The centrist group No Labels has abandoned its plans to run for president in the 2024 election after failing to recruit a candidate, its leader Nancy Jacobson said Thursday.
The group, which last year said it had raised $60 million to put forward a so-called bipartisan “unity ticket,” has faced a series of rejections in recent months as prominent Republicans and Democrats declined to run on its ticket . The group had told donors and members that it would put forward a candidate if President Biden and former President Donald J. Trump were the major party nominees.
“Today, No Labels ends our efforts to run a unity ticket for the 2024 presidential election,” Ms. Jacobson said in a statement. “Americans remain more open to an independent presidential candidacy and are hungrier than ever for unified national leadership.” But No Labels has always said that we would only abandon our voting line if we could identify candidates who represented a credible path to winning the White House. No such candidates emerged, so the responsible course of action is for us to resign.”
The Wall Street Journal previously reported on No Labels’ decision to forego a presidential campaign.
The group’s move means the major parties have one less underdog campaign to worry about in a presidential race that features multiple independent and third-party candidates.
For months, Democratic allies of Mr. Biden, who saw No Labels as a major threat to his reelection efforts, had worked to marginalize the group and pressure potential candidates not to agree to run on their ballot line. In recent weeks, the party apparatus has focused its attacks on Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the political scion who is launching an independent campaign for president.
“From the beginning, our intention was to convince the candidates that they should not accept the nomination,” said Matt Bennett, co-founder of Third Way, the centrist group that is in the midst of efforts to support No Labels’ efforts to block. “We and our allies in a broad coalition have argued that not only is there absolutely no hope of victory, but that they would spoil Trump.”
Last fall, No Labels’ leadership sought among moderate Republican politicians to run for the group. But even among them, recruiting efforts failed. As other outsider candidates emerged, No Labels seemed less and less of a threat.
In a statement Thursday, No Labels said it would “build on the momentum we’ve gained over the last year to continue to stand for unity and give a voice to America’s reasonable majority.”
When former Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman, the most prominent no-label supporter, died last week, the organization was left with little political clout to recruit potential candidates. At that point, it was used by figures like Senator Joe Manchin III. rejected by West Virginia and former governors. Larry Hogan of Maryland, Jon Huntsman of Utah and Bill Haslam of Tennessee.
No Labels faced deadlines in the coming weeks to secure access to state ballots, some of which require a full presidential ticket on the application. On Thursday, Ms. Jacobson said the group was on the ballot in 21 states.
The group also tried to sue Nikki Haley and Chris Christie, both former Republican governors who dropped their presidential bids this year. Both refused. Another potential recruit, former Georgia Gov. Geoff Duncan, a Republican, withdrew his name from consideration last month.
David H. Petraeus, the retired general and former CIA director, was also approached and said no, he told The New York Times last month.
Only a few potential no-label recruits spoke publicly about why they rejected the group’s advances. But several appeared to share Mr. Christie’s sentiments.
“If my candidacy would in any way help Donald Trump become president again,” he said last week, “then that’s not the way to go.”
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2024-04-04 19:32:11
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