Andrew Yang announces new political party with centrists
Three separate groups of Republicans, Democrats and Independents announced Wednesday that they are coming together under one umbrella to form a new political party. The goal of the new Forward party is to build a new kind of political party that it claims represents the interests of the majority of Americans who "reject extremism and division."
The new Forward party merges the Forward Party, created last year by 2020 Democratic presidential candidate Andrew Yang; the Republican-led Renew America Movement which was started to encourage Americans to put country over party; and the Serve America Movement, established in 2017 and led by former GOP Congressman David Jolly.
According to an announcement, the group's advisers include not only former U.S. presidential candidates, members of Congress and governors, but also Cabinet officials, entrepreneurs and grassroots leaders. The party says it has thousands of volunteers in all 50 states.
In a The Washington Post op-ed published Wednesday, Yang, Jolly and former Republican New Jersey Governor Christine Todd Whitman wrote that political extremism is ripping apart the country. They warned that if nothing is done, the U.S. won't reach its 300th birthday in "recognizable form."
"The United States badly needs a new political party — one that reflects the moderate, common-sense majority. Today's outdated parties have failed by catering to the fringes. As a result, most Americans feel they aren't represented," they wrote. "Most third parties in U.S. history failed to take off, either because they were ideologically too narrow or the population was uninterested. But voters are calling for a new party now more than ever."
They pointed to a 2021 Gallup poll that found that half of U.S. adults said they identified as political independents, the highest percentage the company had ever measured. They also pushed back on criticism that third parties are spoilers, saying the system is "already spoiled."
The group plans to recruit candidates to run for office at the local, state and national level. While it does not have its own candidates for the 2022 midterms, Forward will announce support for select candidates who it says stand up for democracy.
As Forward plans to expand, it plans to launch a national building tour this fall to hear from voters. It is also beginning to lay the groundwork for state-by-state party registration and ballot access using the networks of all three organizations. By the end of 2022, the goal is to have legal recognition in 15 states and to double that in 2023. By the end of 2024, Forward aimes to be recognized in almost all U.S. states.
The tour is expected to culminate in a national convention next summer.