A self-described “radical centrist” party that is seeking ballot access in Tennessee will not run candidates lower than the presidential level if granted that access.
“We are pleased to potentially have No Labels on the ballot in Tennessee for the 2024 presidential election,” Ryan Clancy, chief strategist at No Labels, told The Tennessee Star. “We will not offer our ballot line to candidates for any office other than the presidency. We’re just creating an opening for an independent Unity presidential ticket if that’s what the people of America – and Tennessee – want and need.”
As reported by The Star, the No Labels Party – supported by high-profile moderates like former Republican Governor of Maryland Larry Hogan, former Democrat Governor of North Carolina Pat McCrory, and former Democrat Senator Joe Lieberman (pictured above) of Connecticut – is attempting to collect signatures to petition for ballot access in Tennessee.
Elections rules in the Volunteer State dictate that the organization must collect the number of signatures equivalent to 2.5 percent of the total number of voters who voted in the last gubernatorial election, in this case 43,497.
No Labels has faced its staunchest criticism from Democrats, including President Joe Biden himself, who fear that if the group runs a candidate in the 2024 presidential race, it will help Republicans win.
“He has a democratic right to do it, there’s no reason not to do it,” Biden said of Lieberman, The Arizona Sun Times reported, adding that No Labels is “going to help the other guy” and Lieberman “knows” it.
Biden also said, “that’s a political decision he’s making, that I obviously think is a mistake, but he has a right to do that.”
Left-wing interest groups, too, are taking No Labels to task.
As reported by The Sun Times:
The influential Democracy Alliance, the nation’s largest club for wealthy liberal donors, told German-owned Politico that Democrats are “increasingly concerned” that a No Labels presidential ticket “could function as a spoiler” for Biden and help former President Donald Trump regain the White House.
Democracy Alliance president Pamela Shifman told the outlet No Labels “has no chance of winning” but could capture enough votes for Trump to win, “catapulting our country into MAGA authoritarianism” in the process. She claimed No Labels’ goal is to “splinter off the coalition of voters who banded together to defeat” the former president in 2020.
No Labels did not return a follow up comment request seeking to find out which political figures might comprise its “unity presidential ticket,” and how those candidates would be selected.
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Pete D’Abrosca is a reporter at The Tennessee Star and The Star News Network. Follow Pete on X / Twitter.
Image “Joe Lieberman” by Joe Lieberman.
