Joe Manchin Bio
Joseph Anthony Manchin III (born August 24, 1947) is an American politician and businessman from West Virginia whose career has spanned more than four decades in public service. He served as the 27th secretary of state of West Virginia from 2001 to 2005, the 34th governor of West Virginia from 2005 to 2010, and a United States senator from West Virginia from 2010 to 2025. Long regarded as one of the Senate’s most conservative Democrats and a key swing vote, Manchin often broke with his party on energy and fiscal matters while occasionally supporting bipartisan initiatives. In 2024, he left the Democratic Party to register as an independent, and he has since remained a prominent voice in American political life.
Early Life and Background
Joseph Anthony Manchin III was born on August 24, 1947, in Farmington, West Virginia, a small coal mining town. He is the second of five children of Mary Olga (née Gouzd) and John Manchin. The Manchin surname is derived from the Italian name “Mancina.” His father was of Italian descent, and his paternal grandparents emigrated to the United States from San Giovanni in Fiore, in Calabria. Manchin’s maternal grandparents were immigrants from the Moravian-Silesian Region of the Czech Republic.
Manchin’s father owned a carpet and furniture store, and his grandfather, Joseph Manchin (Giuseppe Mancina), owned a grocery store. Both his father and his grandfather served as mayor of Farmington. His uncle, A. James Manchin, served in the West Virginia House of Delegates and later as West Virginia Secretary of State and Treasurer. Growing up in a tightly knit coal country community shaped Manchin’s lifelong association with the Appalachian coal industry.
Manchin graduated from Farmington High School in 1965 and entered West Virginia University that year on a football scholarship, though an injury during practice ended his playing career. He graduated in 1970 with a Bachelor of Business Administration degree and went to work for his family’s business. He has been a close friend of former Alabama Crimson Tide football coach Nick Saban since childhood.
Path to US Politics
Before entering elected office, Manchin co-founded and served as president of Enersystems, a family-owned and operated waste coal brokerage company based in Fairmont, West Virginia. He founded the firm in 1988 and ran it until 2000, when he transitioned to full-time politics and turned day-to-day operations over to his son, Joe Manchin IV. In a 2020 financial disclosure, he reported Enersystem shares worth between $1 million and $5 million and dividend income of more than $5.2 million from 2011 to 2020. The company later accounted for roughly 71 percent of his investment income and 30 percent of his net worth.
Manchin was elected to the West Virginia House of Delegates in 1982 at age 35 and to the West Virginia Senate in 1986, where he served until 1996. He ran for governor in 1996 but lost the Democratic primary to Charlotte Pritt; he then supported the Republican nominee, Cecil Underwood, who won. In 2000, Manchin won election as Secretary of State of West Virginia, defeating Libertarian candidate Poochie Myers with 89.4 percent of the vote, launching the statewide phase of his political career.
Joe Manchin Career
Early Career (2001–2010)
Manchin served as West Virginia’s Secretary of State from 2001 to 2005. In 2003, he announced a challenge to incumbent Democratic Governor Bob Wise, and after Wise chose not to seek reelection, Manchin won both the Democratic primary and the 2004 general election by large margins. His victory marked the first time since 1964 that a West Virginia governor was succeeded by another governor of the same party.
His first term was marked by several high-profile moments, including the 2006 Sago Mine disaster, during which Manchin confirmed early, incorrect reports that 12 trapped miners had survived. Only one miner ultimately survived. He later ordered a temporary halt to all coal production in the state pending safety checks after additional mining deaths. Manchin easily won reelection in 2008, capturing 69.81 percent of the vote and carrying every county against Republican Russ Weeks.
2010 Senate Election
Following the death of long-serving Democratic Senator Robert Byrd in June 2010, Manchin initially appointed his legal adviser Carte Goodwin to fill the vacancy. He then entered the special election for the remaining two years of Byrd’s term, defeating former congressman Ken Hechler in the Democratic primary and Republican businessman John Raese in the general election, 53.5 percent to 43.4 percent. Manchin was sworn in to the U.S. Senate by Vice President Joe Biden on November 15, 2010.
