The size of the third-party vote remains a major x-factor in next year’s presidential race, and No Labels is taking a step forward on Monday in advancing a third-party bid.
The group is holding a town hall event at St. Anselm College Monday evening in New Hampshire to tout its “Common Sense” policy platform, which was released over the weekend.
According to the New York Times, the platform includes “poll-tested proposals, some bland and others that would require major shifts for both parties.” Some of the highlights include offering a path to citizenship for so-called DREAMers, undocumented immigrants brought to the country as children; implementing universal background checks on gun purchases; and supporting renewable energy but allowing domestic fossil fuel production to continue.
The platform hedges on the issue of abortion, stating that it is “too important and complicated an issue to say it’s common sense to pass a law — nationally or in the states — that draws a clear line at a certain stage of pregnancy,” that section concludes,” per the Times.
And while No Labels is hosting the Monday event to highlight its new platform, the focus will also be on the headliners: former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman and Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va.
Manchin has not ruled out joining the No Labels presidential ticket as he also weighs running for re-election to the Senate next year. And he could have a Republican counterpart. Former GOP Gov. Larry Hogan told the New York Times that he would consider joining a ticket as well if former President Donald Trump and President Joe Biden are the two major parties’ nominees.
“If it gets to the point where three-quarters of the people in America don’t like the choices, we might have to do something to put the country first,” Hogan said. “I’ve always said I put the country before party, so it’s something I wouldn’t reject out of hand.”
In other campaign news …
Conservative confabs: GOP presidential hopefuls gathered at two major events over the weekend. Trump was the star of the show at Turning Point Action’s conference for young conservatives, where former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson and Miami Mayor Francis Suarez were booed and heckled, per the New York Times. On Friday Trump skipped the Family Leadership Summit, a gathering of Christian conservatives, where former Fox News host Tucker Carlson grilled the presidential contenders, per NBC News’ Adam Edelman.
Debatable: Trump told Fox News on Sunday that he has not decided if he will participate in the first GOP primary debate, but he said, “When you have a big lead, you don’t do it.”
Veepstakes: DeSantis said he would consider picking Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds as his running mate if he wins the GOP nomination.
Coming into focus: NBC News’ Jillian Frankel and Alex Tabet sat in on a focus group of 18 evangelical Christian voters in Iowa last week and found that while they are still Trump fans — and believe he won the 2020 election — they’re not sold on his comeback bid.
The Future outside effort: Biden and his team are “elevating” the super PAC Future Forward as the top outside group supporting his re-election, per the New York Times.
Pro-Trump: Trump appears to have solid support among Cuban Americans, NBC News’ Aaron Franco and Morgan Radford report from Miami.
An adverse event: After the New York Post published video of Robert Kennedy Jr. apparently saying that it’s possible Covid had been “ethnically targeted” because “it attacks certain races disproportionately,” he put out a statement saying that “I do not believe and never implied that the ethnic effect was deliberately engineered.”
More candidates in Ohio: Republican Secretary of State Frank LaRose is jumping into the Ohio Senate race, and the crowded primary running to win the right to face Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown.
Stubborn as a buffalo: NBC News’ Scott Wong and Sahil Kapur write about how a narrow victory in the 2022 midterms hasn’t convinced Colorado GOP Rep. Lauren Boebert to change her tune.
