The following is the transcript of an interview with independent former Sen. Joe Manchin and his daughter, Americans Together CEO Heather Manchin, that aired on "Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan" on Aug. 2, 2026.
MARGARET BRENNAN: And we're joined now by former West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin and his daughter Heather Manchin. They are the heads of a new effort which aims to elect independent candidates to public office. It's good to have you both here.
FORMER SENATOR JOE MANCHIN: Good to be with you, Margaret.
HEATHER MANCHIN: Thank you.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Well, let's talk about this, Senator. We- let's start with you. There's a market for what you're selling, according to CNN's polling. 47% of American adults identified as political independents. That's the highest level in a decade. But over time, we have seen these attempts to break through the two-party system just haven't really panned out. So, what do you think is going to happen with that 47% now?
FORMER SEN. MANCHIN: Well, everyone depends on the independents to get elected now. That's all you hear. All the polls are taken--
MARGARET BRENNAN: It's a swing one way or the other.
FORMER SEN. MANCHIN: Right. This is- you know, in the last presidential election, it came down to seven battleground states. That means 43 were predetermined. 435 congressional seats, 395 were predetermined. There's no competition whatsoever in the system, because the party- the strength of the two-party system, the Democrat and Republican, prevents that from happening. They have total control of how the primaries are put up, you know, put up. And when I said this, if you look at the last election of all the primaries across the country, only about 21% of the people showed up.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Right.
FORMER SEN. MANCHIN: 21%, the lowest ever. So they're controlling it. And guess what? MAGA has taken over the Republican, and now you have the DSA seems to be having a lot of energy on the- on the Democrat side. What happened to the people that live their lives in the middle that make decisions that make things work in America? They got nobody speaking for them.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Well, do you think they stay home in 90 days?
FORMER SEN. MANCHIN: They just- I think they do give up. They just said this doesn't matter because the parties have control. They're going to do what they want to do. There's no openness at all. Try- if you're an independent, try to get on the ballot. They make you jump through every hoop in the world and go out and get thousands of signatures. Where if you're a Democrat or Republican, you want to run, you pay a fee. You pay a fee, just get on the ballot. That's it. But they make it almost impossible for anyone else to compete against them.
MARGARET BRENNAN: You know who says it's a rigged system? Bernie Sanders. He's an independent.
FORMER SEN. MANCHIN: Bernie--
MARGARET BRENNAN: You don't--
FORMER SEN. MANCHIN: Bernie's a socialist now--
MARGARET BRENNAN: Okay.
FORMER SEN. MANCHIN: --and I respect Bernie. I respect where he's coming from.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Yeah.
FORMER SEN. MANCHIN: Bernie's always been who he is, but he's had to use the Democratic Party to get on a ticket.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Yes.
FORMER SEN. MANCHIN: He took the- he took that path. We're saying, be an independent, be a pure independent, run as an independent, come to Washington, do not caucus with either side, be an independent. I'll guarantee you, maybe you're going to make a difference of how they make their decisions because they're going to need you. They need you to get elected. They're going to need you also to make law.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Heather, is there anyone in Congress right now who you think is truly an independent? Because there are only three with an I next to their name.
HEATHER MANCHIN: No, and as Dad pointed out, they're caucusing with one side or the other. So, you know, I think we have seen- and I- just in stories today, that the parties have literally sucked out any independent thinking, any political courage, and so unfortunately, we believe that perhaps all of that gives an opportunity to say, can we get someone elected outside the two-party system and go to Congress and stay independent. That really to have that independent thinking and bring some negotiation conversation to the bills, that unfortunately it's a party line vote. It's- it doesn't matter what could be negotiated to get anything done. It's a stalemate and everyone picking a side.
MARGARET BRENNAN: So for you to back a certain candidate, you are not requiring any kind of policy platform, you would support anyone?
HEATHER MANCHIN: Right. Well, we--
MARGARET BRENNAN: If they–
[CROSSTALK]
HEATHER MANCHIN: We did- we actually put a Declaration of Independence together that asked for three things: that you're for opening competition, opening primaries, things that would restore competition to the system, not the gerrymandering of districts and so forth. To be for solutions that you want to work with anyone. You want to take good ideas from both sides of the aisle and make something happen and get [expletive] done. And the last one is accountability, that you explain your vote.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Yeah.
HEATHER MANCHIN: Just simply explain your vote when you take it and why you took it. And we think that's pretty- pretty low table stakes.
FORMER SEN. MANCHIN: Well, I want to say one thing. There's only one pure independent that basically ran as an independent, governed as an independent as governor, and that's Angus King.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Yeah.
FORMER SEN. MANCHIN: But there's no support when Angus comes there. You know, he has to pick- well, he picked the Democrat side because there was more things that he believed in that would be good for Maine. So we worked together. But Angus, you know, if- if he had a little bit more support, I'm telling you, he's as independent as it becomes. You can work with him on any issue. We just found that there's no structured support for somebody just remaining independent. Can you imagine if they don't caucus with either one? What's going to happen?
MARGARET BRENNAN: They wouldn't get any committee positions.
FORMER SEN. MANCHIN: Is the committee doing anything anyway? No.
MARGARET BRENNAN: You liked your committee positions that you had as senator.
