Fellow Centrists Warn No Labels 2024 Bid Would Hurt Biden

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There is an understandable concern among centrist political voices about the prospect of No Labels attempting a 2024 presidential run. This fear has largely gone unanswered by members of the No Labels organization.

In the wake of Joe Biden’s election victory, there has been a call among some of the centrist circles to back a third-party movement focused on reasoned, bipartisan governance. This initiative, championed by No Labels, has been met with significant skepticism.

Centrist voices have argued that such a campaign would hurt Biden’s presidency by potentially siphoning away votes that would otherwise be solidly behind him. Specifically, they have identified the difficulty in trusting a third-party candidate and potential drop in enthusiasm among Democrats that may come with the emergence of a No Labels campaign. This could be a serious danger for the newly inaugurated President Biden, who has already been leaning on centrist and sometimes Republican support to pass the components of his agenda.

There are similarities between the current situation and Ralph Nader’s Green Party campaign of 2000. Many Democrats felt that Nader cost Al Gore the election, despite Gore’s eventual concession of defeat (as well as other contributing factors). Nader rejected his critics’ claims, arguing that progressive voters would not have been enthused by Gore’s campaign anyway and were thus lost votes regardless.

In addition to potentially alienating Biden voters, a No Labels campaign could also introduce further divisions between parties that Biden himself is attempting to bridge. This would arguably make an already difficult situation even more challenging.

Nevertheless, No Labels remains largely silent on the matter, yet their silence only appears to heighten the concern. After all, an assurance of the organization’s commitment to helping Biden’s agenda, rather than detracting from it, would likely help abate many of these fears. As it stands, many centrist voices strongly oppose No Labels’ potential bid.