Skip to content
Search

Latest Stories

Top Stories

A No Labels ticket: Manchin-Huntsman?

Building an infrastructure so a ballot could be available and could be offered to a ticket. Convention in Dallas offers a ballot line and then stands back.

Opinion

A No Labels ticket: Manchin-Huntsman?
Jacquelyn Martin/Associated Press; NPR

Nevins is co-publisher of The Fulcrum and co-founder and board chairman of the Bridge Alliance Education Fund.

No Labels continues to raise money, roughly $70,000,000 to date, according to founder Nancy Jacobson in a recent NBC interview to build the infrastructure so a ballot could be available to an independent ticket composed of one Democrat and one Republican to run for president in 2024. As the process proceeds, they are increasingly in the news being attacked by just about everyone.


Ironically, despite No Labels' mantra of not labeling each other as Democrats or Republicans but instead as Americans, they are being labeled more and more by members of both parties.

The speculation as to who the candidates might be grew last week as Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) mentioned the possibility of running July 17th in New Hampshire. Former Utah Republican Gov. John Huntsman also appeared at the same event and wouldn’t rule out running, although he did say he would only do so if he thought he could win.

I had the pleasure of getting to know both Manchin and Huntsman and founder Nancy Jacobson quite well 13 years ago. As a businessman who never did much in politics up until then, my life changed when I became very involved with No Labels and served on its executive board. At the time I was frustrated with the suffocating partisanship that I witnessed as a bystander to our political process that I believe most Americans abhor. I became a spokesperson along with many others urging citizens to be more aware of what I called the political circus, so they could become less susceptible to the common fallacy tactics designed to mislead and divide Americans.

The No Labels initial tag line, “Not left, not right, forward” and their problem solving approach to governance were appealing to me. I received a positive response as I spoke to many citizens across the country urging them to sift through the barrage of exaggeration, innuendo, and half-truths that define the political fray every election year and vote for leaders with integrity and courage.

I advocated then as I do now a higher standard from our elected representatives. A new paradigm of politics; one based on civil political discourse, critical thinking and personal accountability can and should be demanded by the electorate of its leadership, and the time to do so is now.

No Labels was the perfect fit for my frustration. Their bi-partisan approach urging American leaders and citizens alike to declare their freedom from the anger and divisiveness that is ruining our politics and most importantly our country resonated with me.

Much has happened since 2012 for me personally and for our country.

In 2015, I came to realize there were many organizations working to reform our democratic republic, each working independently of each other with little interaction or coordinated agenda. For this reason, I, along with others co-founded the Bridge Alliance, a community of over 60 organizations with an extended network of nearly 600, all brought together to unify, support and amplify their respective impacts in the social and political reform space. We believe that our nation will be stronger if diversity becomes our operating system. While legislation will play a useful role, we also need leaders who understand the challenges of the diverse population of America. These leaders will help us see our nation is stronger for our differences, not despite them and will work to bring us together rather than further divide us for the sake of winning their next election.

And so today as I access the No Labels plan, I like many of my colleagues involved in the democracy reform movement are conflicted. On the one hand, I strongly believe that we must get beyond the Democrat and Republican duopoly that controls our country’s agenda and demand a new politics that allows room for people from different parties and with different beliefs to sit around a table and make the tough decisions everyone knows need to be made. And we need to trust in the intentions of the loyal opposition to be a differing perspective for the public good. No Labels and their caucus has been modeling this for more than a decade.

Yet, as in life, timing is everything in politics, so despite my strong belief in the need for change, I am concerned about the harsh reality that even though I believe in the many of reform principles advocated by No Labels I also believe that the election of Donald Trump as the next president of the United States would be a significant danger to the rule of law in our nation and to the defense and protection of our constitution. For this reason I do not support the No Labels effort

Nancy Jacobson, founder of and leader of No Labels, argues that this fear is unwarranted; that a ticket comprising a centrist Democrat and centrist Republican will actually win and promises that if No Labels doesn’t think this is the case they will abandon the effort. What are the specific criteria that will drive this Decision? When will this decision be made?

