On January 13, the Ninth Circuit heard No Labels Party v Fontes, 24-563. This is the lawsuit filed by No Labels Party to prevent any candidate from filing for congress or state office in the No Labels Party primary. No Labels had won the case in U.S. District Court. No Labels was intended by its founders to be a party that would only participate in the presidential race. It did not want to have any candidates for anything else.
The three judges on the Ninth Circuit panel are Holly A. Thomas, Salvador Mendoza Jr, and Anthony D. Johnstone. All are Biden appointees. All three judges seemed to favor the state’s position. The state’s position is that all qualified parties must nominate by primary, and it would be unfair to the people who signed the Americans Elect petition, and the people who registered into the party, to block candidates for other office.
The judges seemed to feel that it might be different if Americans Elect had told the voters who signed their petition that the party, once it qualified, would not be nominating for congress and state office. The judges felt the party could have challenged the mandatory wording on the party petition, saying that the party would hold a primary, before it started circulating that petition. They also felt that the party would be free to publicly say that they don’t approve of their non-presidential nominees.
Assuming No Labels loses the case, there surely will be No Labels candidates in 2026 for Congress and state office in Arizona, because the party is still ballot-qualified, by virtue of having enough registrants to remain on the ballot. The latest tally shows the party has registration of .74% of the state total, and it needs .667% to remain on the ballot.
I bet most of the people who registered to vote under the No Labels Party have no idea that it is a political party and they think it means non-partisan or indepedent.
name change –
ONLY Prez/Veep Cand Party ???
Here is the Arizona voter registration form.
https://azsos.gov/sites/default/files/docs/az_voter_registration_form_standard_20240613.pdf
It only mentions the Democratic and Republican Parties. Anyone who wants to register into any other party, whether it is on the ballot or not, must write that party in. I think people who register in the No Labels Party realize it is a party. The form does have a checkbox for “No party” so it should be obvious that writing in “No Labels” is not the same as registering into no party.
That’s probably an outdated form from before no labels qualified.
AZ NO LABELS FOLKS SUING TO GET ON REGIS FORM ???
ESP VIA 14-1 AMDT EP CL
See prior discussions on this point.
I find it hard to believe that many people would williningly write in No Labels Party on their voter registration form on their own. Those who did it would most likely be people who want to run for office and they think using that party’s primary would somehow benefit them (I do not think it would).
Really, just go back and read the prior discussions. It’s not hard to do and this point was already covered.
Did you mean to write “Americans Elect” in a couple of places in this post?