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Joe Manchin Won’t Endorse Harris Over Her Support for Ending Abortion Filibuster

After Vice President Kamala Harris expressed support for ending the filibuster in order to pass abortion rights, the prominent centrist senator said he would not endorse her presidential campaign.

Joe Manchin
“Shame on her,” Sen. Joe Manchin told reporters on Tuesday after Vice President Kamala Harris expressed support for ending the filibuster to pass Roe-level abortion protections through the Senate. J. Scott Applewhite/AP

Outgoing Sen. Joe Manchin said he is not planning to endorse Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign for president after she called on the Senate to end the filibuster to pass legislation that would protect abortion rights.

“I’m not endorsing. I think that’s basically something that can destroy our country, and my country is more important to me than any one person or any one person’s ideology,” Manchin said. He added that ending the filibuster is “the most horrible thing.”

The West Virginia senator, who overlapped with Harris in the Senate, previously said he was considering endorsing Harris. He was formerly a Democrat and left the party earlier this year. But after she said in an interview with Wisconsin Public Radio that the Senate “should eliminate the filibuster for Roe,” he made the decision not to back her.