Senators Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema delivered Democrats blocked Lauren McFerran’s renomination to the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) on Wednesday, delivering one last blow to Democrats before leaving office at the end of the year.
Sinema and Manchin, independents representing Arizona and West Virginia, respectively, blocked efforts from Senate Democrats to extend control of the NLRB by voting against giving McFerran another five-year term on the board. This likely means that President-elect Donald Trump will get to appoint McFerran’s replacement and fill a GOP vacancy when he takes office in January.
Had the two senators voted for cloture on her renomination, Democrats could have held a majority on the board through 2026. The board enforces the National Labor Relations Act, protecting employees’ rights to organize and mediating disputes between labor and employers.
Newsweek reached out to Manchin and Sinema for comment via email.
Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images; BONNIE CASH/POOL/AFP via Getty Images
Their vote quickly sparked anger from Democrats.
Democratic activist Chris D. Jackson wrote to X (formerly Twitter), “Their votes effectively hand Donald Trump the keys to the board the moment he takes office again. This is a betrayal of working families—and a gift to corporate interests, which is par for the course for these two.”
Manchin and Sinema sparking Democratic ire is a common refrain from the past few years when they frequently created headaches for President Joe Biden and other Democrats as they held razor-thin majorities in Congress’s upper chamber. But come January, neither will be returning to Congress. Both retired this year rather than face tough races as independents.
Many Democrats took issue with their staunch opposition to lifting the filibuster to push through some legislative priorities, such as the John Lewis Voting Rights Act, which would have restored and strengthened the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
After it failed to pass the Senate, some Democrats blamed Manchin and Sinema for not supporting efforts to lift the filibuster on the bill, which requires 60 votes to pass without Republican support.
Sinema, however, has defended the filibuster as “an important guardrail and an institution in our country” and that ending it for short-term legislative victories would be “overreaching.”
They also caught heat from Democrats during negotiations for Biden’s infrastructure bill, which ultimately became the Inflation Reduction Act.
The original, more sweeping version of the bill known as Build Back Better died after Manchin said he would not vote for it amid concerns about inflation and the national debt.
Sinema, meanwhile, faced criticism during IRA negotiations for requiring that the carried interest tax loophole, which allows hedge fund managers and private equity firm executives to be taxed at a 15 percent capital gains tax rate instead of the significantly higher income tax rates paid by most Americans, remain open for her to support the bill.
They generally voted in favor of most of Biden’s nominees, delivering key victories for Democrats despite divisions. However, they sometimes voted against his picks, including David Weil, who Biden nominated to lead the Labor Department’s Wage and Hour Division.
CNN reported that Sinema’s spokesperson cited her “concerns with his ability to faithfully execute and uphold the law,” while Manchin said his “previous statements are problematic for many West Virginia employees and business owners.”
Defenders of Sinema and Manchin note that they do not represent solidly Democratic seats, and adapting a more liberal voting record may anger some more moderate and conservative constituents back home.
Trump received 70 percent of the vote in West Virginia, winning it by more than 40 points. Arizona was much closer, but Trump still carried it by over 5 percentage points.
Sinema will be replaced by Ruben Gallego, a Democratic congressman poised to run against her before she announced she wouldn’t run for a second term. West Virginia Governor Jim Justice, a Republican, will replace Manchin.
Both Sinema and Manchin won their 2018 elections as Democrats but became independents in recent years amid intraparty squabbles.