FORMER SEN. MANCHIN: I liked my committee position, but--
MARGARET BRENNAN: It let you do a lot for West Virginia.
FORMER SEN. MANCHIN: Yeah, but the bottom line is that bills didn't come to the floor. We passed things in a bipartisan way, and it was always controlled by the majority leader. But they're going to have to vote. They can't deny them the vote, and I'll guarantee you, they can go to any committee meeting they want to. And there's going to be times when they'd say, "boy, if you would just caucus with us today, we'd get this passed or that." They can moderate an awful lot. We think it's a way to start bringing the parties. I believe the- the Republican Party wants to be the grand old party again, and I believe GOP, but I believe the Democrats would like to be responsible. They've got nowhere to go, and they've been pulled to the left and the right. Something's got to change. Open- open the primaries up.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Right.
FORMER SEN. MANCHIN: Let's have competition. But now what we can do is get a couple people elected that can sit there and say, "listen, this doesn't make any sense at all. It's not the oath I took to defend and protect the Constitution. Doesn't make sense for my country, and it's not a way to get things done for my state." We give them the support once they get there, and we'll change things.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Heather, could you ever support a self-described socialist candidate?
HEATHER MANCHIN: No.
FORMER SEN. MANCHIN: No way. My God, no.
MARGARET BRENNAN: No? Even if they had some good ideas?
HEATHER MANCHIN: And it surprises- and it--
FORMER SEN. MANCHIN: I support the good ideas, but how could you support some of the crazy stuff they're for? Have you seen their platform? They're for just dismantling everything that we know, whether it be the- whether it be the structure of government, Congress itself, or the Senate, they want to get rid of. And then they start talking about all the crazy things. No police, no this, no this, no that. Are you crazy? We want- we want a crime-free area. We have to have police for that.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Yes.
FORMER SEN. MANCHIN: We want a strong defense. We want a strong border. But if Democrats can't say that and they start lining up with the Socialist demands of how- what you are to be a socialist, energy will be gone. There'll be no energy, okay? We have right now a tremendous amount of energy we're producing, and the world depends more on us than ever before.
HEATHER MANCHIN: But doesn't it--
FORMER SEN. MANCHIN: We can do more.
HEATHER MANCHIN: I'm sorry. Doesn't it surprise you that even leadership in the Democrat Party can't just say no? They can't say no. That they--
MARGARET BRENNAN: Well, they're seeing an appeal apparently.
HEATHER MANCHIN: But it shows you that
FORMER SEN. MANCHIN: And it appeals to the far left.
HEATHER MANCHIN: But control has now completely outweighed character. If you're more interested in control, and that's the- that's all that it matters, your vote count, versus the character of the person and what the platform they're running on, I think we're living with the consequences of that.
FORMER SEN. MANCHIN: Margaret, the Democrat Party has lost more registration, more people identifying as Democrats than ever before. So if that was going to be the case, what would be the- right now, you have high polls, right?
MARGARET BRENNAN: Yeah.
FORMER SEN. MANCHIN: Democrats should be 20, 30, points ahead if that's where the country is going. They're not. They're still behind. The bottom line is we're not getting anything accomplished because a two-party system has drowned out everything. They have just choked it out.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Well, when you were talking about why you did not run in 2024 for president, you said you didn't want to be a spoiler.
FORMER SEN. MANCHIN: I couldn't get on all 50 ballots. You put me on 50 ballots, then I have a platform, I can speak.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Well it--
FORMER SEN. MANCHIN: But I have no chance of winning because I'm only on 16 ballots or 20 ballots statewide, nation- national wide.
MARGARET BRENNAN: So, it was really ballot access--
FORMER SEN. MANCHIN: It's ballot access.
MARGARET BRENNAN: --versus polling support--
FORMER SEN. MANCHIN: That's exactly right.
MARGARET BRENNAN: --that would have benefitted Trump?
FORMER SEN. MANCHIN: I would have loved to been able to sit and say, "Come on, Donald, you really believe that? Is that true?" Or Joe, or Kamala, or whatever- we had so many differences. But there's a way to- basically people just want some normality. The chaos is just running people's lives today, and when you look back in West Virginia and all other rural areas, I mean, the cost of living, the cost of groceries, the cost of doing everything, the energy, how you live your life is too high.
MARGARET BRENNAN: I mean, who are you getting financial support from? You have a background in the business community. Do you want more sort of small dollar donations? Like, how do you counter some of the--
HEATHER MANCHIN: No, you're right. It's- it's David and Goliath's story for sure. But we think being strategic, we're not trying to get behind 20, 30 candidates. We're getting behind a handful, a few in Congress. If we could get two or three elected, think of what the difference that independent bloc can make--
MARGARET BRENNAN: Yeah.
HEATHER MANCHIN:--one or two in the Senate. So, and yeah, we've seen tremendous support, actually. We'd like there to be more. I think the business community needs to lean in and- and not try to put their head in the sand and say, "well, we hope this passes."
MARGARET BRENNAN: Yeah.
HEATHER MANCHIN: We need people to get engaged and participate, and--
MARGARET BRENNAN: Okay.
HEATHER MANCHIN: --think it's going to be great for the country.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Thank you for sharing the initiative with both of us. We'll track how it does.
HEATHER MANCHIN: Thank you.
MARGARET BRENNAN: We'll be right back.
