If you’re not familiar with No Labels, it’s a bipartisan group that urges cooperative solutions to issues facing the nation and seeks to cool down the fighting between the two major parties. The group generally focuses on policy issues and legislation, seeking compromises that could potentially make the government slightly less dysfunctional. But in preparation for 2024, there is a $70 million effort underway to get No Labels on the ballot in all fifty states. This has led to speculation that the group may be preparing to field a third-party presidential candidate. And as our colleague Rick Moran reports at PJ Media, this prospect has terrified the Democrats and they are actively seeking to stop them.
The “anti-partisan” group No Labels has raised $70 million in an effort to get on the ballot in all 50 states. In an election that’s expected to be very close, could it really be a decisive factor in the 2024 presidential election?
The group hasn’t decided whether to field a presidential candidate in 2024 yet. But surely, an effort to get on all 50 ballots won’t be wasted on down-ballot candidates. No Labels wants to change politics in America, and Democrats like things just the way they are.
The Arizona Democratic Party has filed suit to block No Labels from ballot access in that state on procedural grounds.
The Democrats are right to be concerned about this situation. The party out of power (currently the Republicans) will likely rally around the eventual nominee in an effort to take back the White House. But the Democrats may wind up fielding an elderly figurehead with an approval rating in the 30s who appears to have cognitive issues and has presided over a period of high prices, record inflation and multiple other crises. Even some Democrats and left-leaning liberals who would never cast a vote for Donald Trump or any other Republican might start taking a look at a third option. And it wouldn’t take all that many people in a few swing states to sink Joe Biden’s presidential ship.
Never-Trumpers like Stuart Stevens of the Lincoln Project are just as upset as the Democrats. And he’s not even pretending that this is about anything but the Bad Orange Man.
“The only way you can justify this is if you really believe that it doesn’t really matter if it is Joe Biden or Donald Trump. So it is sort of a test. If you live in a world where it doesn’t matter, this is kind of harmless. If you live in a world where it does matter, it is dangerous.”
See how that works? People voting is “dangerous,” but only if it improves Trump’s chances. Even one of the co-founders of No Labels is threatening to “walk away” from the group if they field a presidential candidate.
But in the end, how much can they really do about it? As noted above, Democrats in Arizona are attempting to block the group from the ballot “on procedural grounds.” But anyone who gathers enough signatures to get on the ballot in any given state is allowed to run. We’ve had serious third-party candidates in the past, though they’ve never risen above single digits in the general election in the modern era. In fact, the Founding Fathers envisioned a country where multiple candidates would run for the presidency.
Trying to block a third person from the ballot doesn’t seem like a terribly democratic thing to do, does it? But then again, perhaps it was both predictable and unavoidable.
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