WASHINGTON—No Labels, the national political organization focused on electing centrist candidates, announced on March 8 that it would launch a bipartisan presidential unity ticket in the general election.
At a virtual meeting that was closed to the media, 800 delegates from every state in America 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 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.”
Founded in 2009, No Labels started as a 501(c)(4) nonprofit dedicated to promoting centrist candidates that aligned with its focus on bipartisanship and “common sense.”
No Labels national co-chair Dr. 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.
“We are talking to Republicans, Democrats, and independents,” said Mr. Chavis, a longtime civil rights activist and the former executive director of the NAACP. “It’s a long, tedious process. And we’re very pleased with the voter access that we’ve gotten so far. And we’re going to keep pushing.”
No Labels’ chief strategist said that the party intends to win the presidential election and has “no interest in fueling some kind of spoiler effort.”
“You can really think of this as this is a gut check for our movement because one of the things we’ve said is we only want to put forth a ticket if we feel like it has a viable path we feel could really work,” Mr. Clancy told C-SPAN’s Washington Journal earlier this week.
After decisively winning multiple primaries on Super Tuesday, which this year was March 5, President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump are the presumptive nominees of their respective parties.
Multiple national polls have shown that more than half of U.S. voters don’t want to see a rematch between Presidents Biden and Trump.
In late January, a Reuters/Ipsos Poll showed that 70 percent of the respondents agreed with a statement that President Biden shouldn’t seek another term and 55 percent reported that they don’t think President Trump should run.
The same survey found that slightly more than half of the 1,250 adults polled said they were dissatisfied with the two-party system. Only one in four said they were satisfied with it.
David Carlucci, a former New York state senator who is a Democrat strategist, told The Epoch Times on March 8 that a No Labels ticket is “a potential spoiler for either Biden or Trump,” but he believes that ultimately most voters will back President Biden or President Trump.
“As compared to previous years, the democratic party is extremely united and we see this from the primary results for President Biden. History shows us that support for third parties like No Labels craters as we get closer to the general election. Polling shows 40 percent of the electorate is not currently engaged and that every poll shows a neck-to-neck race between Biden and Trump. Even though voters might not be thrilled with their choices in the Democrat and Republican nominee, they will come home to their respective parties to make sure their candidate of choice is supported,” Mr. Carlucci said.
It remains unclear who No Labels will nominate to headline its ticket.
Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia, a centrist Democrat, was reportedly considering a potential No Labels bid for months. In February, he announced that he would not enter the presidential race.
“I will not be seeking a third-party run. I will not be involved in a presidential run. I will be involved in making sure that we secure a president that has the knowledge and has the passion and has the ability to bring this country together,” Mr. Manchin said in a speech at West Virginia University.
He added that he is not interested in being “a deal-breaker, if you will, a spoiler, whatever you want to call it. I just don’t think it’s the right time.”
Mr. Manchin said last week at the Edward M. Kennedy Institute in Boston that No Labels should “take a hard look” and ask: “Is it going to basically work as a spoiler?”
Mr. Manchin added that “if you can’t get on 50 states and you’re going to basically hit in some of the battleground states, that could be very detrimental to what the outcome would be.”
Before President Biden stepped up to the podium and delivered his State of the Union address on March 7, President Trump observed Mr. Manchin and Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) engaged in conversation and wrote on Truth Social, “Interesting that Romney and Manchin are sitting together, and nobody wants to talk to them. I think they'd make a great No Labels Team!”
Former Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan, a Republican and a former No Labels co-chair, was mentioned as a potential No Labels presidential candidate. He stepped down from his post with the group in January, decided to run for U.S. Senate in Maryland, and backed former South Carolina governor and former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley for president.
Ms. Haley, who dropped out of the Republican presidential primary earlier this week, has said she is not interested in headlining a No Labels presidential ticket.
Joe Lieberman, the former Democrat senator from Connecticut who is now a No Labels co-chair, said in January, “I think I’m speaking for a lot of No Labels members. Gov. Haley would deserve serious consideration.”
Ms. Haley responded, “My focus is running in a Republican primary. It always has been. I have never talked to the ‘No Labels’ people; that’s not anything I’m focused on.”
After Ms. Haley dropped out of the race, No Labels issued a statement congratulating her for “running a great campaign and appealing to the large swath of commonsense voters.”
Chris Christie, the former New Jersey governor who dropped out of the 2024 presidential primary in January, did not rule out a third-party run during an interview with Good Morning America in early February.
“Oh, I don’t know. There’d be a long conversation between me and [my wife] Mary Pat, I can guarantee you that,” Mr. Christie said when asked if he would consider being part of a No Labels ticket.
Mr. Christie and Ms. Haley could have faced legal challenges in states with “sore loser” laws that don’t allow candidates to run in third-party general election tickets after losing in their party’s primary.
Third Way, which, according to its website, is “a national think tank that champions modern center-left ideas,” released a poll on March 7 “to test a No Labels Party ticket’s viability in the 2024 election.”
The survey found that Ms. Haley would finish fourth if she ran as the No Labels candidate and “lose badly” to Presidents Trump and Biden and independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
Third Way noted that the poll indicated Ms. Haley and Mr. Kennedy would take more votes from President Biden than President Trump.
According to the study, 44 percent of Ms. Haley’s supporters would be President Biden voters, while 33 percent would move from President Trump.
Mr. Kennedy would take 46 percent of votes away from President Biden and 36 percent from President Trump, the poll discovered.
This makes it clear that third-party candidates are acting as spoilers that aid President Trump.
Third Way noted that No Labels’ dream ticket would be Ms. Haley and U.S. Rep. Dean Phillips, the Minnesota Democrat who had challenged President Biden in the party’s primary but dropped out on March 5.
“Even when we tested their dream ticket—the best candidates No Labels could hope to land (and they probably won’t get)—the ticket had zero chance of winning,” a Third Way statement about the survey explained, adding that a Haley-Phillips ticket would get 8 percent of the vote.
There was speculation that Mr. Phillips would consider a No Labels offer, but he told Minneapolis radio station WCCO that he was endorsing President Biden.
He added that the president “is at a stage in life where his capacities are diminished, he is still a man of competency and decency and integrity. And the alternative, Donald Trump, is a very dangerous, dangerous man.”
Mr. Phillips did say that he would like to see Ms. Haley consider an independent bid because it would bolster President Biden’s chances for a second term while other independents would pull away votes from President Biden and help President Trump.
Mr. Kennedy has not been mentioned as a potential headliner for a No Labels unity presidential ticket, though he has gained widespread support from conservatives, moderates, and independents, and unifying the country is an emphasis in his campaign.
An NBC News poll published in early February showed that 34 percent of all registered voters said they could see themselves backing Mr. Kennedy, while 10 percent said the same of independent Cornel West. That survey included a hypothetical race with President Trump (41 percent), President Biden (35 percent), an unnamed Libertarian Party candidate (5 percent), an unnamed Green Party candidate (5 percent), and an unnamed No Labels candidate (4 percent).
Mr. Clancy disagrees with critics who claim that there is no path to victory for a No Labels ticket.
He told C-SPAN that in a poll the organization conducted, voters were asked if they would support a moderate independent alternative if there was a rematch between Presidents Trump and Biden.
The survey generated responses from 25,000 people, and 59 percent said they would back the moderate independent candidate, he said.
Mr. Clancy pointed out that “34 to 35 percent of the vote in a state” would propel a candidate to victory and the subsequent electoral votes if there were multiple options beyond the two major parties.
