Is 2024 The Year For A Viable Third-Party Presidential Candidate?

Written By Guest User

Controversial "No Labels" Party Is Looking To Nominate An Alternative To Trump and Biden

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August sipped away like a bottle of wine.

Wishing you a nice holiday weekend. We’ll see you back here on Tuesday.

Have a good one!

Mosheh, Jill, & Courtney

 

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🗞 AMERICAN POLITICS: THREE’S COMPANY OR THREE’S A CROWD?

As it’s looking more and more like a Donald Trump, Joe Biden rematch in 2024— a face off that 2/3 of Americans say they’re not happy about— is this the moment when a third party candidate could really break through?

Enter: No Labels, a moderate, bipartisan group that has been calling for the parties to work together for over a decade, and is now spending $70 million to potentially run a third-party presidential ticket. They’ve been doing focus groups to help figure out a plan to select a candidate next year without a traditional state-run primary system. They say their polling shows a majority of Americans are craving an alternative.

HOW THIS WOULD WORK
No Labels is considering having televised town halls or debates to help jump-start the process of selecting presidential and vice-presidential nominees, according to The Washington Post.

NO SPOILER ALERT
No Labels says its mission is to elevate bipartisan compromise.

The plan would be to nominate candidates at an April convention in Dallas– but only if the group’s leaders believe there is a viable path to victory against the Democratic and Republican nominees.

They have repeatedly vowed not to run a spoiler candidate who has no chance at winning, and instead merely takes votes away from President Biden, and helps former President Trump regain the White House.

LOGISTICAL HURDLES
Because it’s a new party without traditional state-by-state primary infrastructure, they’re considering three possibilities for a nomination process to let voters choose for a presidential ticket.

  • A contested convention process with multiple potential candidates in Dallas, and as many as 2,000 delegates selected through a TBD process.

  • Hold a vote among tens of thousands of No Labels members, who have contributed even small amounts to the group.

  • Invite the upwards of 77 million American voters who No Labels has identified as independent voters to select the nominee. TBD process.

LET’S NAME NAMES
Among the potential candidate names being circulated:

  • Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W. Va.)

  • Former Democratic Hawaii Rep. Tulsi Gabbard

  • New Hampshire Governor Chris Sununu (R)

  • Former Maryland Governor Larry Hogan (R)

  • Retired Adm. William McRaven, the former head of the U.S. Special Operations Command

  • Former Utah Governor Jon Huntsman (R), who ran for president in 2012 as a Republican.

ANTI-NO LABELS SUPER PAC
Some top Democrats are pushing hard against the effort, saying a third party has no shot and would take more votes away from Biden than Trump.

Important History: Democrats blame third party candidates Ralph Nader (2000) and Jill Stein (2016) for taking away enough progressive votes in key states, leading to electoral college defeats for Al Gore and Hillary Clinton (who both won the national popular vote).

And that’s why there’s now ANOTHER bi-partisan group made of prominent Democrats and Republicans who’ve created their own anti-No Labels super PAC. While we think it should have been called, “Yes, Labels,” it goes by Citizens to Save Our Republic.

📊 They say their own polling shows that No Labels has no shot at winning and would merely be a spoiler. In a three way race, Trump would win with 40 percent of the vote, Biden gets 39 percent and the No Labels candidate would get 21 percent.

  • Notably, Democratic critics are also diving into who is funding the “No Labels” movement—adding that it includes some Trump backers.

SO YOU’RE TELLING ME THERE’S A CHANCE
A third-party challenger hasn’t won the presidency since the two modern Democrat and Republican parties first faced off in the 1856 election. Here’s a graph looking at which candidates have gotten the closest. Yep, that’s Teddy Roosevelt in 1912, when he came in second to Woodrow Wilson. (He’d already served as president as a Republican and tried to come back with his own third party.)

📝 MO NEWS COMMUNITY: Still, we heard from many people in the Mo News community who said they would love the opportunity to vote for a third party candidate:

🔌 JOIN THE MO NEWS TEAM: We’ve gone even deeper into this issue over on the Mo News Premium Instagram account. We go back to George Washington’s warning against political parties and how John Adams, Alexander Hamilton and Thomas Jefferson ignored him, creating the first two party infrastructure.

You can check that out over at Mo News Premium, where we’re offering a free 30-day trial (code: monewstrial). That is where we answer your questions and do deep-dives on this issue and many others, like supermajorities and state legislatures. Look out for a weekly premium News Quiz there as well! SIGN UP HERE

 

✔︎ Mo News Reality Check: No Labels has a Herculean task in front of them. They need to get their chosen third-party candidate on the ballot in all 50 states; so far they’ve secured a place on the ballot in Arizona, Colorado, Alaska and Oregon.

But the American system is really designed for two parties. It awards seats in Congress and the presidency with a winner-take-all (not proportional) method. In 48 of 50 states, presidential candidates get all of a state’s electoral votes— as long as they win a plurality of the vote in that state.

⏳ SPEED READ

🚨NATION

📌 U.S. health officials want to loosen marijuana restrictions (CNBC)

📌 Trump pleads ‘not guilty’ in Georgia racketeering case (POLITICO)

📌 GOP senators weigh ‘special’ meeting on their leadership after McConnell’s freeze (POLITICO)

📌 Former Proud Boys leaders Joseph Biggs, Zachary Rehl sentenced for Jan. 6 sedition (ABC)

🌎 AROUND THE WORLD

📌Fire in Johannesburg kills at least 74 people, including a dozen children (NEW YORK TIMES)

📌 China's Xi likely to skip G20 summit in India, sources say (REUTERS)

📌 Saudi man sentenced to death for tweets in harshest verdict yet for online critics (NPR)

📌 Growing number of countries consider making ecocide (destroying environment) a crime (THE GUARDIAN)

📱SCIENCE, BUSINESS & TECH

📌 Human ancestors nearly went extinct 900,000 years ago (NATURE)

📌 Visual artists fight back against AI companies for repurposing their work (ABC)

📌 Apple reportedly tests 3D printing to manufacture the new Apple Watch (CNBC)

📌 Dinosaur footprints emerge amid severe drought in Texas (NEWSWEEK)

🎬 SPORTS & ENTERTAINMENT

📌 Taylor Swift announces Eras Tour concert film heading to theaters in October (ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY)

📌 Nebraska volleyball sets world record for women's sports attendance. (ESPN)

📌 Duane “The Rock” Johnson, Oprah donate $10M to Hawaii wildfire relief, start people's fund (BLEACHER REPORT)

📌 ‘The Golden Bachelor’ Cast Revealed: Meet the Women Vying for Grandpa Gerry’s Heart (VARIETY)

🎉 CHEERS TO THE FREAKIN WEEKEND

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