No Labels says it may withdraw from 2024 presidential contest if Trump isn’t GOP nominee
Rachel Schilke Cami Mondeaux
Video Embed
If former President Donald Trump is not the GOP nominee for the 2024 election, a third-party organization may consider dropping its ballot initiative to put a centrist candidate on the main stage.
No Labels, a centrist party group working to gain access to ballots across all 50 states, has striven to open the door for a third-party candidate in several presidential elections. For the 2024 election specifically, the group hoped to provide alternatives to Trump or President Joe Biden for voters who do not want to see a repeat of 2020.
DOCKWORKER TALKS THREATEN BIDEN WITH ANOTHER TOUGH DECISION BETWEEN LABOR AND ECONOMY
However, CEO Nancy Jacobson and other senior members said in an interview with Politico that the party would likely exit the race entirely if a different Republican nominee is selected.
Ryan Clancy, chief strategist for No Labels, clarified for the Washington Examiner that based on the group’s polling data, there is a “pretty big universe of voters” who like Trump’s policies but do not necessarily want to vote for Trump.
Many Republican voters who do not see Trump’s name on the ballot will not turn up to vote based on the data, which would “close off the potential path for an independent ticket,” Clancy said.
“So, we’re not making a subjective judgment on Ron DeSantis is or is not better, worse, conservative, less conservative than Trump or any other. What we’re doing is sticking to the plan we’ve had from the very beginning, which is: This is only worth doing if you think you can win,” Clancy said.
“And today, the data is telling us it looks like it’d be a really steep road for an independent to win if it’s a Republican other than Trump,” Clancy continued.
No Labels will continue polling “to see whether we think there continues to be an opening” for an independent presidential ticket, Jacobson said, “and we’ll see how that registers with the voters.”
The group has launched a $70 million campaign to secure an independent ticket in the United States, gaining momentum in Arizona, Colorado, Oregon, and Alaska and drawing criticism from Democrats and their allies.
Biden defeated Trump significantly in Colorado and Oregon and marginally in Arizona in 2020 — but No Labels is interested in more states than just those with 2020 Democratic victories, Jacobson said.
“It just so happens that those states let you start early,” Jacobson said. “Over the spring and into the summer, we’ll be dropping into a bunch of deep red states. So we’ll probably start getting it [criticism] from the Republicans too.”
Efforts to get the party on the ballot in Maine have been met with resistance from the Maine secretary of state’s office, which claims voters were misled into changing their party affiliation to No Labels under the guise of it being a petition. No Labels has pushed back against the claims.
Some centrist Democrats, like Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV), have been eyed by No Labels as a possible third-party candidate. Manchin has been a member of the group for years and is vocal about having a third-party option in elections.
Democrats have worried that third-party efforts could lead to a Republican victory in 2024, based on polls showing an independent candidate securing 20% of the vote when up against Biden and Trump — a small but significant amount of votes that could push results one way or the other.
“No Labels is wasting time, energy, and money on a bizarre effort that confuses and divides voters and has one obvious outcome — reelecting Donald Trump as president,” Rep. Abigail Spanberger (D-VA) said in a statement to the Washington Examiner.
However, Clancy said that based on the data showing the distaste for a 2020 rematch in 2024, Democrats should not be surprised that voters want to see a different choice.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
“We understand all the reasons why people are skeptical that there could ever be an opening for any kind of alternative other than two major party nominees because, in our living memory, they’ve never gone that far,” Clancy said.
“Why would it surprise people that if somebody else comes along and says, ‘What would you think if I gave you another choice? If that was the choices you were faced with?’ Why would it surprise you that lots of people say, ‘Yeah, I’m open to that choice’? And that’s exactly what’s happening,” Clancy said.