Centrist group No Labels on Thursday dropped its plans to launch a third-party presidential bid after failing to find a candidate it determined had a realistic chance of winning.
"No Labels is ending our effort to put forth a Unity ticket in the 2024 presidential election," the group’s founder and CEO Nancy Jacobson said in a Thursday statement, noting that "Americans remain more open to an independent presidential run and hungrier for unifying national leadership than ever before."
"But 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," Jacobson added. "No such candidates emerged, so the responsible course of action is for us to stand down."
No Labels, which sought to raise millions of dollars to challenge the two major parties, announced early last month it would launch a third-party campaign for the November election. But the group was not able to convince any prominent politician to run on its ticket, with Sen. Joe Manchin (D., W.Va.), former New Jersey governor Chris Christie (R.), and former Maryland governor Larry Hogan (R.) ruling out a presidential run with the group.
The centrist group said it would "remain engaged over the next year during what is likely to be the most divisive presidential election of our lifetimes, [promoting] dialogue around major policy challenges and call[ing] out both sides when they speak and act in bad faith."
The end of No Labels’s campaign came after Democrats expressed concern that a third-party or independent ticket would help Republican nominee Donald Trump by siphoning votes from President Joe Biden.
Democratic officials last week slammed independent candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. after he announced his presidential running mate. Rep. Robert Garcia (D., Calif.) said during a call hosted by the Democratic National Committee that he was "personally offended and just disgusted by [Kennedy’s] campaign," adding that Kennedy "should be ashamed of himself [and] stop running for president."