Senate Democrats were livid after Sens. Kyrsten Sinema (I-Ariz.) and Joe Manchin (I-W.Va.), two longtime members of their caucus, voted Wednesday to block President Biden’s nominee, Lauren McFerran, to serve another five-year term on the National Labor Relations Board.
Senate Democrats blasted their votes to sink Biden’s nominee and hand Republicans a major victory as “pathetic” and “disappointing.”
Some angry Democratic senators went even further by saying they’ll be happy when both Sinema and Manchin are finally out of the Senate next year.
"I think people are not sorry to see them go," said one Democratic senator, who requested anonymity to discuss the lingering resentments over Sinema’s and Manchin’s habit of bucking the party.
Had either Sinema or Manchin voted yes, the nominee would have likely passed 50 to 49 and given Democrats a majority on the agency tasked with safeguarding employees’ rights to organize until 2026.
Some Democrats thought Sinema might miss the vote as she was absent from floor votes on Monday and Tuesday, while Manchin was off campus during the vote, giving them hope that they might be able to slip McFerran through.
But both Sinema and Manchin came back to sink the nominee, leaving Democratic colleagues furious.
“Pathetic,” fumed Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee Chair Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) when asked about Sinema’s and Manchin’s opposition to the nominee.
Sen. Tina Smith (D-Minn.) called their votes “disappointing.”
“There’s a tradition of having a balance on that board and it’s important, so it’s disappointing they weren’t able to get that done,” she said of the labor relations board.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) declared their “no” votes would hurt workers across the country.
“Millions of working people across the country will pay the price for their actions," she said.
Another Democratic senator called the vote “a parting shot” from Sinema and Manchin after four long years of clashing with the Biden administration on everything ranging from prescription drug pricing reforms to tax policy, the federal minimum wage and Senate filibuster reform.
Some angry Senate Democrats saw it as a fitting “coda” to the maverick senators’ careers after they thwarted major elements of Biden’s agenda in 2021 and 2022.
"Overall, I think people are happy to see them move on," said the Democratic senator who requested anonymity to speak about the soon-to-be former colleagues.
This senator highlighted as major friction points Sinema's opposition to key Democratic priorities such as raising the 21-percent corporate tax rate, raising the 37-percent top marginal tax rate and eliminating the carried interest tax rate, which benefits Wall Street money managers.
"I think in her case it was pure unadulterated selfishness, it was always about her," the senator said.
Sinema seemed to have better friends in the Senate on the Republican side of the aisle, and was especially chummy with incoming Senate Republican Leader John Thune (S.D.).
Even so, Sinema played a major role in putting together the bipartisan $1 trillion infrastructure package in 2021 and the bipartisan gun violence package in 2022, two of Biden’s biggest achievements.
And she voted for the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan in 2021 and eventually backed the Inflation Reduction Act, after months of haggling, in 2022.
Sinema left the Democratic Party to register as an independent in December 2022.
Sinema’s office did not respond Thursday afternoon to a request for comment from The Hill.
Manchin also gave his Senate Democratic colleagues fits of frustration in 2021 and 2022 when he balked at their plans to pass Biden’s $6 trillion Build Back Better plan.
He clashed bitterly with Democratic colleagues over the extension of the expanded child tax credit that was originally part of the American Rescue Plan.
Manchin infuriated Democrats at the time by insisting on a 10-year extension of the child tax credit but then also expressed concerns about how much that provision would add to the total cost of the social spending bill he was negotiating with the White House in the fall of 2021.
Things between Manchin and progressives in the Democratic caucus became especially heated in October of 2021, when he and Sanders blew up at each other at a Senate Democratic leadership meeting.
In December of that year, Manchin shocked the Biden White House by announcing in a “Fox News Sunday” interview that he would not vote for the $1.75 billion scaled-down version for Build Back Better plan.
Former White House press secretary Jen Psaki called it a “sudden and inexplicable reversal in his position.”
Manchin at the time was angry that White House negotiators appeared to have leaked an offer he made for a $1.8 trillion spending bill that excluded the child tax credit.
The West Virginia senator eventually came back to the negotiating table months later by working out a deal with Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) to invest $370 billion in energy and climate projects — a deal that later became the Inflation Reduction Act.
But he soured on how the Biden administration implemented the plan, castigating the administration for making every effort to “botch” the agreement to get fossil fuel projects off the ground.
An op-ed Manchin penned for The Wall Street Journal in March of 2023 accused the Biden administration of “betrayal” because of its implementation of the Inflation Reduction Act, writing “the administration seems more determined than ever to pervert that law and abuse existing authorities to increase spending.”
Manchin eventually left the Democratic Party to become an independent in May.
His relationships with some Democratic senators remain scarred from those battles.
The Democratic senator who said colleagues are happy to see Sinema and Manchin go acknowledged that Manchin had different policy views because he represented a much more conservative state than those represented by the rest of his Democratic colleagues.
“I think people felt like he had a lot of deeply held beliefs. I think he believes his position on the tax credit. … I don’t think he’s doing it for corrupt purposes,” the senator said.
But the source said Democratic colleagues were exasperated many times by what they saw as Manchin’s evasiveness and habit of giving them the impression he would support something only to later say something that would dash their expectations.
“Utterly idiosyncratic,” the senator said of Manchin’s negotiating style.
A second Democratic senator who requested anonymity called Sinema’s and Manchin’s vote against McFerran “a parting shot” at the Biden administration.
“For me it’s really hard to understand except for kind of a parting shot,” the lawmaker said.
“I sort of feel like our caucus has been good to them, especially to Manchin,” the senator added.
The senator said while Democrats would love to still count the West Virginia Senate seat in their column, they are happy that Sen.-elect Ruben Gallego (D-Ariz.), a reliable progressive vote, is replacing Sinema.
The senator said both Sinema and Manchin produced “moments of aggravation in the caucus,” especially during Biden’s first two years in office.
One of the most glaring moments of defiance came in January of 2022, when both maverick senators voted against a Democratic proposal to carve out the Senate’s filibuster rule to pass voting rights legislation. The effort failed.
Manchin on Thursday told The Hill that he let Democratic colleagues know how he would vote on the National Labor Relations Board nominee who failed to advance this week.
He said he told labor unions that he was concerned about McFerran’s support for the joint employer rule the agency finalized in 2023. The rule, which was later struck down in court, broadened the criteria for a joint employer relationship in a way that would have made companies potentially liable for the hiring practices of subcontractors.
“Nothing personal, she’s a good person. I voted for her before that joint employer ruling came out,” he said.
Manchin said Schumer knew from “day one” how he would vote on the nominee.
Asked about his relationship with Democratic senators, his longtime caucus mates, Manchin said he often gets “caught in the middle” of what they want and what his West Virginia constituents want.
But he said he’s tried to look past party labels when weighing how to vote on controversial bills and nominees.
“It’s not Democrat or Republican with me. It never has been. If it makes sense, I do it. If it doesn’t make sense, I don’t do it,” he said.
