The centrist group No Labels—which has threatened for more than a year to run a third-party presidential candidate who Democrats feared would take votes from Joe Biden—announced Thursday it will not enter the race. “No Labels is ending our effort to put forth a Unity ticket in the 2024 presidential election,” founder and CEO Nancy Jacobson said in a statement, adding that the group had said all along it “would only offer our ballot line to a ticket if we could identify candidates with a credible path to winning the White House. No such candidates emerged, so the responsible course of action is for us to stand down.”
Potential candidates the group reportedly approached—and was turned down by—include former New Jersey governor (and GOP presidential candidate) Chris Christie, former GOP presidential candidate Nikki Haley, former Maryland governor Larry Hogan, and Senator Joe Manchin. Asked about the prospect of Manchin running, Senator Debbie Stabenow told The Hill last year, “I think it would be very, very unfortunate if Joe Manchin decided to do that…he knows that if he were to step in [to the race] that it would make it much more likely Donald Trump would be president again.”
Of course, just because No Labels—whose founding chairman, Joe Lieberman, died last week—is bowing out does not mean Democrats can breathe easy. And that‘s thanks in part to Robert F. Kennedy Jr., whose own family members are deeply worried he’s going to put Trump back in the White House. “I think this election is going to come down to a handful of votes in a handful of states,” his sister, Rory Kennedy, told ABC News this week. “And I am concerned that voting for Bobby is going to take votes away from Biden and lead to a Trump election, and I’m very concerned [about] what that will do to our country and to the world over the ensuing four years.”
Appearing on MSNBC, she made a similar warning:
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On Monday, Kennedy received immense blowback from Democrats when he claimed Biden is a bigger threat to democracy than Trump, who, as a reminder, literally tried to steal a second term.
Trump takes his Biden-is-on-drugs claims out of storage
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When Sean Hannity is to the left of the Republican Party
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Bess Levin
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