Senator Joe Manchin has a message for President Joe Biden.

You're going to have a hard time winning if you're way over here,

because that's not where most of us are.

With fewer voices speaking for voters in the middle, what happens next?

I really think the needs to be a third party movement to bring people back.

What's at stake if we lose the center according to one powerful senator?

I'm Nailaboodoo from Axios.

This is one big thing.

West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin may have a D next to his name, but he's been known to Zigg when the Democrats Zag on some major issues, including climate.

Manchin, who chairs the Energy and Natural Resources Committee, has been a long time defender of fossil fuels, putting him at odds with much of his party.

And with razor-thin margins in the Senate in recent years, he's often been the key vote.

Like at the end of 2021, when he effectively killed President Biden's signature Build Back Better

Act, enraging Democrats.

And in 2022, when he and Arizona Senator Kirsten-Sinnima were the only two Democrats who together voted down

filibuster reform.

Back in 2018, he was also the only Democrat to vote to confirm Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court.

Now, Manchin says he's retiring from the Senate, an announcement he made in November,

and he's not alone.

You're seeing a lot of the people in the center, or at least the more pragmatic, less

ideological members of both parties bow out. Alex Thompson is a national political correspondent for Axios.

Whether or not it's Christmas cinema you're seeing Romney, even people like Rob Portman of Ohio,

especially in the Senate, and there's been a lot of retirements in the House too, and

...