SPOILER POTENTIAL: New Third Party Qualifies for Ballot Access in Swing States

In 17 years of voting at this polling place, nevr took longer than 5 minutes...today it took 1 hr and 5 minutes!

Just when you thought that you had played out every maniacal scenario available for the 2024 presidential race, a new menace is manifesting from deep within the bureaucratic burrows of the political undergrowth.

A third party is rising, and despite the nostalgic urge to snicker at the news, we find ourselves facing an organization that is already poised to impact the ballot in several key states for 2024, and in a race that could just as accurately be predicted with a coin toss at this time.

A centrist third party qualified to appear on the ballot in Arizona in 2024, stoking concerns among left-leaning groups about a “spoiler” candidate who could cost Democrats the presidency and open the door for former President Donald Trump to return to the White House.

There has already been plenty of momentum for the group.

The No Labels Party surpassed the minimum number of signatures required to appear on the ballot for statewide and federal races on Tuesday, making Arizona the second state the centrist party can compete in during the 2024 cycle. The group already secured a spot on the Colorado ballot and has vowed to compete for access in at least 23 other states.

No Labels has been quietly working to craft a bipartisan third-party ticket for over a year, looking to give voters an alternative option to candidates they view as extreme. As of September, the group has already raised more than $46 million and has more than 400 volunteers seeking ballot access in several battleground states, according to the New York Times.

As for a candidate…?

No Labels has not yet indicated who they would nominate, but the group plans to hold a nominating convention in April. The third-party ticket is meant to act as an “insurance policy,” with the group vowing to drop its bid if either party nominates a candidate who is acceptable to centrist voters. It is unclear what qualifications a candidate would need to meet to be “acceptable.”

With Americans growing more violently discontent by the day, particularly politically, the dual appeals of the third party vote grow more magnetic.  Some of us will look to toss our hands in the air and our vote into the void due to decades of mounting frustration with the system as it has been operating.   Others will vote for a No Label candidate to send a message to future, demographic-studying generations, that there was a groundswell of support for upsetting the status quo at this particular time and place and may you infer from that what you will.