The Arizona Democratic Party (AZDP) filed a complaint against the No Labels Party (NLP) last week, seeking to force Arizona’s newest third party to disclose its list of donors or lose its status within the state amid potential Democratic concerns that NLP’s presence on the ballot could help former President Donald Trump win Arizona in 2024.
AZDP’s complaint specifically demands Secretary of State Adrian Fontes suspend NLP until the party discloses its donors. NLP told The Arizona Sun Times that the development amounts to “voter suppression.”
The complaint alleges that NLP neglected to register with the secretary of state as a political action committee and argues the nascent party should be required to release names of donors who paid for the signature gathering process that garnered over 50,000 petitions for ballot access, or at minimum disclose the party’s expenses since receiving ballot access, reported 12 News.
Reached by The Sun Times for comment via email, NLP National Co-Chair Dr. Benjamin Chavis Jr. said in a statement that Arizona Democrats are “desperate to keep voters from having a real choice for president and vice president,” and accused the party of “continually abusing the legal system to tie us up in court—at taxpayer expense—in a campaign that amounts to voter suppression.”
Chavis wrote that the language of the statute referenced by Arizona Democratic Party attorney Roy Herrera in the party’s complaint “plainly says it applies only to entities ‘organized for the primary purpose’ of influencing elections for state or local offices in Arizona.”
“No Labels’ ballot-access activities relate only to federal offices,” Chavis wrote, with original emphasis. “And in case anyone needs a refresher, the presidency and vice presidency of the United States of America are federal offices.”
The party confirmed to The Sun Times in March that it viewed its role as “an insurance policy” should both the Democratic Party and Republican Party nominate candidates “the vast majority of Americans don’t want.”
In such a scenario, NLP said it would use its ballot access as a “launching pad” for another third party candidate to run in the state. However, in a statement posted to Twitter, NLP promised “No one at No Labels has any interest in fueling a spoiler effort.”
