Andrew Yang, a former Democratic presidential candidate and cofounder of the independent Forward Party, recently said he’s been in touch with Elon Musk about the tech billionaire’s formation of his own third party, the America Party.
“I’m excited for anyone who wants to move on from the duopoly, and I’m happy to help give someone a sense of what the path looks like,” Yang told Politico in a statement Monday.
Fox News reported that it independently confirmed the duo’s conversation and received the same statement with no additional details. The Hill has reached out to Yang but didn’t immediately hear back.
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“If it breaks the duopoly I’m all for it,” Yang posted on the Musk-owned social platform X on Monday.
The Forward Party’s official account similarly posted a supportive message about Musk’s new party.
“We welcome the growing realization that the two-party system isn’t working and that the majority of Americans want more choices and more accountability,” the party said in the post. “It’s also an opportunity to reiterate that while Independent movements begun from the top down have had minimal long-term impact (such as Perot and Bloomberg), a grassroots movement — like Forward — focused on shared principles can make lasting change a reality.”
“We encourage all new, Independent movements to prioritize healthy reform and real solutions above all else,” the Forward Party added.
Musk, 54, announced over the weekend that he would form the America Party as a third-party option after the disintegration of his once-close relationship with President Trump chiefly over the president’s massive tax and spending bill. Trump signed the package into law on Friday, but Musk has argued it adds too much to the federal debt, rather than reducing spending as he had pushed.
Yang, 50, sought the Democratic nomination for president in 2020 and unsuccessfully ran as a Democrat for New York City mayor in 2021 before founding the independent Forward Party.
The Forward Party is scheduled to hold a volunteer call Tuesday evening.
Shortly after its creation, the Forward Party announced it had merged with right- and left-leaning groups to create a larger movement.
“Building a positive unifying third party movement is going to be difficult but is also exactly what millions of Americans have been waiting for,” Yang said in a statement to The Hill in 2022 about the effort. “That’s why we will succeed.”
Musk, who was once one of the president’s closest allies and parlayed his massive Trump campaign donations into a special adviser role at the White House overseeing the Department of Government Efficiency, has vowed to back independent candidates in future election cycles, particularly ones who will challenge Republicans who voted for Trump’s spending package, which he has referred to as a “disgusting abomination.”
“When it comes to bankrupting our country with waste & graft, we live in a one-party system, not a democracy,” Musk wrote Saturday on X. “Today, the America Party is formed to give you back your freedom.”
Yang similarly blasted Trump’s legislation.
“I hate the bill and see it as irresponsible and dehumanizing,” he wrote in a Monday post on Substack. “It has something to despise for everyone.”
“How does something like this pass?” he added.
He also urged people to join the Forward Party to counter Republicans and Democrats in Congress.
“How to breed leadership in a system that rewards its opposite?” he asked. “By changing the system itself. It’s the only path out.”
Trump, meanwhile, has sought to tamp down third-party talk, noting in a Truth Social post that “they have never succeeded in the United States.” Trump briefly ran as a third-party presidential candidate in 2000 but quit after testing a few Reform Party primaries. He again mulled an independent run in 2012 before emerging as the GOP’s White House candidate four years later.
“The System seems not designed for [third parties],” Trump wrote online Sunday evening. “The one thing Third Parties are good for is the creation of Complete and Total DISRUPTION & CHAOS.”
