Haley Rules Out Third-Party Presidential Bid With No Labels

Former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley, speaking at a roundtable with journalists today, has ruled out a third-party presidential bid with the organisation No Labels - a group which has also unsuccessfully courted high-profile centrists Senator Joe Manchin (D-WV) and Larry Hogan (R), the later of whom chose instead to run for the open Maryland Senate seat.

• Haley said: "If I were to do No Labels, that would require a Democrat vice president. I can't do what I want to do as president with a Democrat vice president," later adding, "I know they have sent smoke signals. But I'm a Republican, and at the end of the day, my sole focus is this primary."
• Axios reports: "No Labels has openly expressed interest in Haley. The group has said it will decide whether to jump into the race after Super Tuesday."
• With a large proportion of the electorate ambivalent to a 2024 rematch between President Biden and former President Donald Trump, a third-party bid could play a major spoiler role in the presidential election.
• LA Times reported this week that a Berkeley IGS poll, "shows Biden leading Trump by 18 points [in California] statewide in a head-to-head matchup. But that drops to 12 points when independent and minor-party candidates are included.
• "In swing states, where Biden doesn’t have a big Democratic cushion to protect him, the impact of those independent and minor-party candidates could be enough to swing the outcome."