Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley on Friday shot down the prospect of running on a third-party ticket with No Labels.
The centrist group has styled itself as an alternative to the two major parties, hoping to run a third-party bid with both a Republican and a Democrat on the ticket—something the former South Carolina governor and ambassador to the United Nations said was a deterrent for her.
"I’m a Republican," Haley said at a press conference, according to NBC News. "If I were to do No Labels, that would require a Democrat. I can’t do what I wanted to express with the Democrats. I’ve always believed if you do something, do it right or don’t do it. And so I don’t think I can do it right. If I ran for No Labels, that would mean it’s about me. It’s not about me. It’s about the direction I think the country should go."
A No Labels strategist said in January that it was "certainly possible" that the group would run a Republican and an independent.
Haley's comments came the same day No Labels founding chairman Joe Lieberman said in an interview with the Washington Examiner that the group had yet to be in contact with Haley but that "if she indicated interest, I know that we at No Labels would want to explore the practicality of it." He added, however, that "sore loser" laws in some states—which do not allow losers of a party's primary to undertake a third-party bid during the general election—may pose a problem for that possibility.
No Labels leaders will hold a private meeting March 8 to discuss a hypothetical ticket's electoral prospects, though it will not choose candidates there.
Haley is not the first Republican primary candidate in whom No Labels has reportedly expressed interest. A January report from NBC News said the group had reached out to former New Jersey governor Chris Christie's allies to gauge his interest in the weeks leading up to his dropping out of the race. Christie had said he was not interested in making a run with the group when he first entered the fray in July, but he changed his tune last month, saying he would have a "long conversation" with his wife when asked if he would consider mounting such an effort.