No Labels: We’d consider Haley on our ticket. Haley: No thanks.

No Labels national co-chair Joe Lieberman said on Thursday that the nonpartisan group would consider Nikki Haley to be part of their potential unity presidential ticket if she’s interested.

“If Gov. Haley does not succeed in obtaining the Republican nomination for president and she declares any interest in being part of our bipartisan unity ticket, I’m sure the people at No Labels would give that the most serious consideration, but obviously she’s not done that because she’s an active Republican candidate for president,” said Lieberman, a former Senator.

He said that based on her record as governor of South Carolina and as ambassador to the United Nations, “Governor Haley would deserve serious consideration” to be part of their ticket if she were interested. “We have no idea whether she would be,” he added.

Haley, a lifelong Republican and former cabinet member in the Trump administration, is currently engaged in an increasingly contentious primary fight against Donald Trump. And her campaign swiftly batted down the idea that she’d run under the No Labels banner.

“Nikki has no interest in No Labels, she’s happy with the Republican label,” Haley spokesperson Olivia Perez-Cubas said in a text message.

But it’s clear that No Labels views Haley positively, whether on their ticket or as the GOP standard-bearer. Two people familiar with the group’s thinking, who were granted anonymity to speak candidly, said that No Labels would prefer that Haley win the GOP nomination since she’s a mainstream Republican. If Haley won the nomination, the group would likely not run a No Labels ticket.

One of the people also said that officials in and around No Labels are also strategically not floating other Republicans for their unity ticket because they believe it would send a vote of no confidence in Haley’s current ability to win the Republican nomination.

“Any potential Republican for a No Labels ticket is trying to save the Republican Party from within first before committing themselves to a No Labels unity ticket,” said the person.

Asked at the press conference whether the group wanted Haley to win the Republican primary so that their ticket was unnecessary, Ryan Clancy, No Labels’ chief strategist, said: “We don’t have a preference. It’s not for us to tell the Republican primary voters what they’re supposed to do. We’re here to provide the choice if the public wants it.”

No Labels has talked previously about how their unity ticket is an “insurance policy” in case both parties nominate Donald Trump and Joe Biden. Democrats fear that if No Labels runs a unity ticket, it would severely jeopardize President Joe Biden’s chances to get reelected by taking votes away from him.

Lieberman said that so far they haven’t gotten any commitments yet from potential candidates that they are talking to but that the group hasn’t been rejected by anyone either.

“We’re talking to a lot of people in both parties about potentially running and really none of them have said no, but none of them have really said ‘yes, I’m ready’ because they want to be convinced just like we do that one, it’s going to be Trump against Biden, and two, that there’s a plausible chance for a bipartisan unity ticket to win,” he said. He added that based on their current polling that there is such a chance.