Maryland Governor Larry Hogan, a Republican and honorary co-chair of No Labels, said in an interview over the weekend that he hasn’t ruled out the possibility of running for president with the organization. However, a Hogan-led No Labels presidential ticket is not something he’s actively pursuing.
Talking with CBS’ News Face the Nation over the weekend, Hogan fielded multiple questions about No Labels and its goals for 2024, claims of it acting as a “spoiler” for former President Donald Trump’s benefit, and any potential plans he might have about being the top of the organization’s ticket.
According to Hogan, who only feels the organization should put forward a ticket if the Democratic and Republican Parties nominate President Joe Biden and Trump, a No Labels ticket would not come at the expense of President Joe Biden. In addition, he feels that such concerns initially came as a response to the organization potentially having West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin atop the ticket.
“I think that all started when there was a lot of talk about a Democrat heading up this ticket and they didn’t want a Democrat splitting up the Democratic vote. There was talking- there was a lot of talk–,” Meet the Press quotes Hogan as saying.
Representatives for No Labels have frequently said the organization will only run a candidate if the environment is right. They’ve been adamant that they do not want a No Labels presidential ticket to throw the election to any one candidate, especially former President Donald Trump.
However, Hogan still said there’s “a good likelihood” that No Labels will field a ticket for the 2024 election cycle. He also said that he sees the organization securing 50-state ballot access if it can assemble a “really great ticket.”
“I’m not sure sitting here today that Donald Trump and Joe Biden are the two nominees of the major parties or whether this ever lifts off the ground,” Hogan is quoted as saying. “But if in fact, that’s the case, I do believe that this group has a chance to get access to the ballot in all 50 states and if they put together you know, a really great ticket, and ran a perfect campaign, that they would actually have a shot to be not just a spoiler, but to be in it to win it.”
When asked if he would be the Republican atop a No Labels ticket, Hogan was dismissive, saying that “it’s not something I’m pursuing.” Still, he acknowledged remaining open to the idea when pushed further.
“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,” Hogan said. “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.”
While Hogan didn’t specify Republican individuals that he’d want No Labels to court instead of him, he did recognize the achievements of Vermont Governor Phil Scott and former Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker as models for the kind of political success it aims to replicate.
Hogan also took a dig at Green Party presidential hopeful Dr. Cornel West during his interview, directly referring to him as a spoiler candidate at the expense of Biden.
“But the Biden team ought to be concerned right now; they have a Green Party candidate that’s drawing three or four percent all away from Biden and then talk about a spoiler,” he said.
However, a look at earlier polling that included West in a three-way match-up between him, Joe Biden, and Donald Trump shows West pulling support equally from Republicans and Democrats. A further examination of polling crosstabs at the time also shows West’s most substantial support base as coming from self-described independents. Readers can view the Independent Political Report article examining West’s early polling here.
A complete transcript of Governor Larry Hogan’s interview with Meet the Press is available here.
Are they on the ballot in West Virginia? Someone moderate would attract a lot of support however I remember the last time a group came along and turned out to be nothing but talk. Remember America Elect talked about running someone and then fell flat.
Governor Cox of Utah
Colorado Governor Jared Polis is a strong supporter of legalizing marijuana and he also supports legalizing therapeutic use of psychedelics. He supports free enterprise and limiting government – not as much as some want to limit it – and he was a member of the Liberty Caucus when he was in Congress.
Compulsory lockdowns are bad, but during the middle ages, they shot people to keep the plague from spreading. Opponents of lockdowns and vaccines have not made clear their own approach to dealing with infectious diseases.
More importantly, i have seen the people who talk about vaccine tyranny and lockdowns all too often don’t care about the bigger attacks on freedom – including the angi-abortion authoritarians.
Criticize Jared Polis or others for lockdowns and vaccines, but I would take these people more seriously if they also criticized the other attacks on our freedom.
And George – who is Cox?
Jim – good points regarding Huntsman, he’s certainly not someone I line up with on numerous issues, I was just basing my suggestion given that it seems that No Labels doesn’t actually have a big list of politicos with previous experience in elected office, or a modicum of name recognition to work with, and that among the 3 that have been making the presser rounds recently (Manchin, Huntsman, Hogan) that are part of the org, he is the one that probably had the best approval records in the offices he held, as well as being the most articulate and semi-charismatic speaker out of that admittedly limited selection.
Regarding what voting block he could possibly pick up, seems to me No Labels target is the “silent majority” types that are actually wanting someone that is cognitively functioning and not an narcissistic compulsive liar. Whether they can actually pick that block up (which I’d evaluate is way larger than any typical libertarian voting block) remains to be seen though.
What voting block does Huntsman pick up? He’s radically pro-life, which rules out the vast majority of Democrats looking for an alternative to Biden. He supported bailouts, not just of US companies, but of entire European countries, which rules out the vast majority of Libertarians looking for an alternative to a Mises candidate. He’s too soft on foreign policy for the NeoConservatives looking for an alternative to Trump.
Who’s left? Chinese-Americans who actually want the US to take a softer stance on China and Social Conservatives who don’t like Trump?
Polis would be interesting. He like Buttigieg and Manchin is considered persona non grata by some elements of the party anyway.
Manchin to me should not be the presidential nominee. The candidate has to be someone praised by most with few enemies. Manchin can definitely be a high-level messenger of the party, but shouldn’t be the figurehead.
Polis is a terrible candidate. He pushed lockdowns shots and vaccines hard. That’s tyranny.
While Polis has at least some partial involvement with No Lables, in on the record interviews he has made it clear that he will not run against Biden during this cycle, and so far all his actions to date back that up. I agree he would be a great candidate, although sadly I don’t think a swathe of social-conservative voters would consider him, solely for him being a gay man.
Consider as a No Labels ticket Polis – Cox. Of course, they might not be interested.
I have a feeling there was some small amount of polling done showing that Manchin would be a really unpopular candidate for top-of-the-ticket, which is why we now have Hogan coming out and saying he would consider running for Pres this cycle, in contrast to his previous statements. Personally I think Huntsman would be No Labels best bet for their nomination given its current pool of possible candidates.