The announcement last Friday by Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., that he would not run for president on the No Labels ticket was a major blow to the new movement seeking an agenda based on problem-solving rather than ideology.
Manchin, a centrist Democrat, was widely considered an ideal candidate for the No Labels' vision of a "Unity Ticket," one that would be rounded out with a Republican centrist as his running mate.
But Manchin, 76, chose not to run.
Coming on the heels of the decision of Maryland's former Republican Gov. Larry Hogan to run for the open Senate seat in his state, No Labels now finds itself without a nationally-known candidate to head its ticket.
The last well-known candidate mentioned as the No Labels nominee is former Wyoming Rep. Liz Cheney, a vitriolic "Never Trumper" whose criticism of the former president was key to her landslide primary defeat in 2022 after three terms.
Asked Sunday by CNN's Jake Tapper if she was considering a presidential run, the daughter of former Vice President Dick Cheney replied: "I haven't made any decisions about it yet. I'm going to do whatever is necessary to defeat Donald Trump."
Having qualified for the ballot in 16 states, No Labels is still determined to secure ballot access in all 50 states and the District of Columbia.
No Labels National Co-Chair Dr. Ben Chavis, a former executive director of the NAACP, said Sunday during an appearance on MSNBC's "The Weekend" that an announcement is forthcoming.
"In the next couple of weeks or more, we will probably make an announcement whether or not we will give the ballot access to a unity ticket. A unity ticket means a Republican and a Democrat. And we are talking to Republicans, Democrats, and independents."
But many political scholars who have been watching the budding middle-of-the-road movement agreed it was too late for No Labels to launch a "third-way" movement.
Asked whether it was possible at this date to find a credible candidate for No Labels, syndicated columnist and Center for Ethics in Public Policy Senior Fellow Henry Olson told Newsmax that it was possible, but finding someone "credible" was a different question.
"Finding someone? Yes. Finding someone credible? Not unless you count Liz Cheney as credible," he said.
"Only someone who needs attention and seeks a fool's mission," added Arizona State University Prof. Donald Critchlow, author of three much-praised books on the Republican Party. "This makes for a sizable pool."
Mark Rozell, dean of the Schar School of Policy and Government at George Mason University (VA), told Newsmax that "time is very tight to do so, perhaps even too late at this point."
"And there is no obvious such candidate," he continued. "No Labels, despite its name, ended up feuding over whether a Democrat or Republican would lead its idealized bipartisan ticket. Partisans increasingly are dug into their likely major party nominees. Like it or not, barring some unforeseen event, it's a 2020 rematch."
John Gizzi is chief political columnist and White House correspondent for Newsmax. For more of his reports, Go Here Now.
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