Would a third-party candidate help or hurt Biden and Trump?
WASHINGTON — More than 900,000 Pennsylvanians voted to send Texas business magnate Ross Perot to the White House in 1992, giving the independent about 18% of the state’s popular vote — roughly the same share he received nationwide against incumbent Republican George H.W. Bush and Democrat Bill Clinton.
“The Bush people thought Perot cost them the election, but it was pretty even,” former Pennsylvania Rep. Charlie Dent said Tuesday. “He took from both sides.”
Mr. Dent, a Republican who represented the Lehigh Valley, was a featured speaker at a news conference hosted by No Labels, a political group gathering signatures to put a third-party presidential candidate on the ballot in all 50 states.
A nonprofit that does not disclose its donors, No Labels has faced blistering attacks amid fears that its ticket will draw just enough support away from President Joe Biden to put former President Donald Trump back in the White House. The attacks have come from both Republicans and Democrats opposed to Mr. Trump.
“It is my great fear that if No Labels runs a bipartisan centrist ticket, it is more likely that ticket will appeal to those who voted for Biden,” former Republican U.S. Rep. Jim Greenwood of Pennsylvania said on a conference call organized the week before by an antiNo Labels group, Citizens to Save Our Republic.
Mr. Dent said such concerns may be unwarranted.
“We simply don’t know how a potential No Labels fusion ticket” would impact the race, said Mr. Dent, adding that he’d prefer a moderate Republican atop a ticket with a Democratic running mate. “Plenty of Republican states are looking to vote for something more centrist. We’re really trying to create a movement which I think the country desperately needs.”
While Citizens to Save Our Republic released polling data showing a No Labels ticket would flip Pennsylvania and other battlegrounds to Mr. Trump, No Labels released its own surveys suggesting that a strong independent and
bipartisan ticket could draw votes from both sides and be competitive with the two major-party nominees.
No Labels chief strategist Ryan Clancy said the group’s polls in Pennsylvania and other battleground states this year showed a No Labels candidate on the ballot would be “worse for Trump in seven of eight states.”
Mr. Clancy, a speechwriter for Mr. Biden when he was vice president, told reporters that the group is looking at potential candidates and would have more to say by early December. It will make a decision on whether to field a slate of candidates after the Super Tuesday primaries in March.
In other Washington news:
The site formerly known as Twitter hosts a Kelly-Biden debate
When Mr. Biden announced on Oct. 4 that the administration would forgive another $9 billion in student loans for 125,000 borrowers, U.S. Rep. Mike Kelly was not happy.
“No student loan is forgiven,” Mr. Kelly tweeted later that day. “The debt is just transferred onto the backs of the American taxpayers.”
The next day, the White House account on X, the site formerly known as Twitter, struck back: “Congressional Republican math is complaining about student debt relief while having $987,237 of your own PPP loans forgiven,” referring to the Paycheck Protection Program enacted during the pandemic, which provided funding to keep paying workers even if businesses were closed.
Mr. Kelly, who owns a chain of auto dealerships in and around Erie, responded the following day.
“PPP loans saved nearly 200 essential jobs at our family business after a Democrat governor declared those employees “‘non-essential’” and shut our doors,” he tweeted. “PPP loans are designed to be forgiven and went directly to employees. Nice try! By the way, how’s the border wall coming along?”
Kelly gets an opponent for 2024
Mr. Kelly, who has opposed the election of Rep. Jim Jordan as House speaker and instead pushed to expand the powers of Speaker Pro Tempore Patrick McHenry, picked up a Democratic opponent on Thursday.
Preston Nouri, owner of a convenience store in Lawrence Park in Erie County, has worked for the U.S. House and U.S. State Department, according to a statement announcing his candidacy.
He picked a United Steelworkers hall in Erie to make his formal announcement.
A tribute to a former W. Pa. lawmaker
Former Democratic Rep. Mike Doyle, who left office in January after 28 years on Capitol Hill, will be honored by Carnegie Mellon University with the new Mike Doyle Endowed Fellowship in Technology and Policy.
“Throughout his political career, Mike has been deeply invested in nurturing an ecosystem of innovation and using it to open doors of economic opportunity,” Carnegie Mellon President Farnam Jahanian said. “This new fellowship honors his incredible impact on CMU, Southwestern Pennsylvania and our nation. Even more, it will help new generations of leaders advance solutions at the intersection of policy and technology for broad societal benefit.”
The first two-year fellowship will be awarded next year to a master’s student focusing on technology, ethics, and public policy. The award will alternate between students attending the School of Computer Science and the Heinz College of Information Systems and Public Policy.
Mr. Doyle was succeeded in the House by U.S. Rep. Summer Lee, DSwissvale, the first Black woman to represent the state in Congress.