The new party, called Forward, will initially be co-chaired by former Democratic presidential candidate Andrew Young and Christine Todd Whitman, the former Republican governor of New Jersey. They hope the party will become a viable alternative to the Republican and Democratic parties that dominate US politics, founding members told Reuters. Party leaders will hold a series of events in two dozen cities this fall to develop their platform and attract support. They will host an official launch in Houston on September 24 and the party’s first national convention in a major US city next summer.
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Story continues below ad The new party is formed by the merger of three political groups that have emerged in recent years as a reaction to America’s increasingly polarized and dead-end political system. Leaders cited a Gallup poll last year showing two-thirds of Americans believe a third party is needed. The merger includes the Renew America Movement, which was formed in 2021 by dozens of former officials from the Republican administrations of Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush, George W. Bush and Donald Trump. the Forward Party, founded by Young, who left the Democratic Party in 2021 to become an independent; and the Serve America Movement, a group of Democrats, Republicans and independents founded by former Republican Rep. David Jolly. Two pillars of the new party’s platform are to “revitalize a fair, prosperous economy” and “give Americans more choice in elections, more confidence in a government that works, and more say in our future.” The party, which is centrist, does not yet have concrete policies. He will say during his presentation Thursday: “How do we solve the big issues facing America? Not the Left. It is not right. Forward.” Trending Stories
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Historically, third parties have failed to thrive in America’s two-party system. Occasionally they can influence presidential elections. Analysts say the Green Party’s Ralph Nader took enough votes from Democratic presidential candidate Al Gore in 2000 to help Republican George W. Bush win the White House. Story continues below ad It is unclear how the new Forward party can affect the electoral prospects of either party in such a deeply polarized country. Political analysts are skeptical that he can succeed. Forward aims to gain party registration and ballot access in 30 states by the end of 2023 and all 50 states by the end of 2024, in time for the 2024 presidential and congressional elections. It aims to field candidates for local races such as school boards and city councils, to statehouses, the US Congress and all the way to the presidency.
“The fundamentals have changed”
In an interview, Yang said the party will launch with a budget of around $5 million. It has lined up donors and grassroots members between the three merged groups numbering in the hundreds of thousands. “We are starting in a very strong financial position. Financial support will not be a problem,” Yang said. Story continues below ad Another person involved in the creation of the Forward, Miles Taylor — a former Homeland Security official in the Trump administration — said the idea was to give voters “a viable, credible national third party.” Taylor acknowledged that third parties have failed in the past, but said: “The fundamentals have changed. When other third-party movements have emerged in the past, they have largely been within a system where the American people are not asking for an alternative. The difference here is that we’re seeing a record number of Americans saying they want one.”
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Stu Rothenberg, a veteran nonpartisan political analyst, said it was easy to talk about creating a third party, but almost impossible to do. “The two major political parties are starting with huge advantages, including 50 state parties built over decades,” he said. Rothenberg pointed out that third-party presidential candidates like John Anderson in 1980 and Ross Perot in 1992 and 1996 floundered, failing to create a true third party that became a factor in national politics.
