Arizona Democrats Sue To Stop ‘No Labels’ Third Party Ballot Access

Arizona Democrats filed a complaint in Maricopa County court against Secretary of State Adrian Fontes (D) for allowing the “No Labels” party to appear on the ballot for the 2024 election cycle. Democrats view “No Labels” as a threat to their power in the state, and want to avoid a third party candidate from acting as a “spoiler” in the highly contested swing state of Arizona.

“No Labels” is a self-proclaimed centrist group that promotes pro-business and pro-military policies that claims to include Republicans, Democrats and Independents. Democrats fear, however, that the “No Labels Party” which was just granted ballot access by Fontes in Arizona will attract more Democrats than Republicans in the current political climate.

The lawsuit claims that No Labels does not disclose where its funding comes from like other political parties, and thus cannot be considered a legitimate political party in Arizona. No Labels is registered as a non-profit.

“No Labels is not following the rules for political party recognition, while attempting to be placed on the ballot alongside actual, functioning political parties who do,” said Arizona Democratic Party executive director Morgan Dick in a statement.

No Labels chief strategist Ryan Clancy aggressively fired back, calling the move “undemocratic,” with the organization’s Twitter page saying that the lawsuit is “immoral and blatantly un-American.”

Arizona Democrats are worried that Sen. Krysten Sinema (I-Arizona) will run as a third-party candidate on the No Labels ticket, effectively handing Republicans the state in the 2024 election. Sinema was a Democrat until December 2022 when she officially left the party and became an Independent, although many Democrats considered her far outside the party’s mainstream.

Sinema was one of two Democratic Senators—the other being Sen. Joe Manchin (D-West Virginia) — who effectively killed President Joe Biden‘s most ambitious domestic agenda items. Their votes would have given Democrats the slim majority needed in the Senate to pass budgetary legislation while Democrats still controlled the House of Representatives.

Article by Jakob Mieszkowski-Lapping