Democratic candidates in several key swing states are beating their Republican opponents in the latest round of polling released on Monday that also presented a silver lining for the GOP.

Democrats are ahead in Arizona, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin but tied with the GOP in Nevada, according to a New York Times-Siena College survey.

Donald Trump’s name is not on the ballot Tuesday in Ohio’s Republican Senate primary. 

But his clout is very much on the line.

The former president and presumptive 2024 Republican presidential nominee endorsed Bernie Moreno, a former car dealer and blockchain entrepreneur, in a race that the campaigns treated as a toss-up in the closing days. Recent polling has shown a dead heat between Moreno and state Sen. Matt Dolan, whom Trump attacked as a “RINO” — or Republican in name only — at a rally Saturday near Dayton.