The “No Labels” movement wanted to send a moderate third-party candidate into the race for the White House. But the project did not find suitable personnel. Robert F. Kennedy has free rein to play the role of spoilsport. Biden must increasingly fear him.
The starting position for the American presidential election in November is perfect for third-party candidates. The majority of citizens have no desire for the rematch between the two old men Joe Biden and Donald Trump. A growing portion of the population is disappointed with both major parties and tired of their unproductive bickering.
The centrist movement “No Labels” also recognized this potential. She collected money and signatures to secure a place on the ballot in all states for an alternative “unity ticket”. “No Labels” was looking for a moderate Republican and a moderate Democrat as candidates for the presidency and vice presidency. They should have given “the majority of common sense” a voice in the fall.
A small spoilsport is enough for a big defeat
But on Thursday, founder and CEO Nancy Jacobson declared the project a failure. They were unable to find candidates who had a realistic chance of winning the election, Jacobson said in a statement. A total of thirty politicians have contacted her organization in the past few months. They also included former Republican presidential candidates Nikki Haley and Chris Christie. However, both declined.
This is not surprising. As great as the demand for an alternative is currently, third-party candidates have little chance of winning in the bipolar party system in the USA. Their role is usually limited to that of spoilsport. In 2000, Ralph Nader ran for the Green Party. He received less than 3 percent of the vote. Nevertheless, this probably cost Democrat Al Gore his election victory. Similarly, in 2016, green activist Jill Stein prevented Democrat Hillary Clinton from winning and helped Trump triumph.
The end of the “No Labels” campaign is good news, especially for the Democrats. They assumed that a centrist alternative would have appealed to moderate voters, who Biden desperately needs to win. The bad news for the incumbent, however, is that there are still three independent candidates in the race, threatening his election chances.
On the one hand, it is again about Jill Stein and the left-wing philosopher Cornel West. Their profile will almost exclusively appeal to Democratic voters. However, their poll numbers are in the low single digits. Robert Kennedy Jr. could be more dangerous for Biden. The nephew of former Democratic President John Kennedy currently has approval ratings between 8 and 14 percent.
A vice president for left-wing voters
At first, Kennedy seemed to be primarily a problem for Trump. The 70-year-old environmental lawyer is an opponent of vaccinations, blames the USA for Russia’s war of aggression in Ukraine and has a deep mistrust of the political elite. With these positions he is essentially appealing to Trump voters. But recent polls show that a presidential election with Kennedy is more likely to cost Biden votes.
A simple reason for this could be his loud family name. Father Robert and uncle John Kennedy were Democrats. To this day, they remain among the most popular figures in the party’s history. Kennedy Jr. put his good memories to good use during the Super Bowl in February. During a break in the National Football League’s grand final game, his campaign ran a $7 million campaign ad that copied an old spot his uncle ran in the 1960s – including the music with the cheerful chant “Kennedy, Kennedy, Kennedy.”
Recently, Kennedy Jr. also took aim at Biden. In an interview with CNN, he described the incumbent president as “a much greater threat to democracy” than Trump. Biden abused federal authorities to put pressure on major social networks to suppress the free speech of his opponents, Kennedy argued. The Instagram platform blocked his account in 2021 because he had “repeatedly spread disproven claims about the coronavirus and vaccinations”.
In late March, Kennedy introduced wealthy tech lawyer Nicole Shanahan as his running mate. The former wife of Google co-founder and multi-billionaire Sergey Brin has previously been one of the Democrats’ donors and described herself as “thoroughly progressive”. The war in Iraq made her an anti-war activist, the 38-year-old daughter of a Chinese immigrant explained with glassy eyes in her speech. She wants to “serve peace and help poor people.” These were also the values of the Democratic Party. But she lost her way.
The Democrats have long recognized the danger of third-party candidates. The party commissioned a whole series of action committees to fight such alternatives with a lot of money. After “No Labels” ends, their focus will now turn to Kennedy. Since Shanahan’s nomination, Democrats have become even more alarmed, NBC News recently reported. Everyone assumed that this election would be decided by a hair’s breadth, a leading Democrat told the television station. “That’s why people are more scared than ever before.”
Meanwhile, Kennedy is already describing himself as “the Democrats’ worst nightmare.”