GOFFSTOWN, N.H. — West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin continued his flirtations with a White House run this week, when he appeared in the Granite State for a must-make pre-presidential pit stop.

Manchin was just outside of Manchester at Saint Anselm College on Friday, headlining the New Hampshire Institute of Politics’ occasional speaker series Politics and Eggs, an event that has already hosted the majority of 2024 contenders.

The Mountain State’s former governor did not announce the start of a presidential campaign, but did speak for about an hour on a wide enough range of topics it’s fair to call his address a stump speech.

It must have seemed entirely novel to those students and faculty who have attended previous Politics and Eggs, with Manchin declaring his affinity for the state’s Democratic U.S. Sens. Maggie Hassan and Jeanne Shaheen with one breath and Republicans Gov. Chris Sununu and former Massachusetts Gov. Bill Weld with the next.

First-in-the-nation primary voters in New Hampshire are used to being seen as the country’s political bellwether, Manchin said, because Granite Staters prefer to pick a reasonable candidate instead of someone found on the political extremes. Voters aren’t being given that option this cycle, he said.

“Washington should not make you pick a side. There is only one side: the American side,” he said. “If you believe Washington is working, I can tell you it is not. If you believe that all of our problems will be solved in Washington, they won’t. They will be solved right here.”

The Mountain State’s senior senator used the occasion to kick off a listening tour for his new political organization dubbed “Americans Together,” which he said aims to help support candidates from either party or none who feel left behind by partisan politics.

“I come from the vintage of, as a little boy, watching John Kennedy say, ‘Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country,’” he said. “We’re turning into a society where people are saying, ‘How much more can my country do for me?’ That’s not who we are. That’s not how we became the superpower of the world, the hope of the world.”

Manchin’s name has come up often of late alongside conversations about the No Labels party, which isn’t actually a political party despite its long-rumored aspirations to field a presidential candidate this cycle, the group told the Herald in July.

Critics on the left have claimed the group’s efforts amount to nothing more than a surreptitious attempt to secure a second term for former President Donald Trump by drawing independent support away from President Joe Biden’s bid for re-election.

Manchin was in New Hampshire last summer to tout the group. Founded as a non-profit by former Democratic National Committee finance chair Nancy Jacobson, the organization can boast the support of Connecticut Sen. Joe Lieberman, former U.S. Rep. Joe Cunningham, and former NAACP Executive Director Ben Chavis among the political powerhouses pushing to have a third option available for voters in the fall of 2024.

Manchin had some kind words for Biden, which in any other political era may not seem quite as novel as they did when delivered on Friday.

“Good man, a very decent person, and good to work with,” Manchin said of the 46th President.

However, Manchin said, the American people elected Biden thinking they were getting a more moderate centrist than is typically found on the left. That’s not proved to be the case, according to Manchin.

“He’s been pushed to the far left,” he said.

Manchin said the No Labels group is waiting until after the primaries to make a decision on a candidate or campaign.

The 76-year-old coal-country senator and the No Labels party have their work cut out for them if they do eventually mount a bid to take White House. No third-party candidate has ever secured enough of the vote to be in serious consideration for an electoral college victory.

That being said, businessman Ross Perot managed a strong enough third-place finish in 1992, garnering 19% of the popular vote that November, that there are some who say his presence on the ballot cost then-President George H.W. Bush his shot at a second term, even if he didn’t win a single state.

With his appearance in Goffstown on Friday, Manchin is at least acting like others with presidential aspirations. Since the late ’90s, almost every candidate to take a primary debate stage in the months before a presidential election has made a trip to Saint Anselm’s for breakfast.

Ahead of 2020, speakers included U.S. Sens. Bernie Sanders, Cory Booker and Amy Klobuchar, U.S. Reps. Seth Moulton and Eric Swalwell and former Gov. Deval Patrick, among others.

This cycle, the event has featured Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley, former Vice President Mike Pence, U.S. Sen. Tim Scott, former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, and former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson.

Ahead of the 2016 election, both Trump and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton spoke.