No Labels group abandons US presidential third-party bid
Al Jazeera
The group said it aimed to offer an alternative to hyper-partisan politics, but it failed to find a champion for the general election.
It was the third-party challenge that wasn’t.
The No Labels group announced on Thursday that it will not field a third-party candidate to challenge Democrat Joe Biden and Republican Donald Trump in November’s presidential election.
The move comes after the organisation, which has billed itself as a bipartisan antidote to hyper-partisanship in the United States, failed to attract a high-profile centrist to be its champion. The US has long been dominated by two main parties — Republicans and Democrats — with third-party candidates generally failing to gain traction. They are often accused of siphoning votes from mainstream candidates.
“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,” Nancy Jacobson, the group’s CEO, said in a statement sent out to allies.
“No such candidates emerged, so the responsible course of action is for us to stand down.”
