As they vet candidates for a potential third-party presidential ticket, No Labels is reaching out to former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie.
A source in the two-time Republican presidential candidate’s political orbit told Fox News on Thursday that the centrist group has made outreach to Christie in recent days.
Christie, who ended his 2024 GOP nomination campaign in mid-January, appeared to leave the door open to a possible third party run in an interview with former Obama adviser David Axelrod that was released earlier in the day.
Asked on Axelrod’s popular podcast if he’s considering a third-party presidential bid, Christie said “I think the way I would look at it is, I will do whatever I can to try to make sure that the country doesn’t go through what I think will be the misery of a second Trump term.”
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Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, a 2024 Republican presidential candidate, headlines a town hall in Londonderry, New Hampshire on Dec. 13, 2023. (Fox News – Paul Steinhauser)
Christie, a one-time Donald Trump supporter, ally, and adviser, broke with him over the then-president’s attempts to overturn his 2020 election loss to President Biden. Christie became an extremely vocal GOP critic of the former president and made his opposition to Trump a centerpiece of his 2024 White House run.
Christie emphasized that “I wouldn’t preclude anything at this point.”
But he also added, “I would just say that there are a number of hurdles to get over before I would actually consider running as a third-party.”
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Asked in an interview last summer soon after he launched his second presidential campaign if he’d consider joining a possible No Labels ticket, Christie shot down the idea, saying, “I think it’s a fool’s errand.”
“I’m not in this for showtime. I’m not in this for making a point. I’m in this to get elected President of the United States, and there are only two people who will get elected President of the United States: the Republican nominee for president and the Democratic nominee for president,” Christie said at the time in an interview with George Stephanopoulos on ABC’s “This Week.”
But former Democratic Sen. Joe Lieberman of Connecticut, the party’s 2000 vice presidential nominee who later became an independent and was a No Labels founding co-chair, said in a radio interview in January after Christie ended his White House bid that he “could be a very strong candidate” on the group’s proposed unity ticket.”
“I’d like to reach out to him and see if he, Gov. Christie, is at all interested in being on a bipartisan No Labels Unity ticket this year. He could be a very strong candidate,” Lieberman added in a Sirius XM conversation with Michael Smerconish.
Republican presidential candidate Chris Christie announces he is dropping out of the race during a town hall campaign event Wednesday, Jan. 10, 2024, in Windham, N.H. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty)
No Labels last week took another step toward forming a bipartisan presidential ticket in November’s general election, as it announced the formation of a committee to vet candidates for the potential bipartisan ticket. The announcement of the committee came a week after roughly 800 No Labels delegates who took part in a virtual meeting voted to give a thumbs up to fielding a presidential ticket.
For over a year, No Labels has mulled a third-party ticket, as it pointed to poll after poll suggesting that many Americans were anything but enthused about a 2024 election rematch between President Biden and former President Donald Trump.
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And No Labels had long said that it would decide whether to launch a presidential ticket following Super Tuesday, when 16 states from coast to coast held nominating primaries and caucuses.
The latest move by No Labels came right after Biden and Trump clinched the Democratic and Republican presidential nominations, becoming the two major parties’ 2024 presumptive nominees.
No Labels leadership and guests from left, Pat McCrory, Co-Executive Director, Margaret White, Dan Webb, National Co-Chair, Dr. Benjamin F. Chavis and former Senator Joe Lieberman, speak about the 2024 election at National Press Club, in Washington, Thursday, Jan. 18, 2024. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)
The moves by No Labels also came after former two-term Republican Gov. Larry Hogan of Maryland, a former leader of the group who was considered a potential contender for the “unity” ticket, recently took his name out of contention as he announced a run this year for an open Senate seat in his home state.
And moderate Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia, another former No Labels leader who is not seeking re-election this year and who flirted with a White House run, has also said he won’t launch a presidential bid.
There was also plenty of speculation that former U.N. ambassador and former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, who was the final 2024 GOP presidential nomination rival to Trump before she ended her White House run earlier this month, would consider running on a No Labels ticket. No Labels had expressed interest in her earlier this year.
But Haley repeatedly nixed joining a No Labels ticket, most recently in an interview on “FOX and Friends” earlier this month.
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No Labels this month was holding conversations with former Republican Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan of Georgia, a former health care executive and minor league baseball player who served three terms in the Georgia House of Representatives before winning election as lieutenant governor in 2018.
Duncan, another very vocal anti-Trump Republican, took his name out of contention earlier this week.
No Labels said this week that it is already on the ballot in 18 states and currently working in 16 other states to obtain access.
There’s been a chorus of calls from Democrats warning that a No Labels ticket would pave a path to victory for Trump in November, but the group dismisses that criticism.
“That’s not our goal here,” Lieberman told Fox News Digital late last year. “We’re not about electing either President Trump or President Biden.”
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