Could Arizona’s No Labels Party succeed where other third parties have failed?

The No Labels Party of Arizona says it’s looking to give voice to voters who are dissatisfied with the Democrats and Republicans.

It’s also potentially looking for a rebrand, including a new name.

The national party essentially gave up control of Arizona’s party. Former Phoenix Mayor Paul Johnson is its new chair.

Robert Robb says the state’s No Labels Party could play an important role in elections going forward. Robb is a longtime political observer in Arizona and wrote about this recently on his Substack.

He spoke with The Show about it, including what he thinks the potential is — at least in the short term — of the No Labels Party in Arizona.

Tiara Vian/KJZZ

Full conversation

ROBERT ROBB: It’s intended to be a vehicle that problem solving leaders from the center-left to the center-right can get access to the general election ballot.

At present, particularly from the center-right, there isn’t a practical way for a pragmatic problem solver to win a Republican primary, even though, if you look at the distribution of political sentiment in Arizona, center-right is sort of the center of political gravity in the state. And the pathway for an independent candidate is very daunting, in Arizona, and it hasn’t been tried very often.

So the folks that have taken over the leadership of the Arizona No Labels Party hopes to be a vehicle where that kind of a leader can make it to the general election ballot and be a general election choice for the body politic.

MARK BRODIE: How realistic do you think that is?

ROBB: I don’t know. And it will be a very daunting organizational challenge. It is easier to get on the No Labels primary at this point than it is to get on either the Democratic primary or the Republican primary. That’s going to attract unserious candidates and cranks, and it already is.

So, for the folks that have taken over leadership of the party, arranging and trying to manage the primary process, where you get the kind of leaders for the state that the party aspires to provide a pathway to the general election ballot for, is going to be very difficult.

BRODIE: What do you think the biggest challenges will be for the No Labels folks to convince serious candidates that this is not only a viable path to get on the ballot and get your ideas out there, but maybe even win an election?

ROBB: That’s gonna be a tough sales job as well. The argument is that if you field substantive candidates, they’re not gonna have a chance to win, and they’re just going to be spoilers. And starting from virtually ground zero in terms of having a new party, that’s going to be a difficult persuasive job.

BRODIE: Which do you think is the tougher sales job for No Labels in terms of either candidates to run on the label or voters to convince them that voting for a third party isn’t throwing their vote away?

ROBB: I think both of them are very daunting challenges and are interconnected. So you need to persuade candidates that you aren’t limited to the 40,000 people who are registered under the No (Labels) Party label.

But you have a good shot and will have the resources to reach the over 1.5 million independent registered voters who are opting out of the binary Republican-Democratic choice.

And in order to appeal to the independents — who actually could vote in a in a No Labels primary, they don’t have to change the registration to be able to participate in the primary and choose the candidates — you have to convince independents that you’re going to field serious candidates and that there are in the No Labels primary: serious, problem-solving candidates that have a chance at the general election.

So both challenges are very daunting and, and they’re completely interrelated. Your ability to convince candidates depends upon your ability to say that you’ve got a chance with voters, and your chance with voters depends upon the quality of the candidates you can field.

BRODIE: Do you think that No Labels has a better chance than other previous attempts at third parties? You know as well as anybody sort of the long and not super successful history of third parties, you know, non-Democratic, non-Republican parties, not just in Arizona but around the country.

Is there something about No Labels that maybe could help it avoid the fates of some of the others and not just be the Green Party, the Libertarian Party, some of the others that are maybe even still on the ballot that routinely just don’t get that many votes?

ROBB: I think that there is reason to think that this effort has a better chance at success in becoming a substantive factor in Arizona politics. There are very, very serious people who are behind this effort. It’s basically the folks that have attempted to bring open primaries to Arizona.

Unlike the Green or the Libertarian Party, they’re not trying to make an ideological point that appeals to a narrow range of the electorate. They’re trying to solve a leadership problem that I think is widely shared among the body politic, which is that we have difficulty getting to positions of leadership pragmatic problem solvers, that Arizona has benefited enormously in the past from both Democratic and Republican candidates.

BRODIE: What kind of time frame do you think optimistically, like how many election cycles do you think it might take to reach that point where there are serious candidates who really could do the jobs for which they’re running and enough voters in Arizona who believe that those candidates are viable and it doesn’t have to be just a Democrat or Republican winning the election?

ROBB: I think the first election cycle in 2026 is, unfortunately for the movement, extremely important because it will be the election at which it sort of defines itself to the public, and the kind of candidates that become No Labels nominees will define the party more than the intentions of the folks that have assumed leadership of the effort.

So this first election cycle, even though they’re starting from ground zero and it’s a very difficult task, I think will be critical to get the effort over the credibility threshold.