To be sure, Fred Upton is not exactly a household name, but it could have been, had he pulled the trigger on running for governor here.

He flirted with the notion on a number of occasions, including as recently as last spring.

He was mulling over whether to make another run for Congress, where he had been since 1987, or take that long-awaited stab at being Michigan’s top political banana.

What he ended up doing was retiring, although, what little is left of the moderate, William Milliken GOP brand of doing politics in Michigan is alive and well in his body and spirit.

Some would say he’s on a Don Quixote-like mission to field a candidate who is neither Joe Biden nor Donald Trump. The No Labels Party gambit hopes to get on the ballot in 50 states and place before the voters a middle-of-the-road, bipartisan ticket that could have broad voter appeal.

It could, in theory, turn the White House over to presidential and vice presidential candidates who pledge to work with both parties to get stuff done.

As you know, there are a host of “coulds” in that sojourn.

Detractors counter what the plan will really do is assure that the MAGA guy wins, as the No Label Party could siphon votes away from Biden.

Given a chance to play political pundit on “Off the Record” the other day, Upton was straightforward, which is one of his calling cards.

With Trump holding fast to the 32% of the state Republican base vote, “Trump has that base locked in,” Upton said. “He has expanded his lead since last March over (Florida Gov. Ron) DeSantis, and he looks like more and more he will be the nominee. Trump is pulling away from the rest of the field.”

Furthermore, he continues, the 2024 GOP primary is shaping up as a rehash of 2016, when Trump got the party nomination by defeating a gaggle of opponents, including some heavy hitters like Jeb Bush, John Kasich, and others. All of them divided up the bulk of the vote, while Trump got just enough to beat them all.

This time, same scenarios, different gaggle. Upton explains that, the more candidates in the hunt, the lower the number of votes Trump needs to nail the nomination again.

“Thirty-two percent of the vote in a 10-person year gets him 100% of the delegates,” Upton said. “It is easier this time for Trump to get that delegate count up than it was in 2016,” when there was not a winner-take-all rule, like there is in some states now.

Upton thinks DeSantis, arch rival of Mickey Mouse, could defeat the former president, but the race is not a mano-a-mano contest, which leaves Upton to only shrug at what is likely to transpire once more.

And it leaves him and others to tilt away at that seemingly impossible dream of sending Trump into the loser column.