• Home
  • Opinion
  • Quizzes
  • Redistricting
  • Sections
  • About Us
  • Voting
  • Independent Voter News
  • Campaign Finance
  • Civic Ed
  • Directory
  • Election Dissection
  • Events
  • Fact Check
  • Glossary
  • News
  • Analysis
  • Subscriptions
  • Log in
Leveraging Our Differences
  • news & opinion
    • Big Picture
      • Civic Ed
      • Ethics
      • Leadership
      • Leveraging big ideas
      • Media
    • Business & Democracy
      • Corporate Responsibility
      • Impact Investment
      • Innovation & Incubation
      • Small Businesses
      • Stakeholder Capitalism
    • Elections
      • Campaign Finance
      • Independent Voter News
      • Redistricting
      • Voting
    • Government
      • Balance of Power
      • Budgeting
      • Congress
      • Judicial
      • Local
      • State
      • White House
    • Justice
      • Accountability
      • Anti-corruption
      • Budget equity
    • Columns
      • Beyond Right and Left
      • Civic Soul
      • Congress at a Crossroads
      • Cross-Partisan Visions
      • Democracy Pie
      • Our Freedom
  • Pop Culture
      • American Heroes
      • Ask Joe
      • Celebrity News
      • Comedy
      • Dance, Theatre & Film
      • Diversity, Inclusion & Belonging
      • Faithful & Mindful Living
      • Music, Poetry & Arts
      • Sports
      • Technology
      • Your Take
      • American Heroes
      • Ask Joe
      • Celebrity News
      • Comedy
      • Dance, Theatre & Film
      • Diversity, Inclusion & Belonging
      • Faithful & Mindful Living
      • Music, Poetry & Arts
      • Sports
      • Technology
      • Your Take
  • events
  • About
      • Mission
      • Advisory Board
      • Staff
      • Contact Us
Sign Up
  1. Home>
  2. political parties>

The Forward Party: Centrist parties coalesce around depolarization, bottom-up politics

Reya Kumar
July 28, 2022
The Forward Party: Centrist parties coalesce around depolarization, bottom-up politics

Former Democratic presidential candidate Andrew Yang at press conference.

Three centrist political parties announced on Wednesday that they are joining forces to become the Forward Party, a new iteration of the party led by former Democratic presidential candidate Andrew Yang.

Joined by the Renew America Movement, formed by former Republican officials in 2021, and the Serve America Movement, a coalition of Republicans, Democrats, and Independents led by former Republican congressman David Jolly, the party intends to be on the ballot in all 50 states by 2024. It will be headed by Yang and former Republican governor of New Jersey Christine Todd Whitman.


The Forward Party says it isn’t “just a new party, but a new kind of political party.” For that reason, rather than a typical political platform, the party has three priorities: free people, thriving communities and vibrant democracy.

“A core principle of who we are and how we’re operating as a party is to encourage civic engagement beyond just voting and giving money,” said Joel Searby, National Political Director of the Renew America Movement. “We believe that party members should be helping to make their communities a better place.”

A major part of the party’s strategy is to start with local and state level races, where third parties have more often made inroads.

Sign up for The Fulcrum newsletter

However, it is still an uphill battle, if history is any indication. No third party presidential candidate has won a single state since 1968, and third party candidates only rarely win elections in the U.S. Senate or House of Representatives. Forward Party leaders claim that they can overcome this precedent.

“When other third party movements have emerged in the past, it’s largely been inside a system where the American people aren’t asking for an alternative,” said former Department of Homeland Security Chief of Staff Miles Taylor, who leads the Renew America Movement. “The difference here is we are seeing a historic number of Americans saying they want one.”

At a time when the major political parties have become entrenched in partisan battles, the Forward Party is trying to escape the establishment through bottom-up organizing and find collaborative solutions that most Americans can agree on.

“Our American democracy hangs in the balance. The Republican Party is a threat to our democracy, and the Democratic Party is not built for meeting this moment. The Forward Party will be purpose-built to take us into a new, better era,” said Lucy Caldwell, a former Republican political strategist who is one of the party’s advisors.

There is also concern that the Forward Party could be a “spoiler,” taking away votes from one of the major parties. In the 2000 presidential election, many accused Green Party candidate Randalph Nader of causing Democrat Al Gore’s loss to Republican George W. Bush by taking Democratic votes in a very close election.

Searby rejects this narrative in regards to the Forward Party.

“The system is already deeply spoiled,” he said. “Those who claim that third parties are simply spoilers are not only not paying attention to the facts of the matter, but really are just entrenched in an old way of thinking.”

Americans are locked into parties they don’t necessarily agree with, particularly at the local level where 40 percent of elections went uncontested nationwide in 2020, according to Ballotpedia.

