Joe Cunningham, the national director for the political organization No Labels, said Thursday that the group won’t put forth a third-party presidential ticket because the hero the group was looking for “never emerged.”
Cunningham joined Fox News channel’s “Your World with Neil Cavuto” shortly after No Labels made its announcement, where he was questioned about what went wrong.
“Let me say, it’s not for lack of trying, that’s for sure,” Cunningham said. “And the shorter answer is that to field this ticket, No Labels was looking for a hero, and a hero never emerged.”
The group announced it would end its effort to put together a “Unity ticket in the 2024 presidential election,” even after it gained ballot access in more than 20 states.
Cunningham said the group has been “very straightforward and upfront and honest” with voters that they would only move forward if two conditions were met: If Americans wanted another option outside the two dominant parties, and if the group could find someone to lead it.
He said Americans “definitely” wanted another option instead of the two leading candidates, President Biden and former President Trump. Cunningham argued that No Labels ran into trouble finding a candidate who would back it.
“At the end of the day, we weren’t able to find candidates that we felt had a straightforward path to victory in this,” he said.
No Labels leaders hinted at a list of potential candidates, including Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.), Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan (R), and former GOP primary contestants former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) and former United Nations ambassador Nikki Haley, but ultimately none took the group up on their possible offers.
“At the end of the day, pushing a bat back against your respective political party is difficult in this duopoly and the establishment does not reward dissent and so we found it difficult to find the leaders to step up with the courage to be able to say ‘OK, we’re putting our country first and you know, damn the consequences within our respective parties.’”