The No Labels group is reportedly alarming Democrats that the party could take enough votes away from Biden in the swing state and help elect former President Donald Trump. According to recent figures, at least 13,500 people that have registered for the third party came from the state’s two largest counties which include Phoenix and Tucson.
Although No Labels has not yet committed to running candidates for president and vice president, its existence is still worrisome. President Joe Biden won Arizona by only about 10,000 votes. The state’s Democratic Party has sued Secretary of State Adrian Fontes, who is also a Democrat, to try and prevent No Labels from being on the ballot. The party lost in court and then dropped the lawsuit.
No Labels has already secured ballot access in Arizona and 10 other states; organizers say they are on track to reach 20 states by the end of this year and all 50 states by Election Day. The Associated Press reports according to am Almy, a Democratic data analyst based in Phoenix, about half of the New party’s registrants in August were formerly independent and another quarter were newly registered. The remaining registrants came from the two major parties with 14% formerly Democrats and 11% formerly Republicans.
Among concerns for Democrats is the No Labels party skews younger. Over half are younger than 35, and only 5% are older than 65. The leaders say they’ll decide after Super Tuesday primaries in March whether or not to run a candidate to be nominated at a convention in Dallas in April. If they run candidates, anybody will be able to vote for them, no matter if they have actually joined the No Labels party or not.