The quasi-third-party effort known as No Labels took two gut punches last week, as a few big names that had been floated as potential leaders of the upstart presidential ticket opted out of pursuing the White House.

The first was the former Republican governor of Maryland, Larry Hogan. The affable centrist seemed to fit the group’s self-described “Unity Ticket” to a tee. His moderate brand of Republicanism earned him two terms in Annapolis, his second win coming by what could only be considered a landslide margin of nearly 12 percent. For context, that year Democrat U.S. House candidates in Maryland garnered a whopping 65 percent of the vote.

Hogan’s hands-off approach to abortion and guns, and his obvious ability to persuade Democrat-leaning swing voters made him, on paper at least, the sort of person that fit perfectly into a down-the-middle Unity Ticket.

But now he is running for the Senate instead.

The other name most frequently associated with the No Labels movement has been Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.). Manchin has been a regular on the cable news and Sunday show circuits pitching his brand of independent compromise. And he wasn’t........

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