Dem
51
GOP
49
Would you vote for Geoff Duncan for president? You might get a chance. The No Labels group has made a decision to go forward with putting up a ticket and trying to get on the ballot in all states. The only problem is that nobody anyone has ever heard of is willing to be their candidate. The group is now grasping at straws, with the most recent name to be floated being that of Duncan, the Republican former Georgia lieutenant governor. If that is as high-profile a nominee as they can find, we suspect he won't pull a lot of votes from Joe Biden, which is the Republican funders' goal, after all. To get Democrats to vote for the ticket, No Labels is going to have to find someone Democrats have at least heard of, and preferably like. Duncan is not an election denier, but that is setting the bar extremely low.
And Duncan hasn't agreed yet, so No Labels may have to dig deeper, like some former county commissioner who served one term 8 years ago in some noncompetitive state. A veep candidate may be just as difficult, and remember, this is supposed to be a unity ticket, so the #2 person has to be willing to run with someone from the other party. Writing a platform should be a fun exercise. Most likely every plank will have to be: "We support common-sense solutions to [X]," where X is abortion, immigration, health care, Ukraine, and everything else. Right.
No Labels won't be running the only third-party candidate. The Green Party is trying to get on the ballot in every state. The Libertarian Party is already on the ballot in almost every state. The Green Party will almost certainly run Jill Stein again. She got 1.07% of the vote in 2016. The LP doesn't have a candidate yet, but Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is looking into becoming its candidate. One problem is that he isn't really in agreement with them on many issues. Another is that he is on tape saying that no vaccines are safe and effective. Take a look at this video clip of Kennedy being interviewed by CNN's Kasie Hunt. In it, he denies having said that no vaccines are safe and effective and then she plays a clip of him saying no vaccines are safe and effective. Watching him squirm after it plays is worth the price of admission. Dad was enormously charismatic. Junior didn't inherit those genes apparently.
Cornel West is also running for president, but he doesn't have a lot of money and is on the ballot so far only in Alaska, Oregon, and South Carolina. He is not likely to be much of a factor if he can't get on the ballot in any swing states—and probably not even if he does. (V)