An Independent political third party made up of moderates could potentially make the 2024 presidential election a wilder ride.
No Labels is trying to get on the ballots in all 50 states and offer disaffected voters another option rather than the two main parties. With polls showing a majority of American voters do not want a 2020 rematch in 2024, the group could use that sentiment to either play spoiler, especially against Democrats, or to affect the presidential outcome in ways that could prove game changing.
Centrist Democrats like Joe Lieberman and Joe Manchin and centrist Republicans like Larry Hogan and Susan Collins are actively involved in the organization.
Said Lieberman recently to FNC, “The game plan for now, honestly, is just to put us in a position by next March, April, that we will be qualified for a third line hopefully on all 50 state ballots so we’ll have that option to run a ticket.”
Third party runs have never elected a president. But they have thrown the office to one of the main contenders. Teddy Roosevelt’s Bull Moose run in 1912 brought the hideous administration of Woodrow Wilson. Reform Party nominee Ross Perot may have elected Bill Clinton in 1992 and Green Party standard bearer Ralph Nader tossed the race to George Bush the Younger in 2000.
Lieberman opined No Labels members are “so fed up with the partisanship in our federal government, Washington politics, and they’re disappointed with a choice of former presidents Trump and current President Biden and they want to create a path to a third option…It’s very clear from all the polling, more than a majority of people in our country say they don’t want the choice of Trump and Biden again. They want something else and if the two parties don’t give it to them, No Labels might well do that,” he said. Lieberman added that “I think we’re only going to do it if we feel we actually might have a chance to elect that bipartisan ticket.”
Could they win? It’s a long shot at best. Both Democrats and Republicans become loyal in general elections and polarization could mean lots of party line voting. However, this is a distinct political environment. If a rematch occurs both nominees would have such tremendous negatives that a lane just might be open for No Labels.
“We may well nominate a bipartisan unity ticket or if we’ve decided not to run it, we’ll certainly have a platform,” Lieberman commented. He further noted that “the attacks that we’ve suffered lately, mostly from Democrats on the left, really show that they know we’re were serious. And they also see in the polling, that we’re representing a majority of the American people and that frightens them because we’re going to disrupt that two-party monopoly on our politics. But honestly, it needs to be disrupted for the good of the country.”
Are they merely spoilers? “That’s not our goal here,” Lieberman stated. “We’re not about electing either President Trump or President Biden.” Lieberman said the goal of No Labels, formed in 2010, would be “to get our government back to some sort of bipartisan center, where people of both parties and all ideologies come to the center and talk about our big problems, immigration, the economy, debt, crime, instead of just fighting each other.” An interesting proposition. But one that faces a very uphill battle at best.