No Labels, no presidential candidate this year

Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) and Jon Huntsman (R) at No Labels event

Joe Biden's camp worried No Labels would siphon off votes in key battleground states

(Image credit: John Tully for The Washington Post via Getty Images)

published 5 April 2024

What happened

The centrist group No Labels on Thursday abandoned its bid to run a presidential candidate in the 2024 election after some 30 prominent potential candidates declined to join its "unity ticket."

"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," said the group's CEO, Nancy Jacobson. "No such candidates emerged." No Labels' effort was "doomed, dangerous and would divide the anti-Trump coalition," said Matt Bennett, vice president of the centrist Democratic group Third Way. "We are deeply relieved that everyone rejected their offer."

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No Labels cofounder Andy Bursky said he wouldn't rule out running a presidential candidate in 2028, saying the group has been "strengthened," not "beaten by this effort." The successful "no-holds-barred effort to kill a No Labels candidacy" this year may prove a "Pyrrhic" victory for Democrats, as the "rise of Robert F. Kennedy Jr." is shaping up to be "at least as big a threat" to Biden's reelection, said Jonathan Weisman at The New York Times.

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Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.