Buss: No Labels is in it to win it

The folks pushing No Labels say they’re in it to win it.

“If we look at [the 2024 election] and all we are is a spoiler, we’re gone,” Jay Nixon, former Democrat governor of Missouri, told an audience Wednesday at the Detroit Economic Club. That will ultimately depend on who their standard bearer is.

The third-party movement established to give voters an option other than former President Donald Trump and current President Joe Biden won’t select a candidate until after the Super Tuesday primaries on March 5. They’re seeking a bipartisan ticket.

Nixon says they’ll pull out of the race if polling or other metrics indicate support for their effort would merely help elect Trump or Biden.

While waiting that long to get a horse in the race puts them at a disadvantage to Republicans and Democrats, who are already well off and running, No Labels is betting that in the information age, their ticket could spread like wildfire.

Though the group is coy about big-name personalities leading their ticket, they offered more insight into the issues they care most about during Wednesday’s session.

“An organization called ‘No Labels’ doesn’t have many litmus tests,” Nixon said. “Bipartisan, focused on working together, realistic and honest.”

But Nixon also said fiscal issues are at the core of much of their work, and that Americans will care uniquely about the nation’s precarious financial state in the upcoming election.

There’s good reason to believe that. A poll sponsored by The Hill last week found 44% of voters under 30, the group most likely to stray from the two-party tradition, say the economy is their No. 1 concern, ahead of even abortion.

But in the end, No Labels’ success will depend on being able to field a well-known, well-financed ticket. Nixon says discouraged politicians from both parties are knocking on the No Labels door.

“We’re at the time of this in which people are beginning to consider us,” Nixon said, mentioning specifically retiring West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin, a Democrat, and former Wyoming Rep. Liz Cheney, a Republican.

“It’s a two-way street,” Pat McCrory, a former Republican governor of North Carolina and national co-chair for No Labels, said at the DEC event, which I moderated. “We’re going to do the ticket that will have the best opportunity to win and is the most qualified and appealing.”

Third party presidential bids are generally considered quixotic. This year, with more than half of voters saying they don’t want either Trump or Biden, No Labels’ timing seems opportune.

“This is a very unique time in American history,” McCrory said. “The numbers keep favoring an alternative.”

Still, they aren’t oblivious to the challenges. Among them is independent candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who is drawing 20% support, according to a Monday Monmouth University poll. Another is gaining ballot access in all 50 states. No Labels is meticulously working through each state’s unique process, and is confident it will succeed. And while a number of policies the group advocates for in its “common sense” platform, voters may be looking for more clarity on contentious issues such as abortion and foreign policy.

But, as Nixon said: “We get the right candidate, we have the opportunity.”

There’s no question on the “why” of No Labels. The issue now is “Who?”

kbuss@detroitnews.com