The No Labels political organization is dropping its plan to run a bipartisan "unity ticket" presidential campaign in 2024 after failing to find willing candidates.
The group reportedly plans to formally announce abandoning the campaign next week.
Nancy Jacobson, No Labels’ founder and CEO, told supporters that the formal announcement will come on Monday "because it hasn’t been able to recruit a credible ticket that could win the election," according to a Wall Street Journal report citing unnamed "people familiar with the plans."
Jacobson reportedly told the No Labels allies they had contacted 30 potential candidates without any luck.
“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,” Nancy Jacobson, the group’s CEO, said in a statement provided to The Associated Press. “No such candidates emerged, so the responsible course of action is for us to stand down.”
The Wall Street Journal reports:The decision comes in the aftermath of the death of its founding chair, former Connecticut Sen. Joe Lieberman and as the group has failed to convince a series of top-tier candidates to run on its ticket.
Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, a two-time GOP presidential candidate, said last week that he wouldn’t run under the No Labels banner. Others who have ruled out running on the ticket include Republicans such as former presidential candidate Nikki Haley, former Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan, who is seeking a Senate seat, and Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia, who is retiring from the Senate.
The organization has managed to get on the ballot in 19 states and claims to have $70 million in its war chest.
The group had been widely criticized by Democrats, who worried that it would act as a spoiler ticket that would benefit former President Donald Trump.
There are still plenty of alternative tickets for people who do not support the Democrat or Republican nominees, including independent candidates Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Cornel West, Green Party candidate Jill Stein, and the eventual Libertarian Party nominee — which has not yet been decided.
