The centrist group laid out grand ambitions of running a third-party candidate in a Biden-Trump contest, but the most prominent figures it courted all said no.
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The centrist group No Labels had sought to recruit high-profile Republicans and Democrats to run on its ticket, but it was unsuccessful.
The centrist group No Labels has abandoned its plans to run a presidential ticket in the 2024 election, having failed to recruit a candidate, its leader, Nancy Jacobson, said on Thursday.
The group, which said last year it had raised $60 million to put forward what it called a bipartisan “unity ticket,” had suffered a string 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 main parties’ nominees.
“Today, No Labels is ending our effort to put forth a Unity ticket in the 2024 presidential election,” Ms. Jacobson said in a statement. “Americans remain more open to an independent presidential run and hungrier for unifying national leadership than ever before. But No Labels has always said we would only offer our ballot line to a ticket if we could identify candidates with a credible path to winning the White House. No such candidates emerged, so the responsible course of action is for us to stand down.”
The Wall Street Journal earlier reported the decision by No Labels to forgo a presidential campaign.
The group’s move means one fewer outsider campaign for the major parties to worry about, in a presidential field that has several independent and third-party candidates.
For months, Democratic allies of Mr. Biden, who viewed No Labels as a prominent threat to his re-election effort, had worked to marginalize the group and pressured potential candidates not to agree to run on its ballot line. In recent weeks, the party apparatus has focused its attacks on Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the political scion mounting an independent campaign for president.
“From the beginning, our intent was to convince candidates that they should not accept the nomination,” said Matt Bennett, a co-founder of Third Way, the centrist group at the middle of the effort to block No Labels’ efforts. “We and our allies in a broad coalition made the case that not only was there absolutely no hope of winning, but they would be spoilers for Trump.”
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Source: nytimes.com