Furthermore for those who contend that the strategy will backfire and result in former President Trump getting elected she responds:

“As a Democrat? Categorically, that will not happen,” Jacobson said in response to a question over concerns that a third-party ballot could take away votes from President Biden. “This effort will never — we'll pull it down.”

Unlike many, I do not question No Labels’ motivation for its plan. I was very fortunate to work with Jacobson, Governor Huntsman, and Senator Manchin when No Labels was first created more than 10 years ago. I believe the motives are genuine and consistent with No Labels’ public mission to create “a national movement of common sense Americans pushing our leaders tougher to solve our country's biggest problems.”

In this our interests are aligned despite having differences as to tactics and timing. Due to the risks, uncertainties and unintended consequences, I would much prefer No Labels’ focus to instead be on independent candidates for Congress and the Senate in 2026.

Read More

This Is Ground Zero in the Conservative Quest for More Patriotic and Christian Public Schools
an empty classroom with wooden desks and windows
Photo by 2y.kang on Unsplash

This Is Ground Zero in the Conservative Quest for More Patriotic and Christian Public Schools

The future that the Trump administration envisions for public schools is more patriotic, more Christian and less “woke.” Want to know how that might play out? Look to Oklahoma.

Oklahoma has spent the past few years reshaping public schools to integrate lessons about Jesus and encourage pride about America’s history, with political leaders and legislators working their way through the conservative agenda for overhauling education.

Keep ReadingShow less
Person filling out absentee ballot.

Virginia’s election leaders urge trust, transparency, and fairness through the Principles for Trusted Elections—reaffirming democracy’s core values.

Getty Images, Cavan Images

Reaffirming Trust in Elections: Virginia Takes the Lead

As Richmond’s General Registrar and Electoral Board, our shared responsibility is to ensure that elections in our city are conducted securely, accurately, transparently, and with equal access for all voters. We know firsthand how much work goes into building and maintaining public confidence in the process. From keeping voter registration lists accurate, to conducting risk-limiting audits, to training poll workers and ensuring ballots are handled securely, election officials across Virginia dedicate themselves to making sure every eligible vote is counted and every election is run with integrity.

And yet, the hardest part of election administration often isn’t the logistics; it’s voter confidence. Elections can be run flawlessly from a technical standpoint, but if voters don’t believe the process is fair and legitimate, democracy itself suffers.

Keep ReadingShow less
The Life of a Showgirl Bodes Unwell for Popular Feminism

Taylor Swift

Michael Campanella/TAS24/Getty Images

The Life of a Showgirl Bodes Unwell for Popular Feminism

Our post-civil-rights society is rapidly sliding backwards. For an artist to make a claim to any progressive ideology, they require some intersectional legs. Taylor Swift’s newest album, The Life of a Showgirl, disappoints by proudly touting an intentionally ignorant perspective of feminism-as-hero-worship. It is no longer enough for young women to see Swift’s success and imagine it for themselves. While that access is unattainable for most people, the artists who position themselves as thoughtful contributors to public consciousness through their art must be held accountable to their positionality.

After the release of Midnights (2022), Alex Petridis wrote an excellent article for The Guardian, where he said of the album, “There’s an appealing confidence about this approach, a sense that Swift no longer feels she has to compete on the same terms as her peers.” The Life of a Showgirl dismantles this approach. At the top of the show business world, it feels like Taylor is punching down and rewriting feminism away from a critical lens into a cheap personal narrative.

Keep ReadingShow less
Donald J. Trump

IN FLIGHT - OCTOBER 19: U.S. President Donald Trump speaks to members of the press on October 19, 2025 aboard Air Force One. The President is returning to Washington, DC, after spending his weekend at Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Florida.

Getty Images, Alex Wong

Your Essential Guide to How Trump Will Handle Literally Any Foreign Crisis

VANCOUVER, British Columbia — Every American president has a foreign policy doctrine. But no president has ever had one quite like Donald Trump’s.

With President George W. Bush, it was to invade resource-rich countries under the pretext that there are terrorists there, preferably preemptively. Bomb them to spread freedom and democracy, but leave the Middle Eastern monarchy in Saudi Arabia that’s backing them alone, because, well, they already run a country that sells oil to the U.S.

Keep ReadingShow less