How Manchin Capitalized on Being at the Center of the IRA Debate
The senator formed a new fundraising vehicle that lets him solicit larger contribution checks.
This summer, while he was negotiating with Democratic leaders over the Inflation Reduction Act and pushing his energy permitting bill, Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.V.) set up a new committee allowing him to receive larger contribution checks. From July through the end of September, Manchin used this new fundraising vehicle to raise more than $300,000, much of it from individuals in the fossil fuel industry who stood to benefit from the bills.
Manchin formed the Manchin Leadership Fund on June 8 as a joint fundraising committee that would disburse funds to his campaign committee and leadership PAC. Joint fundraising committees don’t allow donors to give more money than they could otherwise by maxing out to the individual committees they are affiliated with, but they make it easier for a politician to solicit a single large check from donors.
The checks began coming into the fund in early July, according to a recent FEC filing, just weeks before Sen. Manchin made his surprise announcement that he had struck a deal with Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and would support a pared-back version of the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA).
