The Forward Party and You

One of my Menu Selection is Shared Content, labeled Forward because that’s where it started. A year ago I was reading up on Andrew Yangs Forward Party and was impressed enough to start adding their news letter to the Elephants Ink Room. Well time goes on, I have been publishing their news letter and though that maybe it was a time to do a reality check.

For the record, I do read their news letter, but I don’t follow the candidates they endorse, to many in to many different states. And I have other import stuff to do, like bake muffins and mow lawns.

So, I asked Claude to do a little background for me, why Claude, well first off, Anthropic told the Powers That Be to F off, a point in their favor and Claude has seen most of what I write and understands my position. So here is the conversation and I will continue to publish the Forward Newsletter.

Me:

What is your take on the forward party? are they staying pretty true to their stated position?

Claude:

Let me check on where the Forward Party actually stands right now rather than rely on what I knew at training time — this is exactly the kind of “current status of an organization” question that needs a fresh look.

Searched the web

Searched the web

Good question, and the data backs up a genuinely interesting picture. Here’s the honest take.

On staying true to their stated position:

Yes, remarkably so. Forward has stuck consistently to its core platform of electoral and democratic reform — nonpartisan primaries, independent redistricting commissions, ranked-choice voting, STAR voting, and approval voting — and has deliberately avoided taking positions on hot-button issues like guns and abortion, leaving those to state chapters and individual candidates. Joel Searby, the party’s former managing director, put it plainly: they want a party that gives elected officials flexibility to meet local needs instead of a rigid top-down platform. That’s the exact “one size does not fit all” argument you’re building toward.

Where it gets interesting — and validates your skepticism about national third parties:

Andrew Yang himself said there’s a misconception that Forward is “the third party” — in places like New Mexico, he argues, they’re actually positioning as the second party, since many Democrats run unopposed there. That’s a smart, regionally adaptive strategy rather than a one-size-fits-all national push — which tracks with your own instinct that political solutions need to be local first.

The honest weaknesses:

Critics on the left have called Forward’s platform “vague” and “blandly conventional,” raising more questions than it answers — and Yang has faced criticism for launching a third party despite never winning elected office himself. At the end of 2025 the party claimed about 250,000 supporters total — meaningful for a startup party, but nowhere near the scale needed to be a national force yet. Their actual 2026 traction is mostly in smaller races — Senate endorsements in places like Idaho, Montana, and South Dakota, and a gubernatorial endorsement in Rhode Island — not exactly headline contests.

Bottom line for your purposes: Forward is one of the more honest attempts at structural reform you’ve been writing about — they’re literally campaigning on the Electoral College problem and the primary system problem you’ve identified yourself. But they’re small, slow, and arguably more of a proof-of-concept than a near-term electoral threat to the duopoly. Worth a mention in your Electoral College or Two to Tango lineage, maybe, as evidence that the appetite for structural reform exists — even if Forward isn’t yet the vehicle that delivers it.

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So there you have a pretty honest take on Andrew Yangs Forward Party. I think it is worth you looking into and if you want to make a change then I would suggest getting involved.

The reason I haven’t, isn’t because I don’t believe in them, I do. But writing this drivel for the Elephant, for Substack, publishing on another 7 social media platforms, creating the videos, and working full time to pay the bills because so far no one has seen fit to buy me a cup of coffee hasn’t left me much time time for anything other than to smoke a good rack of ribs, maybe a brisket and play with the grand-kids after I try to make sure there is a world for them to grow up in.

What are you doing?