No Labels Asks State Democratic Chairs Not to Interfere After Biden’s Comments

Former Sen. Joe Lieberman speaks at a panel hosted by the National Council of Resistance of Iran–U.S. Representative Office (NCRI-US) at the Willard InterContinental Hotel in Washington, on Aug. 17, 2022. Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images

The bipartisan political group No Labels is reminding state Democratic Party officials what President Joe Biden has said, and asking them not to interfere with its work.

Three No Labels leaders—former Connecticut Sen. Joe Lieberman, former Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon, and former head of the NAACP Benjamin Chavis Jr.—wrote an open letter to state party chairs on Oct. 3. They pointed out how days earlier President Biden had recognized its “democratic rights” to its work two days earlier.

“We urge you to tell the leaders in the Democratic National Committee to stand down and halt all actions to restrict voter choices in this or any other election and to tell your state and national leadership that you will not participate in them,” the three leaders wrote.

They added, “We urge you to tell your state and national leadership that you will not participate in actions that threaten the very principles of liberty and freedom that are the bedrock of our democracy.”

In an interview with ProPublica on Oct. 1, President Biden was asked about the involvement of Mr. Liebermam in organizing a potential third-party challenge for the 2024 White House race via No Labels.

“He has a democratic right to do, there’s no reason not to do that,” President Biden said in response, before adding that doing so would only help to elect the Republican presidential nominee.

“Now, it’s going to help the other guy. And he knows,” President Biden said. “That’s a political decision he’s making that I obviously think is a mistake.”

DNC

No Labels intends to launch its own candidates—a bipartisan “Unity ticket”—in the presidential election next year if the race turns into a rewatch between President Biden and former President Donald Trump.

The group has secured ballot access in 11 states, including Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, Colorado, Florida, Nevada, North Carolina, Oregon, South Dakota, and Utah.

The open letter said the Democratic National Committee (DNC) is “sharing guidance with state and local party chairs encouraging them to denounce No Labels.”

“The DNC takes issue with our effort to get on state voting ballots so we can potentially offer up a Unity presidential ticket and to provide the additional choices millions of Americans so clearly want,” the letter says.

The letter also responded to what it called a “disturbing communique” that the director of the Utah Democratic Party sent to county chairs on Sept. 26. The communique (pdf) criticized No Labels’ effort as “a direct threat to our democracy” and setting up “a clear path for Donald Trump’s reelection.”

“We’re not naïve, and we don’t expect the Democratic National Committee or the Republican National Committee to welcome competition that threatens their power and influence,” the No Labels letter says. “But as lifelong Democrats, we do expect the leaders of our party—which has always championed ballot access and voting rights—to refrain from blatantly antidemocratic behavior.”

It added: “The DNC is part of a broader and more organized campaign to subvert No Labels’ ballot access efforts that are on the razor’s edge of violating federal law. Engaging in tactics such as these is a blatant violation of the basic constitutional rights that No Labels and its supporters enjoy under the First Amendment rights of freedom of association and freedom of speech.”

Poll

No Labels plans to hold a nominating convention in Dallas, Texas, in April 2024.

In August, just days before the first Republican presidential debate in Milwaukee, No Labels released a survey of 9,481 voters in eight key battleground states—Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin.

The survey found that 63 percent of respondents were “open to supporting a moderate independent presidential candidate” if alternative choices were President Biden and President Trump.

Seventy-two percent said they didn’t want President Biden to run for a second term, while 63 percent did not prefer President Trump.

“Voters in these states are sending a simple and powerful message: They want more choices in 2024 and they don’t like anyone working to limit their choices,” said No Labels chief strategist Ryan Clancy in a statement accompanying the survey.

The survey also found that 73 percent believed that “actively working to block the listing of more choices on the ballot for president represents vote choice suppression.”

Additionally, 77 percent wanted the Justice Department should investigate politically motivated actions to block the availability of more choices on the ballot.