No Labels’s third-party "unity ticket" run at the 2024 presidential election flamed out this week, as the organization placing itself at the vanguard of the centrist movement acknowledged that it couldn’t find a "hero" to compete against President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump in November.

But the organization will tune in to its supporters and membership to "listen to thoughts and ideas of how to move this forward," No Labels CEO and founder Nancy Jacobson said Friday in a Zoom call including more than 700 people.

What You Need To Know

  • No Labels, the centrist third-party organizatino that promised to run a "unity ticket" for the 2024 presidential election, explained why they chose to suspend their ambitions

  • "The hero needed did not emerge," a No Labels leader said, admitting that no candidates stood out during the selection process the group announced earlier in March

  • The organization hoped it would find a "common sense" bi-partisan ticket that could find a middle ground between President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump

  • No Labels said that it would move forward by speaking with small regional groups to determine a path forward

"This has been a remarkable effort around a big idea that this country needs. We fell short, because we didn’t have the two individuals that we felt could do the job," former Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings, the national convention chair of No Labels, said Friday on the call. "But in shooting for the stars there, we have accomplished so much."

The call, which the organization convened one day after the Wall Street Journal reported No Labels was ending its bid for a unity ticket, seemed to be something of a mea culpa for supporters. 

"I think one question that’s got to be on your mind…is, why did this hit the press before we talked?" Rawlings asked aloud, before suggesting that the last 10 days for the organization have been especially hectic. As he explained, the most recent major candidate for the No Labels "Unity Ticket" explained "where he stood" — which Rawlings didn’t expand on — followed by the death of former Sen. Joe Lieberman, No Labels’ "spiritual leader" and co-founder.

Then, after the organization’s leadership team decided to reconvene and put this year’s campaign to pasture, the news leaked, and No Labels responded with a news release. "Sorry, that happens — this happens when you’re doing stuff across the nation in a virtual way," Rawlings, effectively the host of the call, said.

Rawlings was joined by Jacobson, former Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon and No Labels national co-chair Ben Chavis. The four leaders in the organization expressed similar ideas — that the attempt to build a viable "unity ticket" was earnest and well-waged; that the major candidates for the presidency will be forced to appeal to "common sense" voters; and that the organization will move forward on its "next phase of work" — though precisely what that work will be hasn’t yet been determined.

Save, at least, for supporting "common sense congressional candidates" — like former Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan, who is currently running to represent Maryland in the U.S. Senate. Nixon touted Hogan’s association with No Labels, calling him a "standard bearer" from the organization.

No Labels has spent much of the last two years touting itself as an alternative to the two-party system dominated for the last century by Democrats and Republicans. 

The organization’s members, No Labels senior strategist Ryan Clancy told Spectrum News in 2023, "didn’t like what they saw" coming for the 2024 presidential election. They proposed a "unity ticket," pairing a Democrat and a Republican to run for the presidency and vice presidency. In early March, No Labels held a press conference stating its intentions for a "unity ticket" selection process. It was reported by various that potential candidates like former Ambassador Nikki Haley, retiring Sen. Joe Manchin and former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie were all among the names uninterested in a run on the No Labels ticket.

But, as Chavis said on Friday’s call, No Labels "needed someone exceptional" to take the ticket. And "at the end of the day, the hero needed did not emerge."

Though call leaders referred to No Labels as a "grassroots organization," its roots are planted on Capitol Hill. Jacobson was, for many years, a top fundraiser for the Democratic Party before founding No Labels in 2010, and the group touts its influence in the halls of Congress through the "Problem Solvers Caucus," a bipartisan group of House members who are willing to work across the aisle on policy issues. (The Problem Solvers Caucus takes credit for work passing the CHIPS and Science Act, the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, and the debt ceiling deal of 2023.)

However, No Labels has been successful in rallying registered votes to carry their flag. The organization — which positions itself as a "movement," not a political party — has won ballot access in 21 states across the country.

No Labels regularly clarifies that it is a federally registered non-profit, not a national political party. It has also fought to ensure that it doesn’t have to allow just anyone to use their ballot line for just any contest, winning a lawsuit in Arizona to ensure that the No Labels party line can only be granted to its candidates for the presidency. 

Jacobson teased "more announcements of what’s to come next" in the future, after offering more concrete plans to schedule "smaller regional calls" to determine next steps for No Labels.

"People are taking us so seriously, and I think it’s going to impact the parties and impact Congress as well," Rawlings said near the call’s conclusion, calling supporters to reflect. "The question to you has gotta be, do you think this is the right idea? Does the center need this voice?"

In the immediate term, voters will largely be tasked with choosing between Biden and Trump — and No Labels National Director Joe Cunningham, a former Congressman from South Carolina, has made his choice.

"Me, as a person? I would vote for Biden over Trump," Cunningham told Fox News.