Biden Campaign Shrugs off Threat From ‘No Label’ Third Parties in 2024 Elections: ‘Voters Won’t Be Fooled’

As the 2024 US elections approach, worries had flooded Democratic voters that a 'No Labels' candidate would take away votes from the incumbent President Joe Biden. Biden's campaign, however, shrugged these worries off. The US will likely experience a very close presidential race in November, but Biden's team is brushing off concerns that a third-party candidate, such as a possible No Labels unity centrist ticket, may steal votes from him. They claim that voters won't be 'fooled' by those possibilities.

"At the end of the day, there's only going to be two parties that can get to 270 electoral votes and that's going to be Joe Biden as the Democratic nominee and whoever emerges from the extreme Republican primary that's going on right now," explained Quentin Fulks, the Biden campaign's principal deputy manager, on ABC News' This Week episode aired on January 21.

Reports first emerged in October 2023 that the No Labels organization, founded in 2010 with the goal of 'encouraging bipartisan cooperation' and of providing a substitute to 'America's angry politics,' was going to field a candidate, possibly a moderate Republican, in the presidential race of 2024, NPR reported. It worried Democrats at the time, with former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi condemning the party, saying it could lead to a siphoning of votes, making matters much worse. "I think that our democracy is at risk, and I think that No Labels is perilous to our democracy," she warned. "I say that without any hesitation."

The Biden campaign, however, thinks the party doesn't have much to scare Biden's re-election camp, who are very hopeful for the upcoming elections. "So, you know, look, we're gonna stay focused on the issues and make this about freedom and democracy," Fulks continued. "The Americans that have the most at stake understand that and they're not going to be fooled by anything else."

This projected confidence from the Biden campaign coincides with the candidacy of Democratic Dean Phillips of Minnesota, who recently made his first public statement indicating that he would think about accepting No Labels' nomination if the election turns into a rematch between Biden and former President Donald Trump and it appears that Biden is 'almost certain to lose.' The American public is currently tied between Biden and Trump in terms of favorability, although both are seen less favorably than when they squared off in 2020, per Gallup.

Fulks stated that the campaign will attempt to construct a split-screen showcasing Biden's and the eventual Republican nominee's policy differences, viewing the contest as a two-way contest. "Our campaign is going to continue to make sure that we're delivering a message to draw that contrast about what this election is all about and that's restoring democracy and protecting freedoms for millions of Americans across this country," Fulks said. 

While the campaign now says that that there is no chance of third-party organizations ruining Biden's campaign, Biden himself opined that the group will 'help the other guy,' referring to Trump. Officials from No Labels have stated that they do not wish to launch a ticket just to harm Biden against Trump.