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Hungry for some real political disruption? No Labels is eager to deliver.
The vast majority of Americans do not want a repeat election in 2020. However, Donald Trump and Joe Biden are headed to become, once again, the Republican and Democratic nominees for the 2024 presidential race .
No Labels, an organization that calls itself “the voice of the majority of common sense,” has a better idea. They are working to offer what they call “insurance for 2024”. His plan is to get on the ballot in all 50 states and offer voters a slate of bipartisan, middle-of-the-road candidates (think Joe Manchin and Larry Hogan, or Larry Hogan and Joe Manchin). They think the time has come. for a third and a third option, and they have a bunch of polls that suggest they might be right.
No Labels was founded by former DNC finance chair Nancy Jacobson in 2010. The nonprofit created the bipartisan Problem Solvers Caucus in the House and a related centrist group in the Senate. Their mission is to push lawmakers to find common ground and get things done. Now they head to the Oval Office.
NO Tags taking the next steps in the search for presidential candidates for third-party entry
Conservatives and progressives will not be fans. Asked about the No Labels plan, one political pole laughed it off and declared: “The only thing in the middle of the road is a dead animal.” But according to Gallup’s most recent count, only 9 percent of voters describe themselves as “very conservative,” and even fewer, 8 percent, describe themselves as “very liberal”; one might ask, why are these people driving the bus?
More Americans disdain our two major political parties than ever before, with 41% identifying as independents, far outnumbering the 28% who identify as Republicans or Democrats.
There is certainly room for skepticism. Americans have never rallied around a third-party candidate; the few who have gained strength have gone down in flames, weary of the intractability of our bipartisan loyalties. Billionaire and former New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg weighed a third-party run in 2016, but was discouraged by polls showing an independent had zero chance.
A large majority of registered voters believe the US is headed in the wrong direction, including 65% of independents and 86% of Republicans.
But the country may never have been more unhappy with the likely choice of candidates. According to one poll, 70% of registered voters do not want Joe Biden to run; 60% do not want Trump to be the nominee.
DEMOCRATS NERVOUS AS NO LABELS WILL LAND IN MORE STATE URTETS
To give voters an alternative, No Labels needs to raise $70 million. This is not for a campaign, which could cost up to a billion dollars; they calculate that this is the cost of gaining access to ballots in all 50 states. Raising that amount of money is quite a challenge when you have no candidate, no commitment to select one, and no platform.
Still, they are making serious progress. A big hurdle was convincing donors that his plan could work. To that end, No Labels conducted a mammoth nationwide survey of more than 26,000 registered voters last December. The poll showed that Americans everywhere are irritable and that most are not satisfied with their policy choices. The data showed that a “common sense ticket” could win.
Because? A large majority of registered voters believe the US is headed in the wrong direction, including 65% of independents and 86% of Republicans. This was true not only across the country, but in every state. Red states certainly look more discouraged; that goes with having Joe Biden, a Democrat, in the Oval Office.
GROUP MOBILIZES BI-PARTITE 2024 ‘UNITY TICKET’ AS BIDEN, TRUMP APPROACH CAMPAIGNS
If the election were held today, the poll showed almost a dead heat, with Biden capturing 42 percent of the vote and Trump 43 percent. (More recent polls confirm the race would be close.) The no-label poll found Trump would win, winning 276 Electoral College votes to Biden’s 262. They also found, however, that a “common sense majority” ticket would blow both candidates, taking 286 Electoral College votes from “moderate solid states.”
No Labels must persuade donors that his entry into the race would not only be a spoiler, but that he could win. Republicans might fear that a third-party candidate would take votes away from Trump and give Biden four more years, the worst of all outcomes. Democrats would worry that a moderate slate would steal Biden’s votes and put Trump back in the Oval Office. The December poll, however, showed that votes would be taken from both sides in almost equal numbers.
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In the past, third-party candidates have been criticized for undermining a winning candidate.
In 1992 Ross Perot entered the race between George HW Bush and Bill Clinton and won 19% of the vote. Republicans claimed Perot torpedoed their candidate, but follow-up polls showed the Texas billionaire winning votes from both sides.
On the other hand, Ralph Nader could have given George W. Bush the victory in 2000, when the Green Party candidate clearly took the votes away from Al Gore’s campaign, and especially in the all-important Florida . it can happen
This is not the only criticism of No Label’s program. Some on the right are suspicious of the group’s leaders’ politics and are convinced the campaign is a sneak attack on Trump. Others on the left have accused the group of trying to undermine Biden and elect Trump. Former independent Sen. Joe Lieberman is the group’s founding chairman, and former Maryland Republican Gov. Larry Hogan is its national co-chair. Both are confirmed never-Trumpers.
Conservatives also cite the group’s ties to former Clinton pollster Mark Penn, husband of founder Jacobson; his company has been the recipient of substantial payments from No Labels, presumably for survey data and other campaigns.
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The reality is that, to their credit, No Labels faces criticism from left and right. And they are collecting money from both sides. This is what they must do to further their ambitions, which are to narrow our political divide.
Putting the majority of America in the driver’s seat would not be a political disruption; that would be an earthquake.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM LIZ PEEK
Liz Peek is a Fox News contributor and former partner at leading Wall Street firm Wertheim & Company. A former columnist for the Fiscal Times, she writes for The Hill and is a frequent contributor to Fox News, the New York Sun and other publications. For more information, visit LizPeek.com. Follow her on Twitter @LizPeek.
