No Labels' Mike Rawlings: We have no intention to be the 'spoiler'
No Labels National Convention Chair Mike Rawlings joins 'Special Report' to discuss efforts to put together a 'unity ticket' for the 2024 election.
No Labels took another step toward forming a bipartisan presidential ticket in November's general election, as the centrist group's delegates huddled during a virtual gathering on Friday.
No Labels announced that the roughly 800 delegates who took part in the meeting voted to give a thumbs up to fielding what No Labels has described as a "unity ticket" in the presidential election.
"They voted near unanimously to continue our 2024 project and to move immediately to identify candidates to serve on the Unity presidential ticket," No Labels national convention chair Mike Rawlings said in a statement.
But the move comes as some high-profile potential candidates for the No Labels ticket have taken their names out of contention.
NO LABELS CHARGES OPPONENTS ARE TRYING TO KEEP IT OFF THE BALLOT
No Labels leadership and guests from left, Pat McCrory, Co-Executive Director, Margaret White, Dan Webb, National Co-Chair, Dr. Benjamin F. Chavis and former Senator Joe Lieberman, speak about the 2024 election at the National Press Club, in Washington, Thursday, January 18, 2024. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)
For over a year, No Labels has mulled a third party ticket, as it pointed to poll after poll suggesting that many Americans were anything but enthused about a 2024 election rematch between President Biden and former President Donald Trump.
And No Labels had long said that it would decide whether to launch a presidential ticket following Super Tuesday, when 15 states from coast to coast held nominating primaries and caucuses.
Trump is now considered the presumptive Republican nominee after winning 14 of the 15 GOP nominating contests on Tuesday. Trump's last remaining rival — former U.N. ambassador and former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley — dropped out of the 2024 race on Wednesday.
Biden also ran the table on Super Tuesday, winning 14 of the 15 Democratic contests. And Rep. Dean Phillips of Minnesota — one of the two long-shot challengers to the president — suspended his White House bid on Wednesday.
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Both Biden and Trump will formally clinch their party nominations in the next week or two, and their campaigns have now moved into general election mode.
No Labels — as expected — didn't name its presidential and vice presidential picks on Friday but instead voted to kick off a formal selection process that would lead to the naming of candidates in the coming weeks.
"Now that No Labels’ delegates have given the go ahead for us to accelerate our candidate search for a Unity ticket, voters will read plenty of speculation about who would be on it. But No Labels has not yet chosen a ticket and any names floating around are being put out there by someone else. We will announce our formal selection process next Thursday March 14, with more details to come shortly thereafter," chief strategist Ryan Clancy said Friday in a statement.
But former two-term Republican Gov. Larry Hogan of Maryland, a former No Labels leader who was considered a potential contender for the group's ticket, recently took his name out of contention as he announced a run this year for an open Senate seat in his home state.
Sen. Joe Manchin III (D-W.Va.) was co-headliner alongside former Utah governor Jon Huntsman (R) at the 'Common Sense' Town Hall, an event sponsored by the bipartisan group No Labels, held on Monday evening, July 17, 2023, at St. Anselm College in Manchester, New Hampshire.
And moderate Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia, who is not seeking re-election and who flirted with a White House run, has also said he won't launch a presidential bid.
There was plenty of speculation that Haley would consider running on a No Labels ticket if she were to drop her Republican White House bid. No Labels had expressed interest in her earlier this year.
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But Haley repeatedly nixed joining a No Labels ticket, most recently on Tuesday in an interview on "Fox and Friends."
"What I will tell you is I’m a conservative Republican. I have said many, many times, I would not run as an independent. I would not run as No Labels, because I am a Republican, and that’s who I’ve always been," she reiterated.
Former U.N. ambassador and former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley speaks as she announces she is suspending her 2024 Republican presidential campaign, in Charleston, South Carolina, March 6, 2024. (REUTERS/Brian Snyder)
No Labels said it is already on the ballot in 16 states and currently working in 17 other states to obtain access.
There's been a chorus of calls from Democrats warning that a No Labels ticket would pave a path to victory for Trump in November, but the group dismisses that criticism.
"That's not our goal here," Lieberman told Fox News Digital late last year. "We're not about electing either President Trump or President Biden."
Following the No Labels meeting on Friday, Matt Bennett, a co-founder of the moderate Democratic group the Third Way, said in a statement following Friday's No Labels meeting, "What part of ‘No’ is so hard to understand? Time and again, voters, candidates and election experts have told No Labels that a third-party presidential ticket can’t win and would help Trump."
But Rawlings praised his group's proceedings. He emphasized that "earlier today, I led a discussion with the 800 No Labels delegates from all 50 states. These citizen leaders have spent months discussing with one another the kind of leadership they want to see in the White House in 2024. These are some of the most civic-minded, thoughtful, and patriotic Americans I have ever met. They take their responsibility seriously."
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