Detroit Today: Can centrist third party No Labels win the presidential ticket in Michigan?
The No Labels party intends to raise $70 million to create a third party ticket in the 2024 presidential election.
Despite historically high public unfavorability polling for the two leading presidential candidates, many commentators believe a rematch between President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump is inevitable ahead of the 2024 election.
But as the ideological overlap between the parties shrinks and negative opinions of the other side rise, one group believes they have a solution to what they identify as “America’s growing commonsense majority.”
No Labels, a political organization created to support centrism and bipartisanship, plans to raise $70 million to create a “unity ticket” in each state for the presidential election. The group says they hope to combat “political extremity” in both the Democratic and Republican parties.
Can a third party ticket like the one proposed by No Labels prevail in Michigan?
Retired Michigan U.S. Rep. Fred Upton and political science professor Bernard Tamas joined Detroit Today to discuss the No Labels party and its chances to succeed in the 2024 election.
Listen: Could a centrist third-party presidential ticket win in Michigan?
Guests
Fred Upton is a former member of the U.S. House of Representatives and current supporter of No Labels efforts in the 2024 presidential election. Upton says extreme partisanship prevents lawmakers from getting work done Washington, D.C. for the American people.
“We’re all tired of this partisan crap,” says Upton.
Bernard Tamas is a professor of political science at Valdosta State University. His is also the author of “The Demise and Rebirth of American Third Parties: Poised for Political Revival?”
Tamas says the No Labels effort is atypical from how third parties generally work. Historically, that third parties often change the political narrative on singular issues through strong campaigning. Known as “stinging like a bee,” the strategy forces parties to change their policy positions on these issues.
“They [third parties] would galvanize voters with some specific issues, they would attack one or the other major parties,” says Tamas. “The major parties would then wind up responding to that by reforming themselves [and] would steal the issues that the third party is running on.”
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