Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie has passed on a presidential run with the bipartisan nonprofit group No Labels.
“While I believe this is a conversation that needs to be had with the American people, I also believe that if there is not a pathway to win and if my candidacy in any way, shape or form would help Donald Trump become president again, then it is not the way forward,” continued Mr. Christie, a critic of the former president and presumptive GOP nominee.
No Labels has struggled to attract candidates for a third-party run as a rematch between President Trump and President Joe Biden is all but certain.
At a virtual meeting in March that was closed to the media, 800 delegates from every state decided that the party will move forward with entering the 2024 presidential race, former Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings said in a statement.
No Labels has said for months that it would announce after March 5, or Super Tuesday, whether it would field a presidential unity ticket.
“They voted near unanimously to continue our 2024 project and to move immediately to identify candidates to serve on the unity presidential ticket,” Mr. Rawlings said.
“Now that No Labels has received the go ahead from our delegates, we'll be accelerating our candidate outreach and announcing the process for how candidates will be selected for the Unity Ticket on March 14th,” he added.
No Labels, founded in 2009, is a 501(c)(4) nonprofit dedicated to promoting centrist candidates who align with its focus on bipartisanship and “common sense.”
No Labels national co-chair Benjamin Chavis told MSNBC in February that a “unity ticket” includes a Republican and a Democrat. The group has qualified for the general election ballot in 16 states and is striving to get on the ballot in all 50 states and the District of Columbia, according to Mr. Chavis.
No Senate Run Either
The No Labels ticket is not the first political opportunity Mr. Christie has passed on.Mr. Christie is not running in the U.S. Senate race in New Jersey. Sen. Bob Menendez (D-N.J.), who is under indictment on corruption-related charges, is not running as a Democrat but could run as an independent if he is cleared of wrongdoing.
“I would rather commit suicide than be [in] the United States Senate,” Mr. Christie said in response to a question from The Epoch Times last November. “That is still true today.”
He continued: “Maybe even truer today, given what’s going on over there. But in the end, you have to know what you’re good at. I would not be good as the United States senator and nor do I have any interest in the United States senator.”
Mr. Christie unsuccessfully ran for the GOP presidential nod in 2016 and 2024. In 2016, after dropping out, he endorsed President Trump.
In the 2024 race, however, he ran on a platform of stopping President Trump.
In August, Mr. Christie criticized President Trump’s plan to skip the Aug. 23 GOP debate in Milwaukee.
“He’s a coward. There’s no other conclusion to come to—that he’s both afraid of me and he’s afraid of defending his record. And if I had his record, I'd be nervous about showing up.
“I mean, let’s face it guys,” Mr. Christie told several dozen reporters.
“By Wednesday, he’s going to be out on bail in four different jurisdictions. Really, when are we going to stop thinking that’s normal?
“It doesn’t matter whether it’s criminal or not, on Jan. 6 [2021]. I don’t care, quite frankly, whether he’s held criminally responsible or not. He’s morally responsible for what happened on Jan. 6, and that’s what I want to talk about.”
He predicted President Trump would lose in the general election if he got the party’s nomination.
“Donald Trump’s made himself a candidate for president under the most ridiculous circumstances ever seen in my life,” added Mr. Chrsitie.
“There’s nothing more selfish than what he’s doing,“ he continued. ”He’s been charged with four different crimes. And yet, he still persists in insisting that he has to be a candidate for president.”
