CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Former Gov. Pat McCrory says he’s is tired of your labels.
He’s doesn’t consider himself a “radical extremist Republican” or a “left-wing RINO” — Republican in Name Only.
McCrory said he’s tired of Republicans and Democrats choosing whose names appear on ballots when he believes the majority of Americans don’t support people chosen by the two major parties.
And he’s tired of people not having another choice.
That’s why McCrory has joined forces with civil rights leader Benjamin Chavis Jr. to help develop a presidential 2024 unity ticket for the self-described centrist group, No Labels. McCrory, a Republican, is the former mayor of Charlotte and ran unsuccessfully for U.S. Senate in 2022. Chavis has a resume that includes working with Martin Luther King Jr., being a leader of the Wilmington 10 and considered the godfather of the environmental justice movement.
Before you ask, McCrory quickly cleared up any notion his name might be on that ticket. He isn’t planning to run for president in 2024 and says he’s still “as strong of a Republican as I ever was.” But he is serving as a volunteer for the organization.
No Labels, a group founded in 2010, plans to run a third-party candidate only if data shows that Americans aren’t satisfied with the party nominees and the No Labels candidates have a path forward to win, McCrory said. It’s working to be recognized as a third-party option on ballots in all 50 states, a costly endeavor.
“The people are saying very loudly that two parties might be nominating two candidates that most people don’t want,” McCrory said. “To me the two parties are failing.”
On Tuesday, McCrory and former Sen. Joe Lieberman, an independent from Connecticut, will discuss the organizations’ $70 million plan at a Washington Post event.
Becoming a third-party
But history isn’t kind to third parties, said Michael Bitzer, a political scientist and politics chair at Catawba College.
The Libertarian, Green and Constitution parties often attempt to get on North Carolina’s ballots, but they have trouble maintaining the requirements or are challenged by the major party who sees the third-party as a threat to their candidate.
There are three ways for a third-party to get onto North Carolina’s ballot, and the second one may be the only option available to No Labels in 2024. It allows No Labels to collect signatures of at least 0.25% of all registered North Carolina voters who cast a ballot in the most recent gubernatorial election, with at least 200 registered voter signatures each from three congressional districts.
No Labels filed a petition with the state Board of Elections last year to be recognized and is currently under review by staff. It has already passed the required number of valid signatures.
Bitzer said he’s not sure No Labels will have the infrastructure and name recognition — like that of the Democrats and Republicans — to get on the voter rolls.
“We’ve had these two major parties since the 1850s, so you’re dealing with long historical institutional grounding with these parties,” Bitzer said. “We have a pretty good historical pattern and trend that the two parties tend to recognize when there are third parties nipping at their heels and adjust themselves accordingly.”
If they don’t adjust? Bitzer said that’s when a third-party can come in — like the Republicans did with the Whigs.
Bitzer also has taken note of voters’ frustration with the two major parties.
“Third parties tend to be spoilers in elections,” Bitzer said. “And because of our level of deep polarization, we obviously have a group of voters that have said, ‘I don’t want to be associated publicly with either political party.’”
Unaffiliated voters now outrank both Democrats and Republicans in North Carolina. Bitzer said the majority are people under 40.
“These are the children of polarized politics,” Bitzer said. “But when it comes to actually casting ballots, and you know, voting for candidates, those folks that tend to claim political independence, more likely than not go home to one of the two major parties.”
Party satisfaction
McCrory said now, more than ever, could be the time to find a third option for president.
The 2024 presidential election is seemingly setting up to mirror 2020, with President Joe Biden as the Democrat’s nominee and former President Donald Trump the Republican nominee. Polling that is far too early to take as gospel also shows voters aren’t satisfied with having either candidate on the ballot.
NBC released poll results in April that showed only 23% of respondents thought Biden should seek reelection and only 35% thought Trump should. Despite that, both Biden and Trump are polling as the front runners of their parties.
McCrory said No Labels impressed him because it was a group that was trying to solve problems, that it understood that the government is divided and that by “doing nothing, people were doing something.”
He said there’s no incentive in Washington for the two parties to work together, solve problems and get things done.
“That takes work, but no one wants to risk impacting themselves,” McCrory said. “This is both Democrats and Republicans. They’re more afraid of their primaries and the general election and they’re stymied and our country can’t afford this.”
