Hogan defends No Labels mission: ‘Nobody’s trying to spoil anything’ 

Former Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan (R) on Sunday defended the mission of No Labels against criticism that if the group launched a third-party ticket, it could dilute the voting pool and end up handing the election to former President Trump — a prospect at odds with the group’s core mission. 

In an interview that aired on CBS News’s “Face the Nation,” Hogan stressed that there are few conditions under which No Labels would launch a third-party ticket, and that the goal would be to be able to win a majority, not to spoil the race. 

“Nobody’s trying to spoil anything. This is about actually receiving a majority of the votes,” Hogan said. 

“I think we should only put together a ticket in the event that it’s Trump and Biden. And I’m still, again, still trying to work to make sure we can get a good Republican nominee,” in which case, he said, a third-party ticket is “no longer necessary. But it has to be a good ticket that can actually win, you know. I would only be in it to win it.”

In the interview Sunday, Hogan did not rule out leading the ticket himself, but said, “It’s not something I’m pursuing.”

Asked whether there was a door still open on the issue of leading the No Labels ticket, he said, “I’m hoping we don’t get to that point. I have not closed the door to that. If I believe that we can actually win the race, we have a strong ticket, that those two major candidates are weak, we might have to try to pull off something that’s never been done, which is sort of what I did in Maryland.”

In nearly every poll of potential GOP voters during these last few months, Trump has maintained a double-digit lead against his closest competitor in a theoretical primary. Biden also looks poised to win his party’s nomination. 

While Trump faces four criminal indictments expected to go to trial most likely in the next year, it remains unclear what effect those charges will have on his campaign or White House prospects.