by April Corbin Girnus, Nevada Current
No Labels, a national campaign to field a third-party presidential candidate in 2024, has qualified for Nevada’s general election ballot as a minor party, the secretary of state’s office confirmed to the Current Friday. It marks the first time a minor party has qualified for a general election ballot in the Silver State since the 1970s.
The secretary of state’s office informed No Labels Nevada of its qualification in a letter dated Thursday, Aug. 3.
The No Labels organization was founded in 2009 by former U.S. Sen. Joe Lieberman, a one-time Democrat from Connecticut who ended his political career as an independent. The group has advocated for bipartisan solutions and has not nominated candidates for office in the past.
The organization recently announced a campaign to secure ballot access in all 50 states. Earlier this week, leaders said it had already obtained ballot status in five states — Arizona, Alaska, Colorado, Oregon, and Utah.
Nevada would be the sixth.
In Nevada, minor parties have three paths to securing ballot access, which allows them to place candidates in the general election. The first is having any of their candidates receive 1% or more of total votes cast in congressional races. The second is having at least 1% of registered voters designated to their party. (Nevada’s two existing minor parties with ballot access — the Independent American and Libertarian parties — appear on the ballot because they meet one or more of these qualifications.)
The third option, which is the path No Labels quietly took, is submitting to each congressional district a petition containing valid signatures equal to 1% of the total number of votes cast for that congressional race during the most recent general election.
According to the SOS letter, the total number of valid signatures obtained equaled 19,324 — significantly more than the 10,095 signatures needed.
Their ballot access qualification means that in March 2024 No Labels Nevada can file with the secretary of state a list of candidates for the general election.
No Labels leaders have said they intend to hold a convention in Dallas next year to nominate a candidate. A recent town hall meeting in New Hampshire was headlined by Democratic U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia and former Republican Gov. John Huntsman of Utah, raising speculation that they could be the No Labels ticket for 2024.
No third-party presidential candidate has won electoral votes since 1968.
The Current has reached out to No Labels for comment.
Rudi Keller of The Missouri Independent, which like the Nevada Current is a part of the States Newsroom network, contributed to this report.
Nevada Current is part of States Newsroom, a network of news bureaus supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Nevada Current maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Hugh Jackson for questions: [email protected]. Follow Nevada Current on Facebook and Twitter.
