No Labels, a bipartisan group who worked to field a third-party presidential ticket, has abandoned its efforts to field a candidate.
“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 Labels CEO and co-founder Nancy Jacobson said in a statement, according to NBC News.
“No such candidates emerged, so the responsible course of action is for us to stand down,” Jacobson added.
“Raising $70 million and achieving literally nothing at all is a pretty great metaphor for the Beltway consensus that it represented,” Charlie Kirk commented.
BREAKING: No Labels has announced it is ending all efforts to get involved in the 2024 presidential race, citing a lack of “candidates with a credible path to winning the White House.”
Raising $70 million and achieving literally nothing at all is a pretty great metaphor for the…
— Charlie Kirk (@charliekirk11) April 4, 2024
BREAKING: No Labels says it will “stand down” and not field a third party candidate for 2024. pic.twitter.com/9XJ7GSgRrh
— Jim Lokay (@LokayFOX5) April 4, 2024
NBC News reports:
Jacobson said the group will “remain engaged over the next year during what is likely to be the most divisive presidential election of our lifetimes. We will promote dialogue around major policy challenges and call out both sides when they speak and act in bad faith.”
The Wall Street Journal was first to report No Labels’ move.
The group was spurned by at least a dozen candidates during its recruitment efforts, from former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu on the Republican side to Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia and former Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick on the Democratic side, NBC News reported.
BREAKING: No Labels won’t run a third-party campaign after spending millions trying to recruit a candidate https://t.co/nNQrS2AMvf
— The Associated Press (@AP) April 4, 2024
Confirmed by @cbsnews
No Labels is dropping plans for a 2024 “unity ticket” for the White House
Would-be top tier candidates were turning them down… left and right (so to speak)
— Scott MacFarlane (@MacFarlaneNews) April 4, 2024
From the Associated Press:
The decision caps months of discussions for No Labels, which has raised tens of millions of dollars from a donor list it has kept secret. While its decision will disappoint people seeking a potentially viable third-party option, it will come as a relief to Democrats who long accused the group of effectively helping Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee.
It also further cements a general election rematch this fall between the Democratic incumbent and the former president. Many voters do not have favorable views of Biden and Trump, a dynamic that No Labels had sought to address.
The Wall Street Journal first reported No Labels’ decision.
No Labels delegates voted overwhelmingly in March to launch the process of creating a bipartisan presidential and vice presidential ticket. But by then, No Labels had been rejected, publicly and privately, by many Democratic or Republican candidates.
Former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley, who suspended her campaign for the GOP presidential nomination last month, had said she would not consider running on the No Labels ticket. Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., ruled out running and former Gov. Larry Hogan, R-Md., decided to run for U.S. Senate.
Last month, former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, a Republican candidate for president in 2024, said he wouldn’t run under the No Label banner, either.
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