After South Carolina helped propel President Joe Biden’s Democratic primary victory in 2020, he installed the state party’s chairman as head of the national party and successfully pushed party leaders to hold the nation’s first 2024 primary in the Palmetto State.

Now, Biden is getting his thanks: South Carolina’s Democratic gubernatorial nominee last year, whom Biden once endorsed, is helping lead a corporate front group’s 2024 ballot access campaign for a potential third-party “unity ticket” — a dark money effort that Democrats worry could throw the election to Donald Trump.

Joe Cunningham, a former South Carolina congressman and Democrats’ 2022 gubernatorial nominee, recently joined No Labels — a pro-business, outwardly centrist advocacy group — as a national director. He is working on its reported $70 million ballot-access project laying the groundwork for a third-party challenger to Biden.