No Labels Could Unveil Its Biden and Trump Challenger Next Week

Is Geoff Duncan the man for a No Labels presidential bid? Photo: Alex Slitz/AP

The specter of another presidential candidacy to challenge Joe Biden, Donald Trump, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Cornel West, Jill Stein, and whoever the Libertarians nominate grew much more tangible on March 14 when the nonpartisan No Labels organization set up a committee to choose its proposed “unity ticket” as soon as March 21, according to longtime No Labels spokespol Joe Lieberman on an interview with CNN. This will be a second shoe dropping; the first was last week’s vote by “grassroots delegates” affiliated with No Labels green-lighting the idea of a presidential bid in advance of candidates being named.

There’s a chance No Labels will decide that there are no viable candidates who subscribe to the “common sense” policy agenda. But assuming the “Country Over Party Committee” No Labels created to pick its candidates comes through, the same delegates who issued the green-light would vote at some point this spring to formally nominate the “unity ticket.” (Again, they could in theory vote the ticket down, but that seems unlikely given the cozy relationship all these elements of No Labels have with each other.) All along, No Labels leaders have sworn they’ll stop in their tracks if they lack evidence the ticket could actually win and have expressed particular horror at the idea their efforts might help Trump reclaim the White House. As the organization’s centrist Democratic critics at Third Way warn, it’s a little unclear how and even whether they could pull the plug on a “unity ticket” after this virtual nomination occurs, particularly since No Labels claims the candidates will be on their own once they are nominated. But the organization maintains it will control its ballot lines until at least the end of July. The ticket has already won ballot access in 16 states with up to 17 others in the pipeline.

As for the identity of these candidates … that remains something of a mystery. The plan all along has been to match a Republican and a Democrat, and as fears intensified that No Labels might soak up enough anti-Trump voters to help the former president win, it became clear the group would almost certainly put a Republican at the top of the ticket. Both Republican Larry Hogan (who is running for the Senate in Maryland) and Democrat Joe Manchin (who is retiring) were considered possible No Labels presidential candidates or ticket mates and eventually took a pass. Nikki Haley, who could have given the “unity ticket” a candidate with a following and a lot of name ID, emphatically disclaimed interest before and after she dropped out of the Republican race. Pickings are getting slim.

Most recently, speculation about a No Labels presidential prospect have centered on former Georgia lieutenant governor Geoff Duncan, a standard-brand conservative Republican until he sided with Governor Brian Kemp and Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger in rejecting Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 Biden victory in the state. Unlike Kemp and Raffensperger, who took on and defeated Trump-backed primary opponents and won reelection in 2022, Duncan chose not to run (he was succeeded by the very Trumpy Burt Jones). This doesn’t speak highly of his risk-taking proclivities, so it’s unclear how interested he might be in a No Labels nomination. A presidential candidate of his limited stature would indeed be an acid test of No Labels’ claim that at least a plurality of American votes are so ready to dump both Biden and Trump that they’ll flock to any centrist alternative. Duncan was once a minor-league baseball player whose career was cut short by injury. It seems unlikely he’ll make it to the big leagues in politics.