No Labels Asks: What About a Coalition Government?

Organization looks at contingencies if no presidential candidate wins 270 electoral votes
By Bob Cronin,  Newser Staff
Posted Dec 22, 2023 5:05 PM CST
No Labels Suggests Contingency: A Coalition
The US Capitol on Dec. 1.   (AP Photo/Mariam Zuhaib)

Taking a page from parliamentary systems employed around the world, the No Labels organization is raising the idea of a coalition government taking charge in the US after the 2024 election. The opening would come up if no presidential candidate wins the 270 Electoral College votes required to take office, NBC News reports. In that case, "there could be negotiation to create a coalition government where electors get traded between different candidates to get somebody over 270," said Ryan Clancy, chief strategist for No Labels, on Wednesday.

The next day, a co-founder, former US Rep. Tom Davis, talked about how his group's ticket could make offers to Democrats or Republicans to reach a deal. "It could be Cabinet posts. It could be a policy concession," Davis said. Or, he suggested, it could be the vice president's job. The negotiations would be possible, Clancy said, because of "unbound electors," which he pointed out are allowed in some states. Just 33 require electors to vote for the ticket that carried their popular vote, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.

Clancy said forming a ruling coalition is just one idea; No Labels prefers to elect its own presidential candidate, per NBC. The Constitution's 12th Amendment still calls for state delegations in the US House to vote for a candidate if nobody wins 270 Electoral College votes. Once 26 state delegations endorse the same candidate, the Senate would decide who the vice president would be. No Labels also is strategizing about how its ticket might win that way, Davis said: "We've mapped all this out." (More No Labels stories.)

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