EXCLUSIVE: A centrist group is quietly mobilizing a major bid to launch a bipartisan Unity Ticket in 2024 featuring both a Democrat and Republican for the White House as President Biden and former President Trump move closer to announcing re-election bids.
The group, "No Labels," began work providing a potential alternative for voters and investigating a pathway to victory for a bipartisan presidential ticket in late 2021.
"We started getting a lot of questions from our No Labels members across the country about 2024 and the very real prospect that Americans could be forced to choose between two very divisive presidential candidates that a majority of them finds unacceptable," No Labels co-executive director Margaret White told Fox News. "So we decided to start investigating whether there might actually be need for a unity ticket, and a path to victory."
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No Labels insists they are not actively considering any specific candidates for a Unity Ticket, nor are they running a campaign, but whispers in Washington and in political circles suggest political moderates are being eyed for the effort, including Democrat Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia, Massachusetts Republican Gov. Charlie Baker and Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan.
No Labels officials and insiders say both the Republican Party and Democratic Party are becoming increasingly extreme and need to make a change to attract voters for 2024.
"We hope both parties don’t keep going down this road, and if they make a course correction, so will No Labels," Chief Strategist Ryan Clancy told Fox News. "But if they don’t, this election is too important to force Americans to pick the least bad candidate or to stay home."
"Three-quarters of the country thinks we’re on the wrong track—and that includes majorities of Democrats, independents and Republicans," Clancy said. "Most Americans don’t have favorable views of either party or the top leaders in them, and they think both sides are too captive to the extremes."
Already, No Labels has begun work gathering 1.5 million signatures in all 50 states and Washington D.C. to gain ballot access. The group has raised more than sixty percent of the $70 million needed for the effort.
No Labels officials told Fox News that their internal polling and modeling has shown that a unity ticket could win the Electoral College in at least 23 states, representing more than 270 electoral votes. The group is planning another round of extensive surveys after the midterm elections and throughout 2023, followed by a major convention in the first quarter of 2024 to potentially announce a ticket.
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"Imagine it’s 2024, and tens of millions of Americans are clamoring for an alternative to the two major party nominees," Clancy said. "If no one has done the work to create the infrastructure to make such a run possible, it’s too late because you can’t flip a switch and get ballot access."
Clancy added: "That’s why we’re starting now."
However, the way No Labels would select candidates to lead its potential unity ticket is less certain.
"We’re still in the process of developing a transparent and inclusive process for how a potential Unity Ticket would be chosen if the American people clearly want that choice," White said, noting that the group is responding to polling that the public wants solutions that have not been offered by current elected officials.
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The efforts from No Labels come as speculation mounts over a potential White House bid from Trump, who has been hinting since last year that he would announce a third presidential campaign for a second term after the 2022 midterm elections.
And Fox News reported Wednesday that Biden has been meeting with top advisers at the White House residence this fall to prepare for his potential 2024 re-election campaign.
"[Voters] want Washington to embrace an all-of-the-above energy strategy to ensure fuel is affordable and available, but they also want an accelerated transition to cleaner energy," White said. "They don’t like illegal immigration and want a strong border, but they do like immigrants and think legal immigration makes America stronger."
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White added: "If nothing else, we hope this effort will wake up both parties to the fact there is a huge portion of the country they often ignore and who are desperate for something better than what they’ve been offered lately. In the end, No Labels will ultimately look to the public and our members to indicate whether they truly have a desire to vote for a Unity ticket."
There is, however, a chance a unity ticket could have unintended consequences, by drawing support away from the 2024 Democratic or Republican nominees.
For that reason, No Labels told Fox News it will wait as long as possible for a final decision to offer a ballot lineup to a unity ticket.
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"We have no interest in creating a Ralph Nader-type spoiler," White said. "If this path outside the two major party candidates is not needed, No Labels will stand down."
White says in that case, No Labels will take all the assets they’re building, as well as a comprehensive file of Americans who share No Labels’ brand of politics, and put them to work in the space they’ve been working for the last decade – organizing bipartisan solutions through "problem solvers" in the House and Senate.
Asked if the effort has encountered opposition from the RNC or DNC, White said No Labels "hasn’t heard much of anything" from major party groups.