“We will be mindful and cautious, especially in these very tenuous times, that we do not become a vehicle to elect extreme elected officials,” Searby said. However, he notes that at the local level where the Forward Party hopes to build a citizen-based coalition, that is unlikely to be an issue.

“To suggest that there’s too much competition or that an additional party would somehow spoil all the elections is just not consistent with the reality on the ground in America.”

From Your Site Articles
  • What Andrew Yang's new party means for American politics - The ... ›
  • Andrew Yang & toppling the two-party duopoly - The Fulcrum ›
Related Articles Around the Web
  • Yang's Forward party merges with groups led by former GOP ... ›
  • Yang touts new centrist Forward party with ex-Democrats, Republicans ›
  • Opinion | Most third parties have failed. Here's why our Forward ... ›
political parties

Join an Upcoming Event

The Opportunity Gap Conversation

Living Room Conversations
Sep 21, 2023 at 2:00 pm MDT
Read More

Democratize America

Learning Life
Sep 21, 2023 at 5:30 pm EDT
Read More

Federal Deficit

The Great Reset
Sep 21, 2023 at 6:00 pm CDT
Read More

Hour of Outreach – Letter Writing!

Equal Vote
Sep 25, 2023 at 8:00 pm PDT
Read More

NH United in Hopkinton

The People
Sep 26, 2023 at 4:00 pm EDT
Read More

Democracy Happy Hour

Fix Democracy First
Sep 27, 2023 at 5:00 pm PDT
Read More
View All Events

Want to write
for The Fulcrum?

If you have something to say about ways to protect or repair our American democracy, we want to hear from you.

Submit
Get some Leverage Sign up for The Fulcrum Newsletter
Confirm that you are not a bot.
×
Follow

Support Democracy Journalism; Join The Fulcrum

The Fulcrum daily platform is where insiders and outsiders to politics are informed, meet, talk, and act to repair our democracy and make it live and work in our everyday lives. Now more than ever our democracy needs a trustworthy outlet

Contribute
Contributors

To advance racial equity, policy makers must move away from the "Black and Brown" discourse

Julio A. Alicea

Policymakers must address worsening civil unrest post Roe

Sarah K. Burke

Video: How to salvage U.S. democracy from the "tyranny of the minority"

Our Staff

What "Progress" should look like, and what we get wrong

Damien De Pyle

The long kiss goodnight: Nancy Pelosi and the protracted decay of public office

Kevin Frazier

Demanding corporate responsibility for food system challenges

C.Anne Long
latest News

The show must go on

Amy Lockard
19h

Constitution Day conversation with Jamie Raskin: Preserving democracy today and tomorrow

Rick LaRue
Jamie Raskin
20h

Meet the Faces of Democracy: Stephen Richer

Michael Beckel
Ariana Rojas
20 September

The alchemy of laughter

Pedro Silva
20 September

Work/family balance should be a top tier policy area

Dave Anderson
20 September

Learning to make “the right call” in the right moments

Lisa Kay Solomon
19 September
Videos
Video: Expert baffled by Trump contradicting legal team

Video: Expert baffled by Trump contradicting legal team

Our Staff
Video: Do white leaders hinder black aspirations?

Video: Do white leaders hinder black aspirations?

Our Staff
Video: How to prepare for student loan repayments returning

Video: How to prepare for student loan repayments returning

Our Staff
Video: The history of Labor Day

Video: The history of Labor Day

Our Staff
Video: Trump allies begin to flip as prosecutions move forward

Video: Trump allies begin to flip as prosecutions move forward

Our Staff
Video Rewind: Trans-partisan practices and the "superpower of respect"

Video Rewind: Trans-partisan practices and the "superpower of respect"

Our Staff
Podcasts

Podcast: How states hold fair elections

Our Staff
14 September

Podcast: The MAGA Bubble, Bidenonmics and Playing the Victim

Debilyn Molineaux
David Riordan
12 September

Podcast: Defending the founding principles of our government

Our Staff
07 September

Podcast: The continuing effects of summer heat and student loan repayments

Our Staff
05 September
Recommended
The show must go on

The show must go on

Big Picture
To advance racial equity, policy makers must move away from the "Black and Brown" discourse

To advance racial equity, policy makers must move away from the "Black and Brown" discourse

Big Picture
Constitution Day conversation with Jamie Raskin: Preserving democracy today and tomorrow

Constitution Day conversation with Jamie Raskin: Preserving democracy today and tomorrow

Big Picture
Meet the Faces of Democracy: Stephen Richer

Meet the Faces of Democracy: Stephen Richer

State
The alchemy of laughter

The alchemy of laughter

Comedy
Work/family balance should be a top tier policy area

Work/family balance should be a top tier policy area

Contributors