A group that’s organizing a third-party presidential ticket that could bring together a moderate Republican and Democrat is trying to form a new political party in Kansas.
The Kansas secretary of state’s office says No Labels Kansas filed a petition late last week seeking to become an officially recognized political party in Kansas.
The movement needs 20,180 signatures to be recognized as a political party in Kansas along with the Democrats, Republicans and the Libertarians.
Nationally, the movement has stirred anxiety among Democrats who fear that it could draw votes away from President Joe Biden and help former President Donald Trump or a similar type of Republican candidate.
Getting recognized as an official party in Kansas would make it easier for No Labels to get a candidate on the ballot for any political office from president on down.
Each officially recognized party in Kansas is required to adopt procedures to select presidential electors.
The party picks the presidential candidate how it chooses, but it must give the secretary of state the names of six electors who would support that candidate by Sept. 1, 2024.
The group’s exact goal in Kansas was unclear, although nationally the No Labels efforts has been working to get a third party presidential candidate on the ballot.
Last month, No Labels said it had won ballot access in 10 states after North Carolina agreed to recognize a No Labels affiliate as a party.
The Associated Press reported that No Labels is already on the ballot in Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, Colorado, Florida, Nevada, Oregon, South Dakota and Utah.
“The No Labels movement has achieved a significant milestone, winning ballot access in 10 states,” Benjamin J. Chavis, national co chair of the No Labels movement, said at the time.
“This is a historic victory for Americans who have said loud and clear they want more choices at the ballot box. The spirit of democracy is winning in America today.”
In Kansas, the movement is chaired by Glenda Reynolds of Whitewater, according to the secretary of state’s office.
Ernest Reynolds is listed as a committee member. Another committee member is Victoria Schultz of Leawood.
Shane Mathis of Lecompton is listed as the secretary/treasurer of the group. He is the chief executive officer of Ally Energy Solutions in Lawrence.
Mathis previously worked for the former Westar Energy in the late 1990s and the early 2000s as a senior vice president of commodity strategy.
As president of Westar’s construction subsidiary, Mathis led a team that built a 600 megawatt combined cycle power plant in Joplin, Missouri, known as Stateline.
Reached on Friday afternoon, Mathis declined to comment. He referred questions to national organizers of the No Labels movement, who didn’t respond to an email.
He also directed questions to Nick Connors, who was a spokesperson for Greg Orman during the businessman’s unsuccessful run for Kansas governor as an independent in 2018.
Connors did not return calls last week and an email on Sunday. His exact role with No Labels was not known.
A report in the Portland Press-Herald from Maine characterized Connors as director of ballot access for No Labels.
In May, the Maine secretary of state warned No Labels not to misrepresent its intentions to prospective voters.
The Press-Herald reported that Shenna Bellows sent a cease-and-desist to Connors with concerns that No Labels was confusing voters who thought they were signing a petition but actually signed up to join a new political party.
Kansas election officials said that can’t happen here because the political party has to be established before anyone can change their registration to join No Labels.
Orman said in a text message that he was not affiliated with the No Labels movement, although he acknowledged knowing people who worked there, including Connors.
The Washington Post reported last week that the national No Labels movement has been conducting focus groups with voters to help develop a plan for picking a candidate without the garden-variety, state-run primary.
The Post reported that the group also is thinking about holding televised town hall meetings or debates to start the process of selecting presidential and vice presidential nominees.
The paper reported that the group plans to nominate candidates at an April convention in Dallas if it can ascertain that it can defeat the Democratic and Republican nominees.
Nationally, Democrats have been nervous about the emergence of a third-party bipartisan ticket that potentially could draw votes away from Biden.
But a recent poll by Monmouth University suggests that the fallout from a so-called “fusion ticket” of a Republican and Democrat in 2024 is difficult to measure.
The survey of 910 adults found that about 30% would support a generic third party “fusion” ticket made up of a Democrat and a Republican.
Five percent said they would definitely vote for the third-party option if Biden and Trump were the major party nominees, and another 25% say they would probably vote third party.
Meanwhile, 31% say they definitely would not support a fusion ticket and 34% probably would not.
The survey found that support for a third-party ticket drops lower when names of possible candidates are added to the question such as U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia and former Utah Republican Gov. Jon Huntsman.
Manchin and Huntsman appeared in July at a forum held by No Labels in New Hampshire.
Monmouth measured Manchin and Huntsman as an alternative ticket to a Biden-Trump campaign.
The poll found that 2% of voters would definitely vote for that third-party option and 14% would probably vote for the fusion ticket.
The survey also found that 44% definitely would not vote for a Manchin-Huntsman ticket and 31% probably would not.
Jeanna Repass, chair of the Kansas Democratic Party, said Kansas Democrats are solidly behind Biden’s presidential campaign.
“Our wonderful democracy depends on as many people voting as possible and as many people participating in the election process as possible – including candidates,” she said.
“Having said that, the Kansas Democratic Party is supporting our incumbent President, Joseph R. Biden in the 2024 presidential election cycle.”
In July, former Democratic Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon announced that he would serve as No Labels’ director of ballot integrity after leaving public office in 2017.
Nixon told The Associated Press that he joined the group after finding out that groups with deep pockets allied with Democrats were trying to keep No Labels from getting access to the ballot in various states.
Last month, an Arizona judge turned aside the state Democratic Party’s lawsuit seeking to keep No Labels of the ballot, ruling that complaints of legal flaws in the paperwork were not legally sufficient.
Th Arizona Democratic Party has separately filed a complaint with the secretary of state’s office looking to force No Labels to disclose its donors or lose its status as a political party.
Orman recently penned a column for RealClear politics criticizing the Democrats’ tepid response to the emergence of No Labels.
“The Democrats fear No Labels will deliver victory to Trump or a Trump-like candidate in states that Biden would have won,” Orman wrote.
“In the Democrats’ worst-case scenario, given the mood of the electorate, the No Labels candidate might actually win states that they believe are entitled to Biden.
“The problem with the Democrats’ efforts to shut down No Labels’ nascent ballot-access campaign is that they run contrary to the organization’s desire to be the party of democracy.
“What could be more democratic than giving voters another choice?”
