Sen. Joe Manchin (W.Va.) said Thursday he’s thinking about leaving the Democratic Party and becoming an independent.

“I’ve been thinking about that for quite some time,” Manchin told a West Virginia radio program. “I haven’t made any decisions whatsoever on any of my political direction.”

The West Virginia Democrat is up for reelection next year and would face a Republican opponent if he decides to run, but he hasn’t yet announced his intentions. He told MetroNews’ Hoppy Kercheval that Democrats and Republicans alike have a terrible brand and that neither party is acceptable to him.

“The brand has become so bad. The ‘D’ brand and ‘R’ brand,” he said. “In West Virginia, the ‘D’ brand because it’s nationally bad. It’s not the Democrats in West Virginia. It’s the Democrats in Washington or the Washington policies of the Democrats. You’ve heard me say a million times that I’m not a Washington Democrat.”

On several occasions over the past few years, Manchin has refused to support party priorities, such as the expanded child tax credit and filibuster reform. He wouldn’t go along with President Joe Biden’s Build Back Better bill, instead supporting a paired-down energy and climate measure called the Inflation Reduction Act.

Manchin could technically leave the Democratic Party but still caucus with Democrats in the Senate, allowing them to keep their 51-seat majority and allowing himself to keep his chairmanship of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee.

Another moderate senator who liked to defy Democratic leadership, Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona, left the party last year, thereby avoiding a difficult Democratic primary challenge.

After Sinema switched to be an independent, Manchin suggested he might do the same. Doing so could help him win in a general election in West Virginia, where voters favored Donald Trump over Joe Biden by 40 percentage points in 2020.

“I’m not a Washington Democrat, I don’t know what to tell you,” Manchin said in December 2022.