Suspect fleeing police crashed into vehicle carrying Joe Manchin’s wife

West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin’s wife was hospitalized Tuesday after her car was hit by a suspect fleeing police, authorities said. 

Police say the accident happened while Gayle Manchin was traveling from the Birmingham-Shuttlesworth International Airport to an area hotel with her colleague, Guy Land. Manchin was injured in the wreck but is in “stable condition,” according to a statement released by her husband on Tuesday. 

That afternoon, officers initiated a pursuit involving a suspect wanted on felony charges, according to the Homewood Police Department. 

Police units pursued the vehicle through North Birmingham onto 18th Street North but lost contact with the suspected vehicle in the 1300 block of the street, authorities said. 

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Homeland Police continued on 18th Street North and found that the suspect vehicle had collided with another vehicle at the intersection of 18th Street North and 15th Avenue North. 

Land was the driver in the other vehicle, and Gayle Manchin was the passenger. Birmingham Fire and Rescue Services were called to the scene to attend to their injuries. Both were transported to the UAB Gardendale Hospital.  

The suspect was apprehended without incident. 

“The Homewood Police Department’s Criminal Investigations Division is currently investigating this case and is in the process of obtaining multiple felony warrants against the suspect,” Homeland Police said. 

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The suspect is currently being held at Homewood City Jail pending arrest warrants. 

Gayle Manchin had traveled to Alabama for an Appalachian Regional Commission (ARC) event. She is the federal co-chair of ARC, which describes itself as an “economic development partnership entity of the federal government and 13 state governments focusing on 423 counties across the Appalachian Region.”

Land, the organization says, is an ARC congressional liaison.

“While they were driving from the airport to their hotel, another vehicle struck their car,” ARC said in a statement. 

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Sen. Manchin, meanwhile, has been teasing a potential third-party presidential bid after Super Tuesday on March 5.

“Super Tuesday pretty much confirms whatever is going to happen, what we believe will happen, and we’ll see where we go from there,” Manchin told reporters last week.

 

“But people are looking for options, and we’re going to be looking at that, too,” he added. Whether it’s me or whoever it may be, I think there’s going to be options available if it goes down the way it’s going down.”

Manchin announced he would not seek re-election for his Senate seat last year, creating speculation about whether he’d make a bid in the 2024 presidential race. Manchin started a nationwide campaign called “Americans Together,” aiming to unite the country’s moderate voters away from the “extremes” of the left and right. 

Fox News Digital’s Greg Norman, Jamie Joseph and Tyler Olson contributed to this report.