Mark Cuban, the billionaire businessman and owner of the Dallas Mavericks, told NBC News on Thursday that he will not run for president in 2024, as No Labels pushes for a bipartisan, third-party presidential ticket on next year’s ballot.
“No. My family would disown me,” Cuban wrote in an email.
The entrepreneur, who publicly flirted with an independent run for president in 2020, confirmed that he has engaged in past conversations with No Labels, the bipartisan group currently spending money to secure ballot access for a third-party presidential campaign in all 50 states. But the group’s founder, Nancy Jacobson, tells NBC News that deliberations over potential candidates are “not something we spend a lot of time at.”
“I like that they are trying a new path,” Cuban wrote. “I think the 2 party system is broken.” He added that No Labels’ effort to form a 2024 ticket is “very important.”
No Labels will hold a convention in Dallas next April, when it intends to pick a Democrat and a Republican who could run as a ticket against those two parties’ presidential nominees.
Former North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory, a No Labels national co-chair, said he would not comment on specific individuals discussed internally by the group for the potential ticket.
Two sources familiar with No Labels conversations said that the group had not narrowed the pool of prospective candidate to just individuals who had held elected office.
“The threat of them entering a candidate could give them leverage to influence the positions of one or both parties and possibly encourage them to move towards the middle, which I think would be a positive,” Cuban wrote.
The “Shark Tank” investor said he also supports the Center for Competitive Democracy, a group that aids in ballot access for third-party candidates. He also backs efforts to use ranked-choice voting in elections, which proponents say could open up space for candidates from alternatives to the two major parties.