On Friday, April 5, leaders of the No Labels organization held a 20-minute zoom meeting with No Labels activists. The meeting was addressed by Mike Rawlings, Ben Chavis, Nancy Jacobson, and Jay Nixon. Approximately 725 people were on the call, but they were not able to ask any questions. The leaders said they are stopping the petitioning in states where it has been ongoing. They also said that No Labels is now on the ballot in 21 states.

Nothing was said about whether No Labels will try to stop individuals who might try to run for Congress and partisan state office in No Labels primaries, something that is possible in Florida, Hawaii, and Wisconsin. No Labels had sued in Arizona to stop such candidacies.

Nothing was said about whether No Labels will try to retract its qualified status in any of the states in which it is on the ballot.

Nothing was said about whether the organization will work for better ballot access. No Labels was handicapped because not all states have a procedure for a group to transform itself into a qualified party in advance of any particular election. The failure of Illinois, Indiana, and New York was especially a problem for No Labels. They couldn’t petition without a candidate in those states, and those states all have relatively early petition deadlines.

That is, if they turn 18 by Tuesday, November 5, 2024.

Here is the story from The Providence Journal.

Thanks to Taegen Goddard and politicalwire.com for this story.

On April 3, the Third Circuit refused to stay the lower court’s order that required New Jersey to use office-block ballot format for the June 4 Democratic primary. Kim v Hanlon, 24-1593. The three judges were Kent Jordan (Bush Jr. appointee), Charyl Ann Krause (Obama), and Arianna Freeman (Biden).

So, regardless of the hearing on April 12, it is clear that the old discriminatory ballot format will not be used this year for the Democratic primary.