[News Terms] US Centrist Political Force 'No Labels'

'No Labels' is a political ideology organization created to overcome the dysfunction of the two-party system in the United States. It was established in 2010, led by Nancy Jacobson, who was a Democratic Party fundraiser.

Photo by No Labels official website

No Labels, which promotes centrism and bipartisanship as its slogan, introduces itself on its website by stating, "After the right-wing political organization Tea Party was formed in 2009, the strong voices of right-wing lawmakers came to represent the Republican Party, and the Democratic Party also shifted sharply to the left within its ranks, making ideological polarization more pronounced. It was established to bridge this divide and establish the voice of the American common sense majority." Accordingly, its activity goal is clearly to revitalize the function of the federal Congress through the expansion of centrism. Another characteristic of this political organization is that it prioritizes problem-solving over political ideology and emphasizes national security and economic development.

Although it started based on the Democratic Party, entrepreneurs who agree with centrism also support it. Andrew Tisch of Lowe's Corporation and Ron Shaich of Panera Bread are known as representative supporting entrepreneurs.

No Labels focuses on electing candidates who agree with bipartisanship and centrism to the House of Representatives through fundraising, successfully electing about 10 candidates in the 2012 election and about 20 candidates in the 2016 election. No Labels also played a significant role in the formation of the bipartisan cooperation group within the House called the Problem Solvers Caucus (PSC). Established in 2017, the PSC consists of 60 members, 30 from the Democratic Party and 30 from the Republican Party, and is operated under a co-chair system with one member from each party.

No Labels planned to field a centrist 'unity candidate' based on public opinion polls showing that Americans did not favor the 2024 presidential election being a rematch of the 2020 election. To this end, they raised $60 million last year and proceeded with the candidate selection process. According to The Wall Street Journal (WSJ), No Labels contacted about 30 candidates from both the Republican and Democratic parties, including former UN Ambassador Nikki Haley from the Republican Party and Senator Joe Manchin from the Democratic Party. However, as all of them declined to run, No Labels decided not to field a final candidate. Jacobson, the founder and current president of No Labels, officially announced the withdrawal of an independent candidate on the 4th (local time), saying, "I have always said that we would only field a candidate if we could find one with a chance to enter the White House," and added, "Since such a candidate did not emerge, it is responsible for us to withdraw."