No Labels, Big Plans

Plus: Meet George Santos’ first primary challenger.

By , and
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Voting booths stand ready for use in a U.S. election. (Photo from Getty Images.)

Happy Monday! Three cheers for Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley’s ancient vacuum cleaner Beth, which seems to have made it through another holiday weekend. 

Up to Speed

  • President Joe Biden said Monday that, while he has not yet firmed up plans for an official campaign launch, he intends to run for reelection next year.
  • First-term Sen. Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona is reportedly laying the groundwork for a reelection bid in 2024, the Wall Street Journal reports. Sinema changed her party affiliation from Democratic to independent earlier this year and has not formally announced whether she will seek another term.
  • Democratic Sen. Bob Casey of Pennsylvania announced Monday morning that he will run for re-election in 2024. 
  • Democratic Sen. Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut, 77, underwent surgery Sunday after a Saturday fall at a victory celebration for the University of Connecticut men’s basketball team in Hartford left him with a fractured leg. Blumenthal said Sunday that the surgery was  “completely successful” and that he plans to be in the U.S. Capitol next week when the Senate returns from recess.
  • House Foreign Affairs Chairman Michael McCaul said during an interview from Taipei last week that if China invades Taiwan, congressional authorization of U.S. troops to defend the island is a distinct possibility. “If communist China invaded Taiwan, it would certainly be on the table and something that would be discussed by Congress and with the American people,” McCaul told Fox News.
  • Two federal judges from Texas and Washington issued two conflicting rulings on Friday regarding the Food and Drug Administration’s approval of mifepristone, an abortion pill that has been available to women for more than two decades. U.S. District Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk ordered a hold on federal approval of the drug; shortly thereafter, U.S. District Judge Thomas Rice essentially forbade the government from revoking its approval. The Biden administration appealed Kacsmaryk’s decision Friday evening; the competing rulings suggest the case is likely bound for the Supreme Court.
  • The Department of Education introduced a long-anticipated draft rule on Thursday that would prohibit blanket bans on transgender athletes in K-12 and college-level sports teams under Title IX, but would allow individual schools to draft sex-related criteria that limits transgender students from participating in sports for the purpose of preventing sports-related injuries and ensuring fair competition. 

No Labels, Big Plans

As Donald Trump widens the gap in early GOP primary polling over his top potential challenger, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, a 2020 rematch between the former commander in chief and President Joe Biden is looking more likely. But one outside group is laying the groundwork to offer Americans an alternative.

The nonpartisan organization No Labels is in the process of securing ballot lines for a potential independent presidential ticket in every state that allows for them—37 or 38, by the group’s count. It has already succeeded in four: Alaska, Arizona, Colorado, and Oregon. It’s a significant effort, with $70 million behind it.   

The plan is already kicking up resistance. Last month, Arizona Democrats sued Secretary of State Adrian Fontes to block the Democrat from adding No Labels to the ballot, accusing the group of “not following the rules for political party recognition, while attempting to be placed on the ballot along actual, functioning political parties who do.”

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Comments (32)
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  1. Jayjr2

    Oh if only it were so .... an apolitical organization presenting a candidate for President because it's the right thing for this country.
    I am so jaded by the antics of the ultras on both ends it's hard to accept that one on them is not behind this.
    Barr's comment at the end of the newsletter is so interesting.
    Both parties rally around trump.
    The democrats desperately need him.
    The republicans don't know what else to do.

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    1. CatoTheElder

      How do you come to the conclusion that No Labels is ‘apolitical’? It sure looks from here like a very big lot of what they’re doing is…yeah, political. ‘Non-partisan’? Sure, I’ll buy that, at least in the kinda-sorta mode. But ‘apolitical’? If trying to influence elections, candidate selection, and the like isn’t political, just what is?

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      1. Jayjr2

        You are correct.
        Non-partisan would be a better description.

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  2. Raincheck

    “ Santos has put GOP leaders in a bind. Urging him to resign ahead of 2024 would trigger a special election, potentially jeopardizing House Republicans’ five-seat majority and entire legislative agenda.”

    Hilarious. What exactly is their agenda, and how will it become law with a Democratic Senate and President? What are they working towards that merits supporting Santos?

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    Zvpastormitch

    If it is Trump Biden again.
    I will be glad I have someone else to vote for. Almost anyone, even Synema.
    Mitch Daniels would be ideal.

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    1. CatoTheElder

      I’d vote for Mr. Whipple (of Charmin toilet tissue fame) or Mr. Ed (yep, the horse) or Betty Crocker or Ginger or Mary Ann or the guy who served as the starter for the Pinewood Derby for Cub Scout Pack 457 last fall before I’d vote for either Biden or Trump this go-round. Not that any of these others would actually get my vote. Except maybe for Mary Ann—no, wait, I’ve just been told she’s dead. Never mind.

