Could No Labels Help Throw the Election to Trump?

A moderate third-party candidate would be likely to siphon more votes from Biden than from the Republican front-runner.

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Then-Maryland governor Larry Hogan holds a news conference at the Maryland State Capitol in Annapolis, Md., July 22, 2020.

Jonathan Ernst/Reuters

Larry Hogan, the former governor of Maryland, wrote in March that he would not run for the Republican nomination for president, arguing that the “multicar pileup” of alternatives would simply grant Donald Trump the nomination, as happened in 2016. Now, Hogan is working with a political organization that could help swing the general election in Trump’s favor.

Last weekend on CNN’s State of the Union, the former Maryland governor said that No Labels, the political group he co-chairs, would be “very likely” to promote a third-party presidential candidate if the Democratic and Republican parties nominate President Joe Biden and former president Trump, respectively. His argument, which his CNN co-panelists greeted with derision, was that “if most of the voters don’t want A or B, [No Labels has] an obligation to give them C, I mean, for the good of the country.” He demurred when asked whether his name would appear at the top of a No Labels ticket, but has previously said he would not “rule out” such a possibility.

Zach Kessel

About the Author

Zach Kessel

Zach Kessel was a William F. Buckley Jr. Fellow in Political Journalism and a recent graduate of Northwestern University.

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