Senate Tenure (2012–2024)
Manchin won a full Senate term in 2012, defeating John Raese again with 61 percent of the vote. He was generally regarded as the most conservative member of the Senate Democratic Caucus and as a centrist, bipartisan figure. He opposed President Barack Obama’s coal and energy policies, supported much of President Donald Trump’s border and trade agenda, and voted to confirm most of Trump’s cabinet and judicial nominees, including Supreme Court Justices Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh. He was the only Democrat to vote to confirm Kavanaugh and later opposed Amy Coney Barrett’s nomination, citing its proximity to the 2020 election.
Manchin voted to convict Trump in both impeachment trials and opposed repeated efforts to repeal the Affordable Care Act. He also voted against the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. In early 2021, with the Senate split 50–50 and Vice President Kamala Harris serving as tiebreaker, Manchin became a pivotal swing vote and used his leverage to negotiate changes to major Democratic priorities, including the Build Back Better Act, which he ultimately declined to support.
In 2022, Manchin voted to confirm Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson. He also partnered with Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer on the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022, a sweeping climate, health, and tax package that represented one of the signature legislative achievements of the Biden era. In November 2023, Manchin announced that he would not seek reelection in 2024. In May 2024, he left the Democratic Party to register as an independent, though he remained aligned with the Senate Democratic Caucus for the remainder of his term. He was succeeded in the Senate by Republican West Virginia Governor Jim Justice.
Notable Events and Milestones
From 2021 until he became an independent in 2024, Manchin was the only Democrat holding statewide partisan office in West Virginia. A September 2018 GQ profile described him as “the last Democrat in Trump country,” and in November 2023 the Associated Press called him “the last in a line of formidable West Virginia Democrats who promoted coal interests,” alongside predecessors such as Robert Byrd, Jay Rockefeller, and Jennings Randolph. According to FiveThirtyEight, Manchin voted with President Biden’s position 87.9 percent of the time as of January 2023. He also served as chair of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee.
Joe Manchin Career Wins
Across more than four decades in public life, Manchin compiled a long record of election victories in West Virginia, a state that grew increasingly Republican over the same period. He won multiple terms in the West Virginia House of Delegates and West Virginia Senate, two terms as governor, and three U.S. Senate elections, often performing strongly in races that his national party lost by wide margins.
US Politics Highlights
Manchin won election to the West Virginia House of Delegates in 1982 and the West Virginia Senate in 1986. He was elected Secretary of State in 2000, governor in 2004 and 2008, and U.S. senator in a 2010 special election, a 2012 full term, and a 2018 reelection in which he defeated Republican Attorney General Patrick Morrisey 49.57 percent to 46.26 percent. His 2018 victory made him the only Democrat to win a statewide partisan office in West Virginia in that cycle.
Other Wins and Achievements
Manchin co-founded Enersystems, a family-owned coal brokerage that became a major part of his personal wealth. He is a licensed pilot, a member of the National Rifle Association, and a Catholic. He received honorary degrees from Wheeling Jesuit University and Davis & Elkins College after delivering commencement addresses there in 2006 and 2010. A memoir, Dead Center: In Defense of Common Sense, was released on September 16, 2025.
Joe Manchin Family
Family Background and Political Lineage
Manchin comes from a deeply rooted West Virginia political family. Both his father and his grandfather served as mayor of Farmington, and his uncle, A. James Manchin, served in the West Virginia House of Delegates before becoming West Virginia Secretary of State and Treasurer. The Manchin family’s identity has long been tied to the small coal mining communities of north-central West Virginia, and their business and political networks have shaped the region for generations.
Personal Life
Manchin married Gayle Heather Conelly on August 5, 1967. The couple has three children: Heather Manchin Bresch, Joseph IV, and Brooke. He is a practicing Catholic and a licensed pilot. During his years in Washington, he lived on a yacht on the Potomac River. As of 2022, his net worth was estimated at roughly $12 million.