Secret donors for the political movement that claims to be seeking a third party alternative for American voters have been revealed in a newly released published report.
Mother Jones reports that No Labels intends to raise some $70 million to potentially run a third-party “unity” ticket candidacy next year.
Democrats and Never Trumpers worry that the political outfit would draw votes from President Joe Biden and bolster Donald Trump – or whoever wins the Republican nomination – in next year’s election.
The party’s top financial backers include those who in the past have funded candidates from both parties, but most of No Labels’ contributors lean conservative, according to the report.
As a political party, No Labels isn’t required to report its funding sources, the report notes.
Among the party’s most notable donors is Michael Smith, a billionaire natural gas company founder whose past contributions include giving more than $5.5 million to the Senate Leadership Fund super PAC, which is linked to Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell.
The list also includes reliable Republican donor Tim McInerney, an investor who already this year has donated almost $100,000 to the RNC and more than $200,0000 to the National Republican Congressional Committee.
The report also confirms that at least 16 of the 36 No Labels donors identified in the report have contributed to Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (I-Ariz.), a Democratic Party defector who still caucuses with her former party.
Thomas “Mack” McLarty III is among the most prominent Democrats on the list. McLarty served as former President Bill Clinton’s first White House chief of staff.
Harlan Crow, a staunch conservative who is described in the report as “the billionaire benefactor of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas and a collector of Nazi memorabilia,” was a known No Labels contributor before the Mother Jones report.
Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) has been floated as a potential No Labels presidential candidate.
Mother Jones’ David Corn and Russ Choma write that Crow’s contributions and speculation surrounding Manchin’s potential candidacy “has prompted Democratic strategists to speculate that this endeavor is a not-too-secret project to elect Trump or another Republican. Prominent Democratic operatives and Never-Trump Republicans recently met privately in Washington, DC, to discuss how best to counter a No Labels presidential campaign.”
