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Hey, good morning. I'm Playbook Deputy Editor Zach Stanton. It is Tuesday, July 18th, and here's

what's driving the day. Last night at a No Labels Town Hall in New Hampshire, West Virginia

Senator Joe Manchin refused to rule out a presidential bid on a third party ticket, namely the no-labels ticket.

That is a prospect that Democrats we've been hearing from seem to be increasingly frustrated or

annoyed or worried or some mix of all of those about. Their fears that Mansion, if he runs,

will play a spoiler role, that he'll throw the

2024 election to Donald Trump. Asked directly about that, Joe Manchin sort of demurred. He said

that I've been in races to win, and if I get in a race, I'm going to win. That did very little

to calm Democrats' heart palpitations here. The other concern for Democrats is that

Manchin doesn't run for re-election in West Virginia, which is an overwhelmingly pro-Trump state

that is all but certain to elect a Republican senator if Manchin opts not to seek re-election.

Now, the strategy that Democrats are banking on to

retain their Senate majority is to hold the incumbents. Gary Peters, who is a Democratic Senator

from Michigan and runs the Democratic Senator Senator Stewart about this, and a piece

that published this morning. Senator Peters said that obviously Democrats

want to win as many seats as they can, but if you are to candidly look at the Senate map in

2024, there are a precious few Republican seats that Democrats stand much of any chance of

flipping. The three most enticing, perhaps, are Texas, where Senator Ted Cruz is up

for re-election, Florida, where Senator Rick Scott is seeking re-election, and Missouri, where Senator

Josh Hawley is up for re-election. All three are men who've flirted with 2020 election denialism to various degrees.

All three are sort of persona non-grata among Democrats.

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