No Labels officially drops out of the 2024 race. The truth is they were never in it.

No Labels, with no candidate and no shot at winning the presidency, is no longer a player in that election this year.

That gust of wind you just felt? That's a huge sigh of relief from No Labels critics across the political spectrum who feared the third-party effort would inevitably pull votes from President Joe Biden, acting as a spoiler to help former President Donald Trump retake the White House.

No Labels dropped plans Thursday for a so-called unity ticket, which was expected to be a moderate Republican running for president with an equally moderate Democrat as vice president. That would have cut into the cross-party support Biden won in 2020, when Republicans and independents fed up with Trump backed the Democratic nominee.

"Americans remain more open to an independent presidential run, and hungrier for unifying national leadership than ever before," No Labels said in a statement. "But No Labels has always said we would only offer our ballot line to a ticket if we could identify candidates with a credible path to winning the White House. No such candidate emerged, so the responsible course of action is for us to stand down."