The founding co-chair of No Labels says the centrist group will soon form a nominating committee to likely begin considering potential running mates for a possible bipartisan, third party “unity ticket” the organization would field in next year’s presidential election.
“In the next month or two, we’re going to form a nominating committee of representatives of our members around the country. And my guess is that committee will begin to make lists of we should consider if we decide to run a ticket,” former Sen. Joe Lieberman said in an interview with Fox News Digital.
Asked if three moderates—Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia, Republican Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, and former GOP Gov. Larry Hogan of Maryland — would be considered for the potential ticket, Lieberman said they “are very active members of No Labels” and “would be naturals to consider” as he pointed toward their “strong records of bipartisanship and getting things done for the country and for their constituents.”
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Sen. Joe Manchin, DW.Va., speaks during a news conference on Sept. 20, 2022, at the Capitol in Washington. West Virginia Republican (AP Photo/Mariam Zuhaib)
“But I think we’re gonna look outside too. It doesn’t have to be all people in elective office now and it could be retired military leaders or business leaders or people from the world of entertainment,” he added.
“If we get to the point that we’re going to start considering candidates before we decide whether to run a ticket next year, we have to be ready. We’re going to look inside the box of people who have been in elective office , but also outside the box at people that have not,” Lieberman elaborated. “The country really needs strong, new, bipartisan leadership. And that’s not all going to come from people who’ve already served in Washington.”
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Lieberman, a former longtime senator from Connecticut who served as the Democratic vice presidential nominee in the 2000 election and ran unsuccessfully in 2004 for his party’s presidential nomination before winning a final election to the Senate in 2006 as an independent, reiterated that No Labels is aiming to get on the ballot in all 50 states in order to be in the position to possibly field a third party ticket next year if President Biden and former President Trump are the major party nominees in 2024.
File photo of then-Sen. Joe Lieberman of Connecticut, on August 8, 2006 in New Haven, Connecticut. (Photo by Bill Tompkins/Getty Images) (Photo by Bill Tompkins/Getty Images)
“The game plan for now, honestly, is just to put us in a position by next March, April, that we will be qualified for a third line hopefully on all 50 state ballots so we’ll have that option to run a ticket, Lieberman said.
And he said No Labels members are “so fed up with the partisanship in our federal government, Washington politics, and they’re disappointed with a choice of former presidents Trump and current President Biden and they want to create a path to a third option. “
“It’s very clear from all the polling, more than a majority of people in our country say they don’t want the election of Trump and Biden again. They want something else and if the two parties don’t give it to them, No Labels might well do that,” he stressed.
But Lieberman added that “I think we’re only going to do it if we feel we actually might have a chance to elect that bipartisan ticket.”
He also pushed back on criticism from plenty of Democrats that a No Labels presidential ticket would pave a path for victory for Trump in next year’s election.
“That’s not our goal here,” he emphasized. “We’re not about electing either President Trump or President Biden.”
Lieberman said the mission of No Labels, which was formed in 2010, is “to get our government back to some sort of bipartisan center, where people of both parties and all ideologies come to the center and talk about our big problems, immigration, the economy, debt, crime, and instead of just fighting each other.”
But he added that “the attacks that we’ve suffered lately, mostly from Democrats on the left, really show that they know we’re were serious. And they also see in the polling, that we’re representing a majority of the American people and that frightens them because we’re going to disrupt that two-party monopoly on our politics. But honestly, it needs to be disrupted for the good of the country.”
Lieberman highlighted that No Labels has already raised roughly $30 million as part of its effort to get on the ballot in all 50 states. But he acknowledges that if the group goes ahead and fields a third party presidential ticket next year it will need to raise hundreds of millions of dollars.
“If we get to that point, we’ll figure out how to raise the money,” Lieberman explained. “But I will say this: We’ve had real responses both from small and large contributors who are just worried about the future of the country, and know that we’re never going to solve our big problems… unless we end the partisanship and the gridlock in Washington, so I think we’re going to be able to raise that money if we actually go ahead and run a unity ticket for America.”
That potential ticket would be unveiled at the group’s national convention, which will convene next April in Dallas, Texas.
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“That’s the point where… we may well nominate a bipartisan unity ticket or if we’ve decided not to run it, we’ll certainly have a platform,” Lieberman noted.
And he touted that it “will be a real political convention, but not a partisan convention. There’ll be Republicans, Democrats, independents, liberals, conservatives, and moderates.”
