Former West Virginia senator and his daughter on efforts to elect Independent candidates to office

WASHINGTON (CBS, KYMA) - Former Sen. Joe Manchin (I-W.V.) and his daughter, Heather, who is the founder and CEO of Americans Together, spoke with Margaret Brennan on Face the Nation Sunday about their efforts to elect Independent candidates to public office.

Brennan brought up a CNN poll, with 47% of Americans identifying themselves as Independents, which the highest level in a decade.

However, there were attempts to break through the two-party system, but they haven't really panned out, prompting Brennan to ask former Sen. Manchin what he thinks will happen to the 47% now, to which he said:

"Everyone depends on the independents to get elected now. That's all you hear...in the last presidential election, it came down to seven battleground states. That means 43 were predetermined. 435 congressional seats, 395 were predetermined. There's no competition whatsoever in the system, because the party- the strength of the two-party system, the Democrat and Republican, prevents that from happening. They have total control of how the primaries are put up, you know, put up. And when I said this, if you look at the last election of all the primaries across the country, only about 21% of the people showed up. 21%, the lowest ever. So they're controlling it. And guess what? MAGA has taken over the Republican, and now you have the DSA seems to be having a lot of energy on the Democrat side. What happened to the people that live their lives in the middle that make decisions that make things work in America? They got nobody speaking for them."

Brennan followed up by asking if Manchin thinks they'll stay home during the midterm elections, happening in November, and he said:

"I think they do give up. They just said this doesn't matter because the parties have control. They're going to do what they want to do. There's no openness at all...If you're an independent, try to get on the ballot. They make you jump through every hoop in the world and go out and get thousands of signatures. Where if you're a Democrat or Republican, you want to run, you pay a fee. You pay a fee, just get on the ballot. That's it. But they make it almost impossible for anyone else to compete against them."

During the interview, Brennan then asked Heather if there is anyone in Congress at the moment who she thinks is truly an independent, and Heather said:

"No, and as Dad pointed out, they're caucusing with one side or the other. So, you know, I think we have seen...just in stories today, that the parties have literally sucked out any independent thinking, any political courage, and so unfortunately, we believe that perhaps all of that gives an opportunity to say, can we get someone elected outside the two-party system and go to Congress and stay independent. That really to have that independent thinking and bring some negotiation conversation to the bills, that unfortunately it's a party line vote. It doesn't matter what could be negotiated to get anything done. It's a stalemate and everyone picking a side."

To watch more of Brennan's interview with the Manchins, click here.