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rahna epting
Dark Money-Backed 'No Labels' Drops Third-Party Presidential Bid
One observer quipped that No Labels was calling it quits "to spend more time with their lobbyists."
Apr 04, 2024
Less than a month after No Labels announced it would nominate a "unity ticket" for the 2024 presidential election, the group said Thursday that it is abandoning its longshot third-party White House bid.
"No Labels has always said we would only offer our ballot line to a ticket if we could identify candidates with a credible path to winning the White House," the group said in a statement. "No such candidates emerged, so the responsible course of action is for us to stand down."
As Common Dreams reported last month, No Labels—whose own leader has admitted is "not in it to win it" but rather to "give people a choice"—has poured millions of dollars in dark money contributions into a quixotic run that critics like MoveOn executive director Rahna Epting warned could "swing the election to Donald Trump," the twice-impeached former Republican president and presumptive GOP nominee, 91 federal and state criminal charges notwithstanding.
No Labels had floated former Republican Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan and former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, a failed 2024 GOP presidential contender, as possible "unity ticket" candidates. However, the group ultimately found no takers.
Top No Labels donors include billionaire and multimillionaire Trump supporters like Nelson Peltz, private equity executive Stephen Schwarzman of Blackstone, and former 20th Century Fox CEO James Murdoch. Louis Bacon, the billionaire CEO of hedge fund Moore Capital Management, donated $1 million each to No Labels and the Republican Party after giving the maximum allowable contribution to Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, formerly one of the conservative Democrats in Congress and now an Independent.
Even with all that financial backing, No Labels' path to the ballot has been dubious. MoveOn has urged states to investigate the group for allegedly misleading voters through deceptive canvassing methods that result in their disenfranchisement.
The U.S. two-party system has been criticized for monopolizing political power at the expense of democracy and voter choice by actively working to thwart all viable third-party and independent candidates. However, political pragmatists note what they say is the folly of running unwinnable races.
"Third-party candidates are the fools gold of this election," MoveOn said on social media, adding that neither No Labels nor conspiracy theorist Robert F. Kennedy "have ballot access in all 50 states and mathematically cannot win."
"They can only play spoiler," the group added.
However, while Democrats and Republicans often automatically gain ballot access, the two parties are largely behind state laws that create often insurmountable barriers for third-party and independent challengers.
Other progressives also welcomed the news of No Labels' withdrawal—but with a warning. Melanie D'Arrigo, executive director of the Campaign for New York Health, quipped on social media that No Labels was quitting "to spend more time with their lobbyists."
"Billionaires pump millions into No Labels, and in return, their politicians push policies that transfer wealth from the working-class back to billionaires," she added. "Just because they aren't running a presidential candidate doesn't mean they aren't still a serious threat to democracy."
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MoveOn Urges States to Investigate No Labels for Misleading, Disenfranchising Voters
"No Labels should practice what they preach about uniting the country, stop misleading voters, and end their ill-advised and dangerous dark-money-funded third-party ticket," said MoveOn's executive director.
Jun 29, 2023
The grassroots progressive group MoveOn on Wednesday called on secretaries of state across the U.S. to open investigations into No Labels, the political organization that has reportedly managed to gather the support it needs to be included on 2024 election ballots in four states so far.
The group has done that, said MoveOn, by having canvassers mislead voters into signing party enrollment forms and making it look like it has more affiliated members in the states than it really does—all while disenfranchising those voters.
MoveOn Executive Director Rahna Epting wrote to secretaries of state to warn them that No Labels, which aims to run a so-called "unity ticket" in 2024 with a Democratic and a Republican candidate, is sending organizers into communities with what they claim are petitions to support the group's inclusion on ballots.
As Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows (D) warned residents of her state last month, the voters are actually signing an enrollment document and changing their party affiliation to No Labels.
"Voters were not informed that they were changing their political party to No Labels and, therefore, would be barred from participating in Democratic or Republican primaries, which are open only to registered members of those parties or to Independents," wrote Epting on Wednesday in a letter to Illinois Secretary of State Alexi Giannoulias (D).
In May, Bellows wrote to the director of ballot access for No Labels, Nicholas Connors, telling him that municipal clerks throughout Maine have alerted her office to dozens of voters who signed the group's "petition" and later realized they had been enrolled in the No Labels Party.
Dr. Ben Chavis, the Democratic co-chair of No Labels, told the Associated Press after Bellows wrote to the group that "suggesting that a majority of Maine voters who signed up with No Labels did not know what they were doing is not true."
According to Bellows, "these voters have further stated that No Labels organizers did not disclose—and the voters did not understand—that No Labels was asking them to change their party enrollment."
"To the extent representatives of No Labels are telling Maine voters that, by filling out voter registration cards, they are signing or supporting a 'petition,' No Labels should immediately cease and desist from doing so," she told Connors.
Epting asked secretaries of state across the country to "ensure these same practices cited in the Maine secretary of state's letter are not happening" in other states and that No Labels' operations in their jurisdictions are "legal and above board."
"Reports that No Labels is misleading voters and potentially violating election laws, are deeply concerning and call into question the group's entire operation," Epting told The Messenger on Wednesday. "We urge election officials in every state to ensure voters are protected from No Labels' deception."
No Labels has garnered criticism in recent weeks for its secrecy surrounding its donors, which a co-founder of the group admitted in a local news interview in Denver this week would "[open] people up to incredible scrutiny."
While the group has refused to publicly identify its funders, as Common Dreams reported in May, contributors in recent years have included Republican billionaire donor Louis Bacon and former President Donald Trump supporter Nelson Peltz.
A firm with ties to right-wing Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) has also helped No Labels with its signature-gathering operation in Colorado, one of four states—along with Oregon, Arizona, and Alaska—where the group has managed to secure a spot on 2024 ballots.
"No Labels," Epting told The Messenger, "should practice what they preach about uniting the country, stop misleading voters, and end their ill-advised and dangerous dark-money-funded third-party ticket."
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