Former West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin told ABC's The View on Sept. 15, 2025, that he declined to endorse Vice President Kamala Harris during the 2024 campaign because of her public support for eliminating the Senate filibuster.
Pressed by co-host Ana Navarro on why he did not back Harris, Manchin said his opposition was rooted in what he described as her open commitment to scrap the filibuster. "I do, because she openly came out and said she would get rid of the filibuster," Manchin said, adding that preserving the tool was essential to protecting minority rights in the Senate and ensuring policy stability.
Manchin argued that eliminating the filibuster would make the Senate more majoritarian and risk frequent policy reversals. "The filibuster is basically there to protect us from being singular, basically being a simple minority," he said, and suggested that without it a 51-vote threshold could lead to abrupt shifts in law that would not endure.
Co-host Sunny Hostin pushed back during the segment, noting that Senate Republicans in recent years had invoked what critics call the "nuclear option" to lower thresholds for confirming judges and certain nominations. Manchin reiterated that his decision was based on principle and the institution's design, saying, "The Senate is the most unusual body, it was designed to be unusual." He also warned of the possibility of policy flip-flops, comparing potential instability to patterns in some European governments.
Harris, during a September 2024 interview on the "Wisconsin Today" show, said she supported eliminating the filibuster to restore federal protections for abortion rights. "I think we should eliminate the filibuster for Roe," she said then, arguing that 51 votes should be enough to "put back in law the protections for reproductive freedom."
Manchin, who retired at the end of 2024 after 14 years in the Senate, formally registered as an independent in May 2024. In announcing the change in affiliation, he said both major parties had moved toward partisan extremism and he wanted to remain "committed to put country before party" and to pursue compromise. His late-term stances, particularly on rules and procedure, drew frequent national attention, as he often broke with his party on high-profile votes.
During the television appearance, Manchin framed his refusal to endorse Harris as consistent with his long-standing view that the filibuster plays a stabilizing role in Senate deliberation. He said the institution's unique structure requires protections for minority positions to produce durable policy outcomes.
The exchange on The View echoed broader debates within the Democratic Party and among Senate moderates about whether changing Senate rules is an effective path to advance policy priorities, or whether such changes would undermine long-term governance. Manchin's comments underscore the continuing tensions inside the party over institutional reform and strategy following the 2024 election cycle.