2 approaches Democrats may take to sway Joe Manchin on key legislation


A Democratic strategist argues the party's playbook to sway Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.V.) on major legislation, like infrastructure or a minimum wage increase, should be "to propose something that's two or three ticks to the left" of "whatever you want the ultimate resolution to be." That way, the anonymous strategist told The New Yorker, "Manchin can look like he dragged you toward the middle," referring to the centrist senator's determination to restore bipartisanship to the Senate.
Sean McElwee, a progressive activist and head of the polling firm Data Progress, doesn't think that's the way to go, however. "If you're talking about this stuff in the way you would talk about it with your liberal friends, you're almost certainly f---ing up," he told The New Yorker.
McElwee thinks the party needs to alter its messaging and try to speak Manchin's language. Regarding infrastructure, for example, McElwee believes Democrats would be better served by not focusing so heavily on how their plan would combat climate change and should discuss job creation more often instead. Manchin is wary about clean-energy standard proposals because "too often, when we have something in mind like tax credits for electric vehicles, the batteries are not even American-made," McElwee said. But the senator is likely "gettable on a clean-energy standard if it can create jobs, because he understands that West Virginia needs a part of that," McElwee argued. Read more about Manchin in The New Yorker.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Sign up for Today's Best Articles in your inbox
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
Tim is a staff writer at The Week and has contributed to Bedford and Bowery and The New York Transatlantic. He is a graduate of Occidental College and NYU's journalism school. Tim enjoys writing about baseball, Europe, and extinct megafauna. He lives in New York City.
-
Democrats: Solving the 'man problem'
Feature Democrats are spending millions to win back young men
-
Deportations: A crackdown on legal migrants
Feature The Supreme Court will allow Trump to revoke protections for over 500,000 immigrants
-
Trump's extremist 'brain'
Feature Stephen Miller has emerged as an unrivaled power within the White House. What does he want?
-
Trump foists National Guard on unwilling California
speed read Protests erupted over ICE immigration raids in LA county
-
Supreme Court lowers bar in discrimination cases
speed read The court ruled in favor of a white woman who claimed she lost two deserved promotions to gay employees
-
Trump-Musk relationship implodes in taunts, threats
speed read Musk said Trump's multitrillion bill would cause a recession and accused the president of involvement with Jeffrey Epstein
-
Trump hits Africa, Middle East with new travel ban
Speed Read The travel ban bars visitors from 12 countries and restricts entry from seven
-
Elon Musk slams Trump's 'pork-filled' signature bill
speed read 'Shame on those who voted for it: you know you did wrong,' Musk posted on X
-
Depleted FEMA struggling as hurricane season begins
speed read FEMA has lost a third of its workforce amid DOGE cuts enforced by President Donald Trump
-
White House tackles fake citations in MAHA report
speed read A federal government public health report spearheaded by Robert F. Kennedy Jr. was rife with false citations
-
Judge blocks push to bar Harvard foreign students
speed read Judge Allison Burroughs sided with Harvard against the Trump administration's attempt to block the admittance of international students