West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin, who holds the key Democratic vote in the evenly divided Senate, said Sunday he will oppose a sweeping election and campaign finance reform bill and instead encouraged his colleagues to pass voting rights legislation that can garner bipartisan backing.
In an op-ed for the Charleston Gazette-Mail published Sunday, Manchin said he plans to vote against the House-passed For the People Act, which is set to be taken up by the Senate at the end of June, because it is too partisan. Manchin’s decision not to support the bill effectively dooms its passage in the Senate, where Democrats and Republicans hold 50 seats each, and Vice President Kamala Harris casts tie-breaking votes.