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    2. Brook

      Mitch is definitely number 1 on my list.

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    JohnD

    Sad, but I am getting the feeling that the Republicans will be a minority party for at least 10 years, and perhaps a generation. They offer no ideas, no reason to vote for them, and a rather embarrassing level of intellectual heft. 40 years ago, the Republicans could claim the intellectual high ground…no longer I am afraid. Fasten your seatbelts for Democratic control of DC for as far as the eye can see.

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    Earl King

    This is all so predictable. A hellish version of repeal and replace or in other words “there never was a plan”.
    I won’t go in to McCarthy’s concessions to the Freedom Caucus crowd because what is done is done.

    I completely agree both Biden and McCarthy should demand a budget to negotiate...McCarthy needs to then lay it out to the GOP caucus....Do you guys want to put out a budget that gets to balance in 10 years or not. It is that simple. Then vote on it and move on.....The problem is it that it is impossible, without cutting programs Americans love and think somebody else is paying for, will get pissed. Dems will use the budget as a cudgel to beat the living crap out of them.

    Vote up or down.....McCarthy can’t work if others don’t work. IF the FC doesn’t like the results tough shit. The problems is this. These FC idiots don’t care about anything other than their safe seat. They’re perfectly fine being Congresspeople even when the opposition is running this. Their favorite sport is bomb-thowing. I love it too...it’s fun. As a political tool it is useless unless you only care about 1 person. No wonder they recognize themselves in Trump.

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  6. Biebighauser

    The "No Labels" gambit is a joke, just like its predecessors. These efforts are typically ginned up by elitists, or wannabe elitists, whose main pitch seems to be if Americans would just elect the "right people" that would cure our ills. These efforts end up cratering because the principals can only paper over ideological divides for so long before having to take positions on issues and then cratering from criticism from all sides. Even Ross Perot, who was the most successful of these type of candidates ("get under the hood"), took incoming from both sides. Regardless of what one thinks of the Republicans and Democrats, this will never work.

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      Pat Riot

      The backers appear to be Trump supporters, so maybe it will "work" in the sense of siphoning votes from Biden to make Trump win in swing states. We'll see.

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    Magpie

    If these "no labels" folks somehow manage to get Trump re-elected, I think I may be able to come up with a few labels for them. Quite a few labels, actually.

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    1. CatoTheElder

      I’d be happy to suggest a few, too.

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    Bill Dyer (aka Beldar)

    So wait — whut now?

    The essential hope of the No Labels movement nationally involves Kyrsten Sinema — or someone like her (how, I can't say, since this is all about avoiding labels) — winning the largest plurality of voters in Texas over the candidates nominated by both the Republican and Democratic Parties?

    Ross Perot, whose own native Texan credentials were impeccable, got 22% in 1992 — a very impressive total compared to most third-party candidates, but still a very distant third place. In whose fevered fantasies does Kyrsten Sinema (or Mitt Romney or Mitch Daniels or whoever) actually finish first here?

    To whomever paid the data analyst who came up with the Dallas-as-sin-qua-non study, and all y'all others who collectively have pledged (likely) or contributed (less likely) the $70 million referenced in this essay: You've clearly got more money than sense.

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    1. David R

      Well, if the Republican nominee is clearly a loon and the Dem nominee is clearly senile, if there's anyone else reasonably competent and reasonably well qualified on the ballot, that person certainly *ought* to finish first, but the probability does seem low.

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      George.Skinner

      I think it's pretty hopeless as a national-level approach, especially if they can't even get on the ballot in 10-20 states. It seems more like they could have some impact at a state level. One of the problems for state-level races for federal office is that the national imperatives of the party platform prevent candidates from running on a platform that's more suited to where they're running. Take Texas, for example: Democrats keep running progressive darlings like Beto O'Rourke or Wendy Davis with lavish funding, but their politics simply don't have traction. A candidate who could run to the left of the Republican but stay fairly centrist would have a better shot, especially if MAGA insists to running a Trumpy stop the steal cultist who's *way* to the right. The advantage of a 3rd party would be freeing a moderate candidate from a national platform that doesn't play well locally, and also eliminate the stigma for voters crossing party lines to support their traditional rival. The same thing could work in blue areas where a centre-right candidate could win votes from an overly progressive rival without getting shoved into MAGA inanity.

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    J. Eric

    Nice work. Thanks

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    JohnM.

    This was a pretty good wrap-up, folks. Thanks.

